Written questions by Maguire.

If he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the average waiting time for an autism diagnosis in Cornwall.

It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including autism assessments and diagnosis, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to help ICBs and the National Health Service to deliver improved outcomes for children, young people, and adults referred to an autism assessment service. In 2024/25, £4.3 million is available nationally to improve services for autistic children and young people, including autism assessment services.

What plans his Department has to decrease the waiting times for diagnosis of (a) autism and (b) other (i) neurological and (ii) developmental disorders.

It is the responsibility of the integrated care boards (ICBs) in England to make available the appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) services, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to help ICBs and the National Health Service to deliver improved outcomes for children, young people and adults referred to an autism assessment service. In 2024/25, £4.3 million is available nationally to improve services for autistic children and young people, including autism assessment services.In respect of ADHD, we are supporting a cross-sector taskforce that NHS England has established to look at ADHD service provision and support across sectors, and their impact on patient experience. The taskforce is bringing together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the NHS, education, and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD, including timely access to services and support. The ADHD taskforce will also work closely with the Department for Education’s neurodivergence task and finish group.

Pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2024 to Question 244 on Dental Services: North Cornwall, how many dentists accept NHS patients in North Cornwall constituency; and what progress he has made on (a) providing additional dental care appointments and (b) setting up an innovative access pilot project in Cornwall.

As of 29 November 2024, there were 11 open dentistry practices in the North Cornwall constituency, none of which were showing as accepting new adult patients. This data is sourced from the Find a Dentist website, and is matched to constituencies based on the postcode data shown on the website, which is available at the following link:https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentistWe are working to ensure that patients can start to access the 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments as soon as possible, targeting the areas that need them most.The responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly ICB recently approved the Primary Care Strategy at its November meeting. This included information on work to improve dental access, such as the Lostwithiel Pilot Programme. This programme is a collaboration between the National Health Service and a Lostwithiel dental surgery, enabling children and the most vulnerable patients to access an NHS dentist. This pilot aimed to address unmet dental health needs by targeting priority groups and reducing waiting list backlogs.

Whether his Department provides financial support to Cornwall Air Ambulance; and if will he will take steps to mitigate the potential impact of proposed changes to employer National Insurance Contributions on that service.

The Department and NHS England do not directly fund air ambulances, which are operated by independent charities.The Government has protected the smallest businesses and charities from the impact of the increase to employer National Insurance, by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500, which means that 865,000 employers will pay no National Insurance contributions (NICs) at all next year, more than half of employers will see no change or will gain overall from this package, and all eligible employers will be able to employ up to four full-time workers on the National Living Wage and pay no employer NICs.