Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people are currently registered with a GP.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on patients registered at a general practice in England is published on a monthly basis and can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of asylum seekers registered with a GP have a date of birth recorded as 1 January.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on the number of asylum seekers registered with a general practice (GP) is not held centrally. Data on the number of patients registered at a GP in England is published on a monthly basis and can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many asylum seekers are registered with a GP by (a) day and (b) month of birth.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on the number of asylum seekers registered with a general practice (GP) is not held centrally. Data on the number of patients registered at a GP in England is published on a monthly basis and can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse was of feasibility studies conducted by their Department for projects that did not proceed in the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held in this format in the Department’s accounts system and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for the total spend on (i) LinkedIn membership fees (ii) other subscriptions by his Department in the last financial year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There were no transactions (subscription costs or otherwise) identified with LinkedIn as a supplier in the 2024/25 financial year.
The total subscription fees identified for the 2024/25 financial year was £832,046.14. This figure excludes membership of the World Health Organisation which is considered a subscription for accountancy purposes.
The response relates to the core department only and does not include information relating to the department’s arm’s-length bodies.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that coastal hospitals such as the James Paget receive adequate NHS capital and revenue funding.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We remain committed to delivering all schemes within the New Hospital Programme, including James Paget, which will continue through the Spending Review 2025. The programme is funded for five-year waves of investment, averaging around £3 billion a year from 2030.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning and funding the care delivered by healthcare providers, including the James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The amount of funding received by each provider is based on the NHS Payment Scheme, which is a set of rules, prices, and guidance that determine how the providers of National Health Service-funded healthcare are paid for the services they deliver.
NHS England is responsible for determining the allocation of financial resources to ICBs. The process of setting funding allocations is informed by the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation, an independent committee that provides advice to NHS England on setting the target formula which impacts how allocations are distributed over time according to factors such as demography, morbidity, deprivation, and the unavoidable cost of providing services in different areas. There are a range of adjustments made in the core ICB allocations formula that account for the fact that the cost of providing health care may vary between rural and urban areas.
ICB allocations for 2025/26 were published on 30 January 2025 and allocations for 2026/27 to 2027/28 were published on 17 November. These are available at the following links respectively:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/allocation-of-resources-2025-26/
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/allocation-of-resources-2026-27-to-2027-28/
The Norfolk and Waveney ICB, which currently covers the James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, received an uplift to its recurrent core services allocation of 3.85% in 2025/26.
Following announced mergers due to take effect from 1 April 2026, a new NHS Norfolk and Suffolk ICB will cover James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust from 2026/27. The new ICB will see its recurrent core services allocation uplifted by 3.05% in 2026/27 and 3.29% in 2027/28.
Budget 2025 confirmed a rise in the Department’s capital budgets to £15.2 billion by the end of the Spending Review period. This includes over £4 billion in operational capital in 2025/26, with a further £16.9 billion to be allocated to ICBs and providers over the following four years. James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been allocated £46.8 million in operational funding for the period 2026/27 to 2029/30.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will provide emergency funding to areas with the most severe dental shortages, including Great Yarmouth.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware of the challenges faced in accessing a dentist, particularly in more rural and coastal areas such as Great Yarmouth.
In 2024/25, the Government invested around £3.7 billion on primary care dentistry. We want to ensure that every penny we allocate for dentistry is spent on dentistry, and that the ringfenced dental budget is spent on the patients who need it most.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Great Yarmouth constituency, this is the NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB.
We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments across the country, with appointments more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most.
ICBs are also recruiting dentists through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
We are committed to delivering fundamental reform of the dental contract before the end of this Parliament. As a first step, we published the Government’s response to the public consultation on shorter term improvements to the NHS dental contract on 16 December 2025. The changes will be introduced from April 2026. These reforms will put patients with the greatest needs first while incentivising urgent care and complex treatments. Further information is available at the following link:
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the number of NHS dentists currently working in Great Yarmouth constituency on patients' access to urgent care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are determined to rebuild NHS dentistry, but it will take time and there are no quick fixes. Strengthening the workforce is key to our ambitions.
The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure that the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
We have asked integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from April 2025.
These appointments are available across the country, with specific expectations for each region. These appointments are more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most.
ICBs are also recruiting posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
We are committed to reforming the dental sector and we will deliver fundamental contract reform before the end of this Parliament. As a first step, we published the Government’s response to the public consultation on shorter term improvements to the NHS dental contract on 16 December 2025. The changes will be introduced from April 2026. These reforms will put patients with the greatest needs first while incentivising urgent care and complex treatments.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number of children in Great Yarmouth constituency that were unable to access an NHS dental appointment in the last 12 months.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data is not held on the number of children in the Great Yarmouth constituency that were unable to access a National Health Service dental appointment in the last 12 months.
The data for the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board, which includes the Great Yarmouth constituency, shows that 55% of children were seen by an NHS dentist in the previous 12 months up to June 2025, compared to 57% in England. This year, resources have also been provided to Norfolk County Council to support 5,605 children through the national supervised toothbrushing programme.
On 16 December, we published the Government’s response to the public consultation on interim improvements to the NHS dental contract. The changes will be introduced from April 2026. These reforms will put patients with greatest need first, incentivising urgent care and complex treatments, and will reduce clinically unnecessary check-ups. More information is available at the following link:
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what was the total annual NHS expenditure on GnRH analogue puberty blockers for under-18s in each financial year since 2010.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists or ‘puberty blockers’ are used to treat several medical conditions in children and young people. These can include precocious puberty, some forms of cancer, and endometriosis. They have also been used outside of their licenced indication to treat gender dysphoria.
There is no central registry that provides the total number of children in England who have been prescribed GnRH agonists through the National Health Service since 2010.
The following table shows the number of identifiable patients and total net ingredient cost for NHS prescriptions of GnRH agonists for all purposes for children aged 17 years old and under that were prescribed and dispensed in community pharmacies or general practices in England in each year from 2015/2016 to September 2025:
Financial year | The unique number of identified patients aged 17 years old and under who received an NHS prescription of GnRH for all purposes | The total net ingredient cost of prescriptions known to be issued to those aged 17 and under who received an NHS prescription of GnRH for all purposes |
2015/16 | 885 | £621,033.41 |
2016/17 | 987 | £692,927.42 |
2017/18 | 1,047 | £772,767.71 |
2018/19 | 1,072 | £806,393.82 |
2019/20 | 1,048 | £781,151.72 |
2020/21 | 936 | £703,531.55 |
2021/22 | 864 | £607,597.80 |
2022/23 | 849 | £586,845.56 |
2023/24 | 746 | £525,321.93 |
2024/25 | 622 | £449,611.72 |
2025/2026 | 432 | £219,338.73 |
Source: ePACT2, which sources data from the NHS Business Services Authority’s Information Services Data Warehouse.
Note: the net ingredient cost is the basic price of a product excluding VAT. It does not take account of discounts, rebates, dispensing costs, fees, and allowances paid to pharmacists and appliance contractors for the service they provide to the NHS, or prescription charge income received, where the single charge or Prescription Prepayment Certificate fee is paid, or foregone where prescriptions are dispensed free of charge.
The NHS Business Services Authority does not hold patient data prior to April 2015. This data excludes dispensing in secondary care and other settings, and private prescriptions.