Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS England's guidance entitled 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance, published on 30 January 2025, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the removal of the dementia diagnosis target rate on the NHS.

We remain committed to increasing dementia diagnosis rates and agree that early diagnosis is vital to ensure people with dementia can access the treatment and support they need.

We have taken a new approach to NHS Planning Guidance this year, reducing the number of national directives from 32 to 18. We will only turn the National Health Service around by doing things differently. These are the first steps on our journey for long-term reform of the NHS.

NHS Planning Guidance is not an exhaustive list of everything the NHS does, and the absence of a target does not mean it is not an area of focus. The Darzi Investigation found that there are too many targets set for the NHS, which made it hard for local systems to prioritise their actions or to be held properly accountable.

Our aim is to give more power to local systems and let them decide how they use local funding to best meet the needs of their local population. This approach signals our ambition for reform, recognises the role of the NHS in driving economic growth, and enshrines our commitment to financial rigour in the system.

Through our extensive public engagement as part of the 10-Year Health Plan, we will continue to listen to patients’ priorities and keep focused on what matters most to the public.

Lord Darzi’s independent review showed that a timely diagnosis is vital to ensuring that a person with dementia can access the advice, information, care, and support that can help them to live well and remain independent for as long as possible.

The 10-Year Health Plan will address the challenges diagnosed by Lord Darzi and set the vision for what good joined-up care looks like for people with a combination of complex health and care needs. It will set out how we support and enable health and social care services to work together better to provide that joined-up care.