Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people had to wait for longer than 12 weeks for a formal diagnosis of dementia after their first appointment with a GP.

The national commitment for the dementia diagnosis rate is two-thirds of the estimated population living with dementia to have a formal diagnosis. At the end of April 2018, 116 of 195 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) had met the two-thirds national standard.

A national diagnosis rate of at least 66.7% was initially achieved at the end 2015, and this has been maintained ever since. The current national dementia diagnosis rate is 67.3% (April 2018).

NHS England recognises that CCGs have varying levels of need for support based on their performance against the indicators, and has developed a support offer to assist areas in improving dementia services including diagnosis rates.