Written questions by Johnson.

What funding has been allocated to Healthy Start for 2026-27.

The Spending Review on 11 June 2025 set total departmental budgets for day-to-day spending from 2026/27 until 2028/29. Departments must now allocate these budgets to portfolios, programmes, and projects. As such, the budget allocated to Healthy Start for 2026/27 is still to be determined. Healthy Start is a demand-led, statutory scheme and aims to support those in greatest need. We recently announced in Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan that we will uplift the value of weekly payments by 10%, boosting the ability to buy healthy food for those families who need it most. From April 2026, pregnant women and children aged over one and under four years old will each receive £4.65 per week, up from £4.25, and children under one years old will receive £9.30 per week, up from £8.50.

With reference to page 12 of his Department's policy paper entitled Fit for the Future: The 10 Year Health Plan for England, published in July 2025, whether it remains his policy to abolish NHS England.

Yes, as announced on 13 March, NHS England will be brought into the Department to form a new joint centre. The necessary work to formally abolish NHS England is underway.NHS England will continue to undertake its statutory functions, working with the new executive during the transition, until parliamentary time allows for the necessary legislative changes to be made.

What his target date is for 92% of patients to begin elective treatment within 18 weeks.

As set out in the Plan for Change, we are committed to delivering the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029.Planning Guidance for 2025/26 sets a target that 65% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks by March 2026, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement on current performance over that period.

What assessment he has made of the (a) efficiency and (b) productivity of the MHRA.

The Department and its ministers regularly hold assurance meetings with the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to assess its efficiency and productivity. Under the Government, the MHRA has cleared all backlogs, and statutory performance targets are now being met.As part of the MHRA’s ongoing commitment to greater transparency in service delivery, the agency began publishing monthly performance data externally on clinical trials and medicines licenses in April 2023 and extended this to reflect reporting of performance against all Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from March 2025. This enhanced reporting provides detailed insights into progress against KPIs and processing times. It enables stakeholders, customers, and partners to plan with greater certainty by offering clear visibility into the performance of key functions, including licensing and clinical trials applications, inspections, batch release, and safety signals. These improvements support more informed engagement and planning across the sector.As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, the MHRA will build on this to develop a more pro-innovation approach to regulation, while maintaining safety, ensuring that the United Kingdom remains one of the best places in the world to develop and launch new products, with an international reputation for safety and quality.

Whether he has made and estimate of the total cost of providing personalised coaching to each member of NHS staff.

No estimate has been made. As set out in our 10-Year Health Plan published on 3 July, we will introduce new ‘skills escalators’ for staff. These will give staff a trajectory for clear career progression, with increasing autonomy.By 2035, every single member of National Health Service staff will have their own personalised career coaching and development plan, to help them acquire new skills and practice at the top of their professional capability.Further details on this will be set out in our 10 Year Workforce Plan later this year.

If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of prioritising UK trained nurses for nursing posts in the NHS.

As set out in the recently published 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is committed to reorienting the focus of National Health Service recruitment away from its dependency on international recruitment, and towards its own communities, to ensure sustainability in an era of global healthcare workforce shortages. It is our ambition to reduce international recruitment to less than 10% by 2035.This includes a commitment to developing homegrown nursing talent, helping to bring economic growth to areas across the nation which are most in need. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will outline strategies for improving retention, productivity, training, and reducing attrition, ultimately enhancing conditions for all staff while gradually reducing reliance on international recruitment, without diminishing the value of their contributions.

How many and what proportion of newly qualified GPs recruited were trained in the UK since October 2024.

The Department does not hold the requested information as workforce and recruitment decisions are made locally by practices and primary care networks. As self-employed contractors to the National Health Service, it is up to general practices to determine how they run their operations.As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan we published on 3 July, we will work across Government to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates for foundation training. We will also prioritise UK medical graduates and other doctors who have worked in the National Health Service for a significant period for specialty training.

With reference to his Department's publication, Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England, published on 3 July 2025, how the single national formula for medicines will differ from the British national (a) formulary and (b) formulary for children.

The document Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England, published on 3 July 2025, describes the creation of a Single National Formulary (SNF) for medicines to supersede the current process by which each local area decides which medicines are available to its patients. A SNF is expected to supersede these local processes with a formulary oversight board responsible for sequencing products included in the SNF, based on clinical and cost effectiveness, and supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The intention is to drive rapid and equitable adoption of the most clinically and cost-effective medicines.Work will now begin on design and delivery planning, and we will work collaboratively with key stakeholders, including NICE and industry, on the plans.The British National Formulary and the British National Formulary for Children are publications of the British Medical Journal and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, that are available on the NICE website. They provide healthcare professionals with a range of information on the selection, prescribing, administration, and dispensing of medicines.

With reference to his Department's publication, Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England, published on 3 July 2025, how many additional GPs will be trained in each of the next 10 years.

We have committed to training thousands more general practitioners (GPs) across the country, which will increase capacity, end the 8:00am scramble, and take the pressure off those currently working in the system.We will publish a 10-Year Workforce Plan to create a workforce ready to deliver a transformed service. They will be more empowered, more flexible, and more fulfilled. 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 deliver the best care for patients, when they need it.Further details on training places will be confirmed in due course.

With reference to his Department's publication, Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England, published on 3 July 2025, if he will publish the new employment contracts which will allow GPs to (a) work over a larger geographies and (b) lead new neighbourhood providers.

On 3 July 2025, we published the 10-Year Health Plan for England, which announced the plan to introduce two new contracts, for neighbourhood providers and multi-neighbourhood providers, which will encourage general practitioners to work over larger geographies. We will begin make these new contracts available in 2026. Further details will be provided in due course.

When he expects negotiations on a new dental contract to conclude.

We are committed to reforming the dental contract, but we need to take the time to get this right. There are no perfect payment models and careful consideration needs to be given to any potential changes to the complex dental system so that we deliver genuine improvements for patients and the profession.We are continuing to meet the British Dental Association and other representatives of the dental sector to discuss how we can best deliver our shared ambition to improve access for National Health Service dental patients.As a first step to reforming the dental contract, we are consulting on a package of changes to improve access to, and improve the quality of, NHS dentistry, which will deliver improved care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. Further information on the consultation is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/nhs-dentistry-contract-quality-and-payment-reformsThe consultation was launched on 8 July and will close on 19 August 2025.

With reference to page 10 of the 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future, published on 3 July 2025, whether he plans to introduce tie-ins for dentists (a) beginning training after September 2025, (b) already in training and (c) already qualified.

We believe that working in the National Health Service will give dental graduates the best start to their careers, by giving them the broadest range of experience, great support from strong teams of dental professionals, and the most comprehensive training.It costs £200,000 of taxpayer’s money to train a dentist. We believe it is right and fair to taxpayers to expect graduate dentists to invest their skills and expertise in the NHS for at least some amount of time.We will consult with the sector on the detail of introducing this change.

How many and what proportion of emergency departments were co-located with urgent treatment centres in the most recent period for which data is available.

There are currently 86, which is approximately half, type 1 accident and emergency units with a co-located urgent treatment centre (UTC).Further co-located UTCs will be built as a result of the capital funding provided as part of our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26.

How many newly qualified nurses there have been in 2025.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council publishes information on the number of United Kingdom trained nurses joining their register for the first time, who are resident in England.The latest data available, from the Nursing and Midwifery Council March 2025 Annual Data Report, shows that 29,210 nurses joined the register in England for the first time, 19,670 of which obtained their nursing qualification in the UK.

With reference to page 10 of the 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future, published on 3 July 2025, who will decide whether patients require same day GP appointments.

General practices operate as independent businesses with the autonomy to decide how they manage and triage patients. This enables them to adopt operational approaches that best meet the needs of their practice and patient population, as they are best placed to make those decisions. However, we are clear that we expect that decisions related to patient care are made using appropriate clinical processes and informed by medical professionals. The Government is determined to work with the National Health Service to fix the front door of our health service and ensure that everyone can access general practice (GP) appointments and services when they most need it. Through our 10-Year Health Plan, it will be easier and faster to see a GP. The 8:00am scramble will end, we will train more doctors, and we will guarantee digital consultations within 24 hours.

With reference to his Department's publication, Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England, published on 3 July 2025, who will be responsible for producing the agreed care plans for people with complex needs.

Our 10-Year Health Plan will ensure that people with complex needs are supported to be active participants in their own care. As part of this, 95% of people with complex needs or long-term conditions will have an agreed personalised care plan by 2027. Care plans will be a feature of the developing Neighbourhood Health Service, which will deliver more care in local communities and move away from a one-size-fits-all approach, giving people more power and choice over the care they receive.Work is currently underway to determine how care plans in the wider Neighbourhood Health Service will be delivered, including who will be best placed to coordinate and support delivery of care plans.

How many and what proportion of people had a personal health budget in each of the year since 2012.

The information is not available in the format requested, as national personal health budget data prior to 2019 is not held. The following table shows the uptake of personal health budgets in England by the end of Quarter 4 in each financial year from 2019/20 to 2024/25:2019/202020/212021/222022/232023/242024/2589,953Not available124,964175,859188,489182,360Source: NHS England Digital, available at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/personal-health-budgetsThe data under each financial year is cumulative in-year data, and for each financial year the figure shown is the number of people who had received a personal health budget in England by the end of Quarter 4.2019/20 only includes cumulative data up to Quarter 3 due to COVID-19. No cumulative data was published up to Quarter 4 2020/21 due to COVID-19.

Whether he has made a recent estimate of how many patients would benefit from a personal health budget.

No specific estimate has been made. The Fit for the Future: 10-Year Health Plan for England commits to giving people more choice and control over their care. We have committed to at least doubling the number of people offered a personal health budget by the 2028/29 financial year, and we will make personal health budgets a universal offer for all who would benefit from them by 2035.

Which community diagnostic centres are under construction.

170 community diagnostic centre (CDCs) sites are operational across England. 110 of these CDCs are described as ‘fully operational’. Of the remaining 60 CDCs, 39 are live and delivering activity on their permanent site but are still operating some services via temporary facilities, and 21 are delivering activity from a nearby temporary location whilst the permanent site is completing construction.£1.65 billion of capital funding has been made available in 2025/26 for secondary and emergency care, which includes £0.6 billion for investment in diagnostics. This includes funding to enable the completion of 2024/25 schemes. Funding will also support the National Health Service to expand existing CDCs and build up to five new CDCs as part of our Elective Reform Plan.

With reference to his Written Ministerial Statement of 22 May 2025 on NHS Workforce, HCWS663, which areas of spending have been reduced in order to fund these pay uplifts.

As the Written Ministerial Statement sets out, the Government has had to make difficult decisions to afford the pay award.Areas of spending where we have made, or plan to make, reductions include administration budgets, bank and agency spend, and the Department and NHS England’s central programmes, including communications and campaigns. Additionally, a change to the personal injury discount rate has also led to a reduction in the forecast for clinical negligence.