Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the extent to which infrastructure for the diagnosis of dementia adequately serves (a) each UK region and (b) rural areas in particular.

NHS England has commissioned the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities Dementia Intelligence Network to investigate the underlying variation in dementia diagnosis rates. This includes the assessment of underlying population characteristics such as rurality, ethnicity, and age. The aim of this work is to provide context for variation and enable targeted investigation and provision of support at a local level to enhance diagnosis rates. The resource is currently being tested with Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board.