Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the 10 year plan for the NHS, what steps he plans to take to ensure that equality of access to the NHS is retained for all.

The 10-Year Health Plan, along with associated policies and initiatives, details several measures to ensure equality of access to the NHS is retained for all. This includes:

- Redirecting funds to deprived areas: Funding flows are being realigned towards areas with the highest health needs, targeting communities with disproportionate economic and health challenges.

- Building Neighbourhood Health Centres: New "one-stop shop" health centres will be established in every community, starting with areas that have the lowest healthy life expectancy. These centres will provide integrated, multi-professional care closer to people's homes and will often be open for extended hours to improve convenience.

- Addressing waiting list inequalities: The NHS now publishes waiting list data broken down by deprivation, ethnicity, age, and sex to identify and address unfair variations in waiting times.