Asked by: Baroness Pidgeon (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support they are providing for research and development into new diagnostic technologies for dementia, including blood-based biomarker tests.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government responsibility for delivering dementia research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation.
The Government’s Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme has invested £13 million into a range of biomarker innovation projects which include a broad range of biomarker technologies, ranging from an artificial intelligence tool designed to improve the accuracy of blood tests for dementia, to using retinal scans to detect early-onset dementia decades before symptoms. Some of these innovations could support improved diagnosis in the future, if validated for clinical use.
Alongside Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the People’s Postcode Lottery, the NIHR is funding the Blood Biomarker Challenge which seeks to produce the clinical and economic data that could make the case for the use of a blood test in the National Health Service to support diagnosis of dementia.
The NIHR has also invested nearly £11 million of funding to develop new digital approaches for the timely detection and diagnosis of dementia. Funded projects include a range of innovative tests such as spatial awareness, image recognition, hearing tests, and monitoring sleep disturbances.
The UK Dementia Research Institute, primarily funded by the Government, aims to increase our basic scientific understanding of dementia and its causes, unlocking pathways to developing ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat the condition. The NIHR is investing £20 million in the UK Dementia Research Institute over four years to enable discoveries to be taken out of the laboratory and into the lives of people that need them.
The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including dementia. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
Welcoming applications on dementia to all NIHR programmes enables maximum flexibility both in terms of the amount of research funding a particular area can be awarded, and the type of research which can be funded.
Asked by: Baroness Pidgeon (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to strengthen support for early dementia diagnosis, including through the enhancement of the NHS Health Check for those aged over 40, and the provision of risk reduction advice.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government and NHS England remain committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate. The new approach to planning guidance will improve the operating model, giving local leaders the freedom and autonomy they need to provide the best services to their local community, including those with dementia.
The NHS Health Check, a core component of England’s cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention programme, aims to prevent some cases of dementia in eligible people by making them aware that many of the risk factors for CVD are the same as those for dementia, and that what is good for the heart is also good for the brain. Through the programme, people aged 65 to 74 years old are also made aware of the signs and symptoms of dementia, and are signposted to local memory services where appropriate.
We are considering the guidance supporting the dementia component of the NHS Health Check, to ensure it reflects the most recent evidence and best practice.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase access to advanced diagnostic tools, such as PET scans, blood tests and AI-supported retinal imaging, to enable earlier and more accurate dementia diagnosis.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme has already invested £13 million into a range of biomarker innovation projects, which include a broad range of biomarker technologies, ranging from an artificial intelligence tool designed to improve the accuracy of blood tests for dementia, to using retinal scans to detect early-onset dementia decades before symptoms.
Some of these innovations could support improved diagnosis in the future, if validated for clinical use.
The Government is committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service in England to increase diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they are preparing diagnostic and clinical services for the anticipated arrival of new disease-modifying treatments for dementia.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has established a dedicated national programme team which is working in partnership with other national agencies and with local health systems to co-ordinate the preparations for the potential roll out of new treatments for dementia.
These plans assume that, if new treatments are approved by the regulators, significant additional diagnostic capacity, including amyloid positron emission tomography and computed tomography, lumbar puncture, and magnetic resonance imaging, will be needed both to identify patients who are most able to benefit and to provide important safety monitoring for potential adverse effects during treatment.
The Government is committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service in England to increase diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff network events took place in her Department in May 2025; and what the names of those events were.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Staff networks are collaborative volunteer networks, organised by staff themselves rather than the department. As a result, events are organised by staff themselves, not the department. We are aware of the following events that these networks organised in May 2025.
In May 2025, four staff network events were held in the department as part of Dementia Week. The events were:
Asked by: Dan Norris (Independent - North East Somerset and Hanham)
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 speed up diagnosis and treatment for people living with dementia in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government wants a society where every person with dementia receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life.
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. To support recovery of the dementia diagnosis rates and implementation of the Dementia Care Pathway, we have developed a memory service dashboard for management information purposes. The aim is to support commissioners and providers with appropriate data and to enable targeted support where needed.
We have published the D100: Assessment Tool Pathway programme, which brings together multiple resources into a single, consolidated tool to help simplify best practice for system leaders and help create communities and services where the best possible care and support is available to those with dementia. The D100: Pathway Assessment Tool launched in April, and is available at the following link:
To prepare for any potential new treatments, NHS England is working closely with regulators to ensure that arrangements are in place to support the adoption of any new licensed and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended treatments as soon as possible.
The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan will address the challenges diagnosed by Lord Darzi and will 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.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to publish a dementia strategy.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government wants a society where every person with dementia receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life.
The 10-Year Health Plan will address the challenges diagnosed by Lord Darzi in his independent investigation into the National Health Service in England, and will set the vision for what good joined-up care looks like for people with a combination of complex health and care needs, including people living with dementia. We are carefully considering policies, including those that impact people with dementia, with input from the public, patients, health staff, and our partners, as we develop the plan.
As part of this work, we will consider how best to meet the needs of people with dementia, including whether it is appropriate to develop a dementia strategy.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of including a national services framework for dementia as part of the NHS 10-year Health Plan.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan will address the challenges diagnosed by Lord Darzi and will set the vision for what good joined-up care looks like for people with a combination of complex health and care needs, including people living with dementia. We are carefully considering policies, including those that impact people with dementia, with input from the public, patients, health staff, and our partners, as we develop the plan.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the NHS 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance to include a target on dementia diagnosis.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government remains committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate to the national ambition of 66.7% and agrees that timely diagnosis is vital to ensure that people with dementia can access the treatment and support they need.
The Darzi Investigation found that there were too many targets set for the National Health Service, which made it hard for local systems to prioritise their actions or to be held properly accountable.
This is why 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 NHS 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.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has carried out an impact assessment for the removal of the dementia diagnosis target from NHS planning guidance.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government remains committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate to the national ambition of 66.7% and agrees that timely diagnosis is vital to ensure that people with dementia can access the treatment and support they need.
The Darzi Investigation found that there were too many targets set for the National Health Service, which made it hard for local systems to prioritise their actions or to be held properly accountable.
This is why 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 NHS 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.