Written questions by Stephenson.

With reference to the press release entitled World-first AI system to warn of NHS patient safety concerns of 30 June 2025, whether this will (a) augment and (b) replace human oversight.

The 10-Year Health Plan will bring our analogue health service into the digital age. It will make artificial intelligence (AI) every nurse’s and doctor’s trusted assistant, saving them time and supporting them in decision making.The Plan also focuses on supporting hospitals to prioritise safe deployment of AI and harness new technology to bring the very best of cutting-edge care to all patients, whilst ensuring data is used safely, ethically, and securely.AI technologies are not designed to replace our NHS and care staff. Instead, they will augment human expertise by supporting healthcare staff with routine administrative tasks and clinical decision making. This will save staff time and allow them to spend more time with patients. AI tools are to be used to support NHS staff, and their findings will be reviewed before decisions are made. Over the next three years, we will overhaul education and training curricula to future-proof the NHS workforce. We will make sure that NHS staff know how to work with AI and ensure that AI tools do not replace human oversight and expertise.

If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of reducing funding for Level 7 Apprenticeships on the NHS and Social Care workforce plan.

While funding arrangements for Level 7 apprenticeships are changing, we recognise the important role apprenticeships play in the training and development of the NHS and social care workforce. This Government is committed to developing homegrown talent and ensuring the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the best care for patients, when they need it. That is why the Department of Health and Social Care will be funding ongoing provision of Level 7 apprenticeships in five professions. This will support the delivery of our 10-Year Health Plan and help to ensure staff in health and social care have access to development opportunities.

When the new specialist gender centre for children and young people in the East of England will open.

A Children and Young People’s Gender Service is anticipated to open in the East of England later in the year.NHS England is making progress towards its ambition to open a gender service in each region of England by 2026. Three new services have opened in the North West, London, and the South West that offer a fundamentally different clinical model, embedding multi-disciplinary teams in specialist children’s hospitals.

Whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the proposed re-organisation of ICBs in the East of England.

The Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, alongside NHS England, continue to work closely on any proposals to reorganise integrated care boards (ICBs). I and my hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution, have discussed the reorganisation of ICBs and alignment with strategic authorities, including those in the East of England, in the context of English devolution.

Whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the proposed re-organisation of ICBs, in the context of English Devolution.

The Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, alongside NHS England, continue to work closely on any proposals to reorganise integrated care boards (ICBs). I and my hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution, have discussed the reorganisation of ICBs and alignment with strategic authorities, including those in the East of England, in the context of English devolution.

Whether NHS England consulted the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government before proposing to merge Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB with Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

The Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, alongside NHS England, continue to work closely on any proposals to reorganise integrated care boards (ICBs). I and my hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution, have discussed the reorganisation of ICBs and alignment with strategic authorities, including those in the East of England, in the context of English devolution.

If his Department has made an assessment on the potential impact of the planned re-organisation of the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB with Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough on the provision of GP services in rural communities.

As part of cluster preparation arrangements, every integrated care board (ICB) will complete an Equality Impact Assessment, which will consider the footprint population and the impact of the changes to ICB working arrangements.ICBs have a crucial role as strategic commissioners of local healthcare services. This includes the commissioning of GP services. In Schedule 3, Part 1 of the NHS Health and Care Act 2022, duty 82B (1) states that each integrated care board must exercise its powers so as to secure the provision of primary medical services to such extent as it considers necessary to meet the reasonable requirements of the persons for whom it has responsibility.The planned reorganisation of Bedfordshire, Luton, Milton Keynes, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB will not remove the statutory responsibility for ICBs to commission GP services for all of its residents, including those from small and rural communities.

What steps his Department has taken to prepare for resident doctor strikes since July 2024.

The National Health Service makes every effort through rigorous contingency planning to minimise disruption as a result of industrial action and its impact on patients and the public.Resident doctors in England went on strike for five days from Friday 25 July to Wednesday 30 July 2025. To prepare, NHS England analysed previous strike data to assess financial, operational, and patient impacts.In response to this assessment, NHS England worked hard to ensure that resources were prioritised to protect all patients using its services during the period of strike action, in particular emergency treatment, critical care, neonatal care, maternity, and trauma, and to ensure we prioritised patients who have waited the longest for elective care and cancer surgery.NHS England will continue to iterate its approach based on the most recent industrial action to ensure the NHS continues to deliver for patients.

If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of resident doctor strikes on NHS waiting lists.

Industrial action has a significant direct and indirect impact on elective performance and NHS waiting lists.Within the period of industrial action from December 2022 up to February 2024, 430,000 completed pathways (where a patient starts consultant-led treatment and is removed from the waiting list) are estimated to have been deferred as a result of industrial action.In summer 2024, this Government’s rapid resolution of industrial action allowed the NHS to exceed its pledge to deliver 2 million extra operations, scans and appointments, having delivered an additional 4.9 million appointments from July 2024 to June 2025.Unfortunately, in July 2025 we have seen further industrial action from Resident Doctors. As a result of tireless collaborative work, and valuable learning from previous industrial action, the NHS managed to remain resilient against strike action and minimised the impact on patients and the public.NHS England published estimates that the NHS maintained improved levels of inpatient and outpatient activity at 93% of normal activity levels, which is available at the following link: Early-assessment-of-the-July-2025-Resident-Doctors-IA-on-elective-activity-for-NHS-Acute-Providers-Final_7viii25.xlsx.

What steps he is taking to ensure the (a) safety, (b) dignity and (c) provision of healthcare for (i) transgender and (ii) non-binary people in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.

The Denny Review, published in September 2023, investigated health-related inequalities in Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes. This included a report commissioned from Healthwatch Luton on the experiences of LGBT+ people in the town.Subsequently, training was provided to general practices in Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes to increase the confidence of practices in enhancing dignity and respect for this group of patients.NHS England has also increased the number of gender services available, across England, for both children and young people and adults. A Children and Young People’s specialised gender service is anticipated to open in the East of England later in the year. In April 2025, my rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, commissioned NHS England to undertake an LGBT+ health evidence review to better understand LGBT+ healthcare needs and provide advice on future actions to address health inequalities amongst LGBT+ people including those who identify as trans and non-binary. The review was launched in June 2025 and will run for six months. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator in England with oversight of providers of health and adult social care. It holds services providers to account for safety and dignity for all patients and service users. The standards are enshrined in CQC regulations, having due regard to protected characteristics defined in the Equality Act 2010. Failure to comply with CQC standards can result is enforcement action.

With reference to the press release entitled Landmark plan to rebuild NHS in working-class communities of 25 June 2025, what definition his Department plans to use for working-class communities.

The 10-Year Health Plan has set out a long-term vision to reform the National Health Service and make it fit for the future. Addressing healthcare inequity is a core focus of the 10-Year Health Plan, to ensure the NHS is there for anyone who needs it whenever they need it.The 10-Year Health Plan refers both to “working class jobs” and “working class communities”, as do other more recent publications. These terms are used in the standard way they are used in English to indicate people who are employed for wages and generally experience greater job insecurity, lower benefits, and less financial security than others in society.

With reference to page 82 of the NHS Ten Year Plan, whether ICBs undergoing re-organisation will be further re-organised if their boundaries are not coterminous with new strategic authorities.

To deliver a reduction in running costs, a number of integrated care boards (ICBs) will cluster together to share leadership and functions. Clustering ICBs remain legally separate organisations with their own financial allocations. It will mean that during this financial year, the number of ICB senior leadership teams will go from 42 to 26. These have been published on the NHS England website, available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/integratedcare/integrated-care-in-your-area/more-about-each-integrated-care-system/In the long term, there will be fewer, larger ICBs enabling them to harness a shared budget of sufficient size to improve efficiency and reduce running costs.In areas where the boundaries of strategic authorities are not known, ICBs, including those that have clustered, may undergo future boundary changes to allow for alignment with newly created strategic authorities, and newly established unitary authorities resulting from local government reorganisation. Our aim throughout will be to deliver the best solutions for patients and citizens.

How many NHS employees have a level 7 apprenticeship qualification.

The Department does not hold the information requested.

What steps his Department plans to take to ensure that ICBs effectively represent small and rural communities, in the context of the re-organisation of ICBs.

NHS England has asked the integrated care boards (ICBs) to act primarily as strategic commissioners of health and care services and to reduce the duplication of responsibilities within the health and care structure. ICBs are responsible for commissioning health and care services for every person within their locality, including people from small and rural communities. We expect ICBs to continue delivering on all of their statutory responsibilities for all of their residents, including those from small and rural communities.

With reference to the press release entitled NHS leaders face both ‘carrot and stick’ in new performance drive, published on 15 May 2025, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the provision to not implement pay rises on equal pay in the NHS.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care accepted the headline pay recommendations for National Health Service staff from the independent pay review bodies, and staff will receive their backdated pay uplifts from August The Department conducted an equality impact assessment of the new pay framework for very senior managers (VSMs), which includes the provision to withhold pay uplifts for VSMs working in underperforming organisations, defined as the organisations placed in segment five of the new NHS Oversight Framework.It found that, overall, the proposal to withhold pay uplifts for VSMs in segments five is not expected to result in a statistically significant difference in relation to protected characteristics. As VSMs are not employed on national contracts, local remuneration committees will be required to assess the impact on equalities in relation to decisions on pay at an organisation level.

Whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the planned re-organisation of the BLMK ICB with (a) Hertfordshire and (b) Cambridgeshire & Peterborough on the provision of GP services in Wixams.

The clustering of integrated care boards (ICBs) in Bedfordshire, Luton, and Milton Keynes (BLMK), and Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is not expected to have a direct impact on primary care provision. ICBs will remain responsible for ensuring adequate primary care provision for the communities they serve. There are exploratory discussions underway between the BLMK ICB, the Central Bedfordshire Council, the developer of Wixams Town Centre, and Bedford Borough Council regarding options for delivering permanent healthcare provision in Wixams. These discussions are ongoing.As the plans for ICB reconfiguration progress, there remains a focus on place-based working and maintaining strong relationships with local partners.

If he will ask NHS England to publish an analysis of the options they have considered for re-organisation of ICBs in the East of England.

The proposals for the clustering of integrated care boards (ICBs) across England were considered in view of the ambition set out in the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan and NHS England’s Model ICB Blueprint. Specifically, the Government’s aim to strengthen the role of ICBs as strategic commissioners whilst delivering efficiency savings through creating leaner and more agile structures.Although the Government will not publish a detailed analysis of the options considered in each region, options for the re-organisation of ICBs in the east of England were considered in view of the ambition detailed above, with careful consideration of the local circumstances and meeting the running cost allowance envelope of £18.76 per head of population.

What the expected population coverage of each ICB in England is following the proposed re-organisation.

In order to optimise the impact of strategic commissioning, and release resources to the frontline, we are working with integrated care boards to so that they cover populations of approximately two million people.

Whether ICBs will be expected to fund redundancy costs from re-organisation from their day-to-day budgets.

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we are clear on the need for a smaller centre, as well as reducing integrated care board running costs and National Health Service provider corporate costs, in order to reduce waste and bureaucracy. Good progress is being made, with the Department and NHS England having announced voluntary exit or redundancy schemes. We have recently announced the Spending Review settlement which provides an additional £29 billion of annual day to day spending in real terms by 2028/29, compared to 2023/24. Ahead of asking the NHS to commence a multi-year planning round, we are now carefully reviewing how the settlement is prioritised, including making provision for redundancy costs.

Whether his Department plans to publish a social care workforce strategy, in the context of the White Paper entitled Restoring control over the immigration system, published on 12 May 2025.

There are currently no plans to publish a social care workforce strategy in response to the Immigration White Paper. However, we are actively supporting the workforce through a range of ongoing initiatives.It is the Government’s policy to reduce reliance on international recruitment in adult social care and to improve domestic recruitment and retention. Overseas recruitment for adult social care is ending. The new rules will come into effect on 22 July 2025.There will be a transition period until 2028, to be kept under review, where in-country applications, including from other visa routes, will continue to be permitted for care workers and senior care workers, provided individuals are already working in the sector. This means, for example, that care providers will continue to be able to access students and individuals on the graduate route, who we know have provided a vital role in workforce capacity in recent years.The Department is providing up to £12.5 million this financial year to 15 regional partnerships to help support international care workers affected by license revocation into alternative, ethical employment. It also includes regional partnerships providing support with CV writing, interview techniques, employability skills support, support to better understand workplace culture in the United Kingdom, and signposting.The Government recognises the scale of reforms needed to make the adult social care sector attractive, to support sustainable workforce growth, and improve the retention of the domestic workforce. This is why we are introducing the first ever Fair Pay Agreement to the adult social care sector so that care professionals are recognised and rewarded for the important work that they do.We are also expanding the Care Workforce Pathway, the new national career structure, to make the adult social care sector more attractive to work in. In addition, care workers will be supported to safely take on further duties to deliver delegated healthcare activities, with the right training and clinical governance in place.In September 2024, we launched the Adult Social Care Learning and Development Support Scheme, which allows employers to claim for funding for training courses and qualifications on behalf of eligible staff. The scheme is backed by up to £12 million this financial year.In addition, the Department has launched an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The commission forms a key part of the Government’s Plan for Change, recognising the importance of adult social care in its own right, as well as its role in supporting the National Health Service.In conclusion, while the commission carries out its work, we are already laying the groundwork for more substantial, long-term changes that will create a more resilient and sustainable workforce.