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 improve access to dementia diagnosis services in rural areas.

NHS England has commissioned the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network to investigate the underlying variation in dementia diagnosis rates in targeted areas in England. This will include on social and economic deprivation; rurality; demographic characteristics including age, ethnicity and educational attainment; and general health and life expectancy.

In 2021, factsheets were published to encourage local conversations on understanding local patterns and potential reasons for trends in dementia diagnosis rates and identifying specific areas for support. In 2021/22, £17 million was made available to clinical commissioning groups to address dementia waiting lists and increase the number of diagnoses.