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 changes in the proportion of people with dementia in England who have a recorded dementia diagnosis between (a) March 2020 and July 2021 and (b) July 2021 and December 2021; and if he will make a statement.

The information is not available in the format requested.

With NHS England and NHS Improvement, we continue to monitor monthly trends in the dementia diagnosis rate. Due to the impact of the pandemic, the estimated diagnosis rate fell below the national target for the first time since December 2016. In March 2021, the rate increased to 61.6% and has remained stable.

In 2021/22, £17 million was allocated to NHS England and NHS Improvement to address dementia waiting lists and increase the number of diagnoses. This funding was made available to clinical commissioning groups in June 2021. We will set out plans for dementia in England later this year, including a focus on dementia diagnosis.