Written questions by Anderson.

How many patients in (a) Buckinghamshire and (b) Milton Keynes have received home-based NHS care in each of the last three years.

NHS England does not hold data on the number of patients in Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes who have received home-based National Health Service care in each of the last three years.The NHS provides a range of services in peoples’ homes such as community health services, virtual wards, community mental health support, and palliative care.The 10-Year Health Plan sets out our vision for a Neighbourhood Health Service.The Neighbourhood Health Service will embody our new preventative principle that care should happen as locally as it can, digitally by default, in a person’s home if possible, in a neighbourhood health centre when needed, and only in a hospital if necessary.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of home-based NHS care on hospital admissions.

Whilst no comprehensive quantitative assessment has been made, we recognise that home and community-based National Health Services play a crucial role in preventing admissions for people with conditions that can be safely managed in the community, thereby helping to manage demand pressures on accident and emergency departments, and improving patient experience.Key features of home and community based services include: anticipating and preventing exacerbations using personalised care plans delivered through neighbourhood health teams for people with long-term conditions and frailty; directing people to the most appropriate service at first contact using clearly established routes for clinical advice supported by digital tools and neighbourhood teams; and delivering integrated community based services including Urgent Community Response, Hospital at Home, and therapy-led intermediate care.Our Urgent and Emergency Care Delivery Plan, published in June 2025, commits to increasing the number of patients receiving urgent care in the community by expanding these services.

What workforce planning measures he has implemented to support the delivery of home-based NHS care in (a) Buckinghamshire and (b) Milton Keynes.

This Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure that the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.The NHS is increasingly using virtual wards, also known as hospital at home, to support people at the place they call home, and enable the shift from hospital to community care. Virtual wards allow patients to get the care they need at home safely and conveniently, rather than being in hospital.

Whether his Department has assessed the potential effectiveness of digital scheduling tools in improving outpatient capacity.

As set out in the Elective Reform Plan, the Department is committed to ensuring that outpatient capacity is planned and used effectively, and that processes are streamlined to free up capacity where possible. This includes ensuring that all appointments are necessary and reducing missed appointments.Digital scheduling tools like the NHS e-Referral Service (NHS e-RS), the NHS App, and the Manage Your Referral service are key enablers of this. The NHS e-RS is a digital platform used for referring patients from primary care into elective services. Manage Your Referral is the patient facing side of the NHS e-RS, allowing a patient to book, check, change, or cancel their first outpatient appointment online through its website or through the NHS App.The 10-Year Health Plan builds on this vision. It introduces tools like My NHS GP, My Choices, and My Specialist for personalised scheduling. By 2028, the NHS App will become the primary gateway for patients to book appointments and manage their appointments. The Medium Term Planning Framework, published in October 2025, sets out the initial phase of this work starting this year, to bring forward a roadmap for the delivery of the NHS App’s functions as described in the 10-Year Health Plan. This will help deliver a technology-enabled model of planned care which gives patients one place to manage all their appointments, referrals, and interactions, while bringing efficiencies that reduce referral-to-treatment times.

Whether his Department has undertaken analysis of productivity variation across integrated care systems.

The Department recognises the importance of understanding productivity variation across integrated care systems (ICSs) to support improvement and to ensure value for money. NHS England routinely collects and analyses data on performance outcomes across ICSs, which is used to provide insight into relative performance at a trust level.For acute providers, this is included in the NHS Oversight Framework and trusts are segmented based on the latest estimates of a range of metrics, including productivity performance, and ranked in the NHS league tables, which are available at the following link:https://data.england.nhs.uk/dashboard/nofacute

Whether his Department plans to introduce mandatory reporting on productivity improvements linked to capital investment.

The Department is committed to ensuring that capital investment in the National Health Service delivers measurable improvements in productivity and patient outcomes. While there is currently no mandatory reporting framework specifically linking capital investment to productivity gains, NHS organisations are expected to demonstrate value for money and the impact through business case processes and post-project evaluations. The Department is exploring options to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation of capital investments, including how productivity gains can be more systematically captured and reported in future.More broadly, the NHS plans to begin regularly publishing assessments of productivity performance against the 2% year-on-year improvement target we set in our 10-Year Health Plan. Data published in September 2025 showed an estimated 2.7% year-on-year improvement in acute productivity in the NHS over the 2024/25 financial year, with further information available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/news/patients-treated-more-quickly-as-nhs-productivity-rises-over-yearEarly data for the first quarter of 2025/26 suggests this trend is continuing with a further 2.4% improvement in acute productivity, with further information available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nhs-recovery-continues-with-above-target-productivity-growth

What steps his Department is taking to support NHS trusts to increase same-day elective procedure capability.

Same-day elective procedures, or day surgeries, allow patients to be treated and discharged on the same day, helping to reduce waiting times, minimising cancellations due to bed pressures, and supporting patients to recover more quickly, in the comfort of their own home.To expand same-day capability, we are investing in dedicated elective surgical hubs focused on high-volume, low-complexity procedures. These hubs improve productivity and support more patients to return home the same day, in line with the Right Procedure, Right Place principles.There are currently 124 operational hubs in England, 23 of which have opened since the Government took office. Over the next three years, we are committed to increasing the number of hubs to boost surgical capacity and deliver faster access to common procedures.NHS England also continues to run the Getting It Right First Time programme, as part of which trusts are supported to maximise hub productivity and increase the proportion of inpatient procedures completed as day surgeries.

What estimate he has made of the potential return on funding for the the supervised brushing scheme in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency.

Supervised toothbrushing is an evidence-based intervention. The most recent assessment suggests that supervised toothbrushing schemes have a five-year return on investment of £3.06 for every £1 spent where the rate of decayed, missing due to decay, and filled teeth is two or greater. Further information is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/improving-the-oral-health-of-children-cost-effective-commissioning

What criteria his Department applied to define deprived areas for the provision of free dental products in early years settings in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency.

National supervised toothbrushing programme funding and free dental products are based on the Office for National Statistics’ Indices of Multiple Deprivation mid-2020 population estimates. These were used to identify the number of three to five-year-olds living in the 20% most deprived Lower Super Output Areas of local authorities, including Buckinghamshire Council and Milton Keynes City Council.

What the timetable is for the extension of community water fluoridation (a) Buckinghamshire and (b) Milton Keynes.

Water fluoridation at levels recommended in the United Kingdom is a safe and effective intervention to reduce tooth decay and inequalities in dental health.The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan for National Health Service recovery and reform prioritises prevention.As part of this strategy, the Government is expanding fluoridation schemes in north east England, aiming to reach 1.6 million more people by April 2030. We will assess further rollout in areas where oral health outcomes are worst.

What funding his Department has provided for supervised tooth brushing in early years settings in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency.

Funding for 2025/26 has been allocated at upper tier local authority level. For Buckinghamshire Council and Milton Keynes City Council this was £61,842.36 for supervised toothbrushing in early years settings. Further information is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-health-grants-to-local-authorities-2025-to-2026

What estimate he has made of the number of 3-5 year olds who will join the supervised toothbrushing scheme in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency in each of the next five years.

The requested information is held at upper tier local authority rather than at constituency level. The national supervised toothbrushing programme targets 1,830 people aged between three- and five- years old living in the 20% most deprived Lower Super Output Areas of Buckinghamshire Council and Milton Keynes City Council (ONS Indices of Multiple Deprivation mid-2020 population estimates). The final number of children participating in schemes will be determined by rates of local participation at individual settings.

What baseline data his Department holds on the number of hospital tooth extractions among 5-9 year olds in (a) Milton Keynes and (b) Buckinghamshire.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) publishes annual official statistics on tooth extractions, which include five- to nine-year-olds, that take place in a National Health Service hospital setting in England. The following table shows the number of finished consultant episodes (FCEs) for all tooth extractions and for tooth extraction with dental caries, also known as tooth decay, as the primary diagnosis code, for the 2023/24 financial year, for children aged five to nine years who reside in Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes: All tooth extractionsTooth decay-related tooth extractionsBuckinghamshire11595Milton Keynes4035Source: OHID’s annual statistics on tooth extractions for zero to 19 year olds that take place in an NHS hospital setting in England, available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hospital-based-tooth-extractions-in-0-to-19-year-olds Notes:Buckinghamshire refers to the local authority, Buckinghamshire Council;Milton Keynes refers to Milton Keynes lower tier local authority, Milton Keynes City Council;al sub-national FCE counts are rounded to the nearest five as per NHS Digital’s disclosure controls;figures show the number of FCEs, not the number of individual children who received these treatments, and therefore one child may have had more than one FCE; anda quality note on the data is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/analysis-of-tooth-extractions-in-hospital-methods-and-data-quality/data-quality-and-disclosure-control-for-hospital-based-tooth-extraction-data

How many and what proportion of the 23 million (a) toothbrushes and (b) toothpastes will be provided to early years settings in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency.

The information is not available at constituency level. In 2025/26, Buckinghamshire Council and Milton Keynes City Council have received 5,544 toothbrushes for use in early years settings, 4,812 toothpastes and 3,660 toothbrushes for children to take home. This equates to a proportion of 0.3% of the total allocation of products from our partnership with Colgate-Palmolive for this year. Product allocations are based on the number of 3-to-5-year children living in the 20% most deprived areas in England. Allocation of products for subsequent years will be confirmed in partnership with the councils and Colgate-Palmolive.

What the average reduction in waiting time achieved through the Advice and Guidance scheme was for patients registered with GP practices in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency in April 2025.

No assessment has been made of the average reduction in waiting time as a result of Advice and Guidance in April 2025 for patients in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency.

What proportion of GP practices had signed up to the Advice and Guidance scheme by 30 April 2025 in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency.

The specific information requested is not held centrally by the Department as it is held at individual integrated care board (ICB) level. Buckingham and Bletchley constituency is served by two different ICBs, namely Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire & West Berkshire ICB and Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB.

What resources his Department has provided to facilitate the participation by GP practices in the Advice and Guidance scheme in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency since 1 April 2025.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) were instructed to invite all general practices to participate in the enhanced service specification for General Practice Requests for Advice and Guidance (A&G) 2025/26, which sees practices entitled to claim a £20 fee per request for pre-referral advice and guidance, no later than 13 May 2025. The Government has made £80 million available to fund up to four million A&G requests so general practitioners (GPs) can access advice ahead of making a referral, recognising the importance of their role in ensuring patient care takes place in the most appropriate setting.NHS England has developed supporting resources to aid continued use of A&G, including a toolkit with guidance for GPs as well as for commissioners and secondary care clinical teams, and an operational delivery framework which sets a roadmap for ICBs to expand and improve their use of A&G across seven themes and with a set of minimum standards for best practice.

How many patients will be evacuated under the Gaza Medical Evacuation Scheme; and what his planned timetable is for those evacuations.

I refer the Hon. Members to My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s Written Statement to the House on 1 September 2025, available at the following link:https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2025-09-01/hcws899

Whether his Department has made an estimate of the NHS dental workforce that will be required in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency in each of the next five years.

We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan and will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the best care for patients, when they need it.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that new mental health staff are deployed in areas of greatest demand in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency.

As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, the Government is recruiting an additional 8,500 mental health workers to help ease pressure on busy mental health services across the NHS, including in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency. More than 6,700 extra mental health workers have been employed since July, as per the latest data.We are working with NHS England to deliver a refreshed workforce plan, which will revolve around the three shifts to deliver our 10-Year Health Plan: moving more care from hospitals to communities; making better use of technology in health and care; and focusing on preventing sickness, not just treating it.Responsibility for the onward commissioning of mental health services sits with integrated care boards (ICB). It is the role of local ICB decision-makers to consider the implications of mental health services, specific to each geography and including the perspectives of healthcare professionals, patient advocacy groups, and local authorities.