Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the press release entitled Managing healthcare easy as online banking with revamped NHS App, published on 3 July 2025, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people who are digitally-excluded can access health services available through the NHS App.

We are working to improve access to digital services, outcomes, and experiences for the widest range of people, based on their preferences. Digital health tools should be part of a wider offering that includes face-to-face support, with appropriate help for people who struggle to access digital services.

Centrally built services, such as the NHS App and the NHS.UK website, are designed to meet international accessibility standards. We are modernising the mobile patient experience within the NHS App, ensuring information is clearly structured and easy to find and understand.

NHS England has successfully run several programmes to support patients, carers, and health service staff with their digital skills. These include:

- the Digital Health Champions programme, a proof of concept to support citizens who have no or low digital skills with understanding how to access health services online;

- the Widening Digital Participation programme, aimed to ensure more people have the digital skills, motivation, and means to access health information and services online; and

- the NHS App ‘Spoken Word’ Pilot project, designed to test the efficacy of promoting National Health Service digital health products and services in languages other than English.

We have also recruited over 2,000 NHS App ambassadors and 1,400 libraries to help people to learn how to use it.

NHS England has published a framework for NHS action on digital inclusion and is developing further resources to support practical actions. All programmes are actively considering how they can contribute to improvements in healthcare inequalities and digital inclusion.