Written questions by Maguire.

How many and what proportion of people admitted to hospital in (a) England and (b) Surrey were aged between (i) 30- 39 and (ii) 40 and 49, (iii) 50 and 59 in the past year.

NHS England does not publish hospital admissions broken down by age. Instead, it publishes numbers of ‘Finished Consultant Episodes’ (FCEs) which means a completed hospital treatment session under a consultant. This data is available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/hospital-admitted-patient-care-activity/2024-25NHS England publishes data by financial year, meaning the most recent available dataset relates to 2024/25. The following table shows the number and proportion of FCEs by age for patients aged 30 to 39 years old, 40 to 49 years old, and 50 to 59 years old in England in 2024/25:AgeFCEsPercentage of total FCEs30 to 392,224,5319.9%40 to 491,823,6608.1%50 to 592,609,20711.6% The information is collected at integrated care board (ICB) level, not by county. In addition, the following table shows the number and proportion of FCEs by age for patients aged 30 to 39 years old, 40 to 49 years old, and 50 to 59 years old in the NHS Frimley ICB and the NHS Surrey Heartlands ICB, both of which are within Surrey, in 2024/25: NHS Frimley ICBNHS Surrey Heartlands ICBAgeFCEsPercentage of total FCEsFCEsPercentage of total FCEs30 to 3924,03010.3%39,66510.0%40 to 4919,5858.4%32,7158.3%50 to 5926,76511.5%44,30511.2%

If he will set a definition of corridor care.

The provision of clinical care in corridors is unacceptable, and we are committed to ending its practice in the National Health Service. Furthermore, our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 commits to publishing data on the prevalence of corridor care for the first time.A definition of corridor care is being agreed and will be published once finalised. NHS England has been working with trusts to put in place new reporting arrangements regarding the use of corridor care to drive improvement and data transparency. The data quality is currently being reviewed, and we expect to publish the information shortly.We are also introducing new clinical operational standards for the first 72 hours of care, setting clear expectations for timely reviews and specialist input, further supporting our efforts to eliminate corridor care and improve patient experience.

What steps his Department is taking to regulate food preservatives associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cancer.

All food additives used in the United Kingdom, including preservatives, are subject to rigorous safety assessments before they are authorised for use. These assessments consider the intended purpose, the types of foods they may be added to, and maximum permitted levels to ensure consumer safety.The permitted levels are established in line with the latest scientific evidence to protect health, and there is no conclusive evidence that approved preservatives, when used within these limits, increase the risk of type 2 diabetes or cancer.The Food Standards Agency is responsible for food safety in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and regularly reviews emerging evidence, taking action if new risks are identified.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of pharmaceutical prices on clinical outcomes.

The National Health Service has a finite budget, and it is vital that it is allocated in a way that maximises benefits for all patients. The prices that companies charge for their medicines are an important consideration in determining whether they should be routinely funded by the NHS. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that makes recommendations for the NHS on whether new medicines should be routinely funded based on an assessment of their costs, including the price that the company sets, and the clinical benefits that they bring to patients. In developing its recommendations, NICE evaluates medicines against a threshold that is used in determining whether a specified product is a clinically and a cost-effective use of the health budget compared to other potential uses of that budget.The recently announced increase to the cost-effectiveness threshold will, alongside measures announced in the Life Sciences Sector Plan, increase both the speed and breadth of patient access to innovative medicines and encourage growth in United Kingdom based clinical trials.

With reference to NHS England's 2023/34 Priorities and Operational Planning Guidance, updated on 27 January 2024, what steps he is taking to ensure ICBs increase (a) direct access and (b) self -referral to audiology services.

As part of our effort to shift care from hospital to home, the Government wants to support people to live independently in the community. We pledged in the 10-Year Health Plan, published in July 2025, that through the NHS App, patients will be able to book appointments, communicate with professionals, receive advice, draft or view their care plan, and self-refer to local tests and services.The current availability of self-referral and direct access to audiology services depends on local commissioning arrangements and service protocols, including integrated care board (ICB) commissioning. Currently, self-referral to audiology services is usually for those with age related hearing loss.NHS England is working with ICBs to support greater standardisation of self-referral arrangements, to assess opportunities to bring more of the self-referral process into the NHS App and website in future, where appropriate.

What steps he is taking to expand access to community-based NHS hearing health services.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) have a statutory responsibility to commission cost-effective healthcare to meet the needs of their local population, and this includes community-based hearing services.The Medium-Term Planning Framework sets a clear target for systems to work to in order to reduce long waits for community health services, and this includes community audiology services. By 2028/29, at least 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks. In addition, Standardising Community Health Services sets out an overview of core community health services that ICBs should consider when planning for their local populations to support improved commissioning and delivery of community health services, including community-based hearing services.

If his Department will release national messaging for patients on the difference between routine and urgent core-hours requirements for GPs.

As part of the 2025/26 GP Contract, NHS England published You and Your General Practice (YYGP) guidance. YYGP has been developed to help patients understand what to expect from their general practice (GP) and how they can get the best from their GP team. The guidance is based on the contractual requirements that all contractors providing essential GP services must meet and is intended to make patients more informed and to increase practice accountability to patients, with the aim of improving services and patient engagement.GPs are required to provide a link on their website to the NHS England YYGP document, which can also be found here on the NHS England website at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/you-and-your-general-practice/The guidance will remain under review and will continue to be updated to reflect changes made to GP contracts.Anyone who requires treatment that a GP or healthcare professional regards as an emergency, or as immediately necessary, should be provided that treatment free of charge, regardless of whether they are registered with a GP.There is no set list on what treatment a GP should provide in an emergency, as it is up to the GP’s clinical judgement to decide the correct treatment at the time.

What steps his Department is taking to support suppliers with extended GP online consultation hours.

General practices (GPs) have been required to offer and promote an online consultation tool to their registered patients since 2021. The change introduced in October 2025 regarding online access explicitly requires that all modes of contacting the practice are available at least during core hours, from 08:00 to 18:30. This means parity for walk-in, phone, and online access. This requirement builds on policies that have been in place for several years to encourage the shift to modern GPs.To support suppliers, NHS England sets clear functionality and accessibility standards for digital tools used in primary care. These standards enable suppliers to develop consistent and high-quality digital solutions, including online consultation tools.The recent online access requirement mainly impacts practices rather than suppliers, as it focuses on ensuring existing online consultation tools remain available during core hours rather than introducing new tools. NHS England provided extensive support to practices in the lead up to the introduction of these requirements and continues to do so. This includes reaching out to any practices that are struggling to help them to prepare, including providing guidance, webinars, case studies, and bringing in GPs and practice staff who are experts in service redesign and improvement in GP services.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of commissioning a national framework mandating ICBs to commission NHS community audiology services on a self-referral basis that include wax removal.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) have a statutory responsibility to commission cost-effective healthcare to meet the needs of their local population. This includes the arrangement of services for ear wax removal.The current availability of self-referral and direct access to audiology services depends on local commissioning arrangements and service protocols, including ICB commissioning. Currently, self-referral to audiology services is usually for those with age related hearing loss.NHS England is working with ICBs to support greater standardisation of self-referral arrangements and to assess opportunities to bring more of the self-referral process into the NHS App and website in future where appropriate.

If he will provide an update on the renewal of the Women’s Health Strategy and confirm if there will be an opportunity for organisations to contribute to the updated strategy.

Publishing a renewed Women’s Health Strategy next year will ensure the momentum from our recent achievements continues and is fully aligned with the 10-Year Health Plan. We will identify and remove enduring barriers to high-quality care, such as decreasing wait times for diagnosis and ensuring professionals listen to women and respond to their needs.We are currently engaging with external partners to inform the renewal of the strategy, bringing together voices from across Government, NHS England, public health, mental health, women’s health advocacy, and employment policy alongside women with lived experience of women’s health conditions.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of creating a permanent and protected ICB role for the appointed Women’s Health Champion in every Integrated Care System.

Integrated care boards are responsible for the planning, commissioning, and delivery of women’s health services, including oversight of the dedicated Women’s Health Champion role.The network of women’s health champions brings together senior leaders in women’s health from integrated care systems and local authorities to share best practice to improve women’s health outcomes across the life course and reduce health inequalities. The role is a voluntary commitment, and the Government has no plans to change this.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of embedding routine and cross-system commissioning and provision of post-pregnancy contraception in post-partum care.

No assessment has been made. The renewed Women’s Health Strategy will set out how the Government will take the next steps to improve women's healthcare as part of the 10-Year Health Plan and create a system that listens to women. Steps to improve contraception access are being fully considered as part of the renewal.

What the unit cost per day is for NHS (a) elective, (b) non-elective, (c) high dependency and (d) standard ward beds.

The following table shows the bed day cost for elective and non-elective admissions, for 2024/25:Financial yearQuestionPoint of delivery descriptionBed day cost2024/25ElectiveElective Inpatient£1,1982024/25Non electiveNon Elective Long Stay£7912024/25Non electiveNon Elective Short Stay£806Source: National Cost Collection Patient Level Cost dataset for admitted patient care. Point of delivery, cost and length of stay data submitted to the dataset by National Health Service providers in the latest financial year, 2024/25.NHS England does not hold the data to calculate the bed day cost for high dependency and standard ward beds.

What assessment his Department has made of making patient records owned by the patient.

Health records are not owned by patients, as the providers of care who create and maintain the records are the data controllers, although all patients have the right to access their records under the Data Protection Act 2018. Patients also have the legal right to ask for factual inaccuracies to be amended.The general practice (GP) record can be viewed online on the NHS App, or by logging onto the National Health Service website. Individuals can alternatively contact their practice to view their record. To view a hospital record, individuals can ask the trust where they are a patient.As part of the 10-Year Health Plan, we are developing a single patient record which will give patients greater control over their records, and act as a patient passport to seamless care. It will provide a single, secure, and authoritative account of their data by bringing together all of a patient’s medical information from different records in one place, for example GP and hospital data, and patients will be able to view the record securely on the NHS App and add their own data, for example from a wearable device.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure the NHS, ICBs and local authorities collaboratively commission women’s health and contraceptive services.

Local integrated care systems are responsible for the collaborative commissioning of women’s health and contraceptive services.The Women’s Health Programme Board provides direction and strategic oversight to NHS England’s Women’s Health Programme.The board monitors progress and delivery of the Women’s Health Programme, and delivers the ambitions of the Women’s Health Strategy, reflecting the vision to improve health outcomes, reduce disparities, and amplify women’s voices in healthcare.The board is also responsible for ensuring alignment with wider interdependencies, including the 10-Year Health Plan, and neighbourhood health models, as well as ensuring the delivery, oversight, and performance management of women’s health provision are consistent across the seven regions of England.

What steps his Department is taking to improve the discharge process for patients in Surrey who are medically fit to leave hospital.

The Urgent and Emergency Care plan for 2025/26 identifies reducing delays in hospital discharge as a key priority. Further information on the Urgent and Emergency Care plan for 2025/26 is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/urgent-and-emergency-care-plan-2025-26/Hospitals are expected to eliminate discharge delays of more than 48 hours caused by in-hospital issues, to work with local authorities to tackle the longest delays, starting with those over 21 days, and to profile discharges by pathway to support local planning. In addition to this, we published a new policy framework on 30 January 2025 for the £9 billion Better Care Fund policy framework 2025 to 2026, which requires the National Health Service and local authorities to jointly agree local goals for reducing discharge delays. Further information on the Better Care Fund policy framework 2025 to 2026 is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/better-care-fund-policy-framework-2025-to-2026We are working with trusts, integrated care systems, and local authorities to share and embed best practice and to help them to use performance data more effectively to address their discharge delays. The Local Government Association has published a range of guidance documents and high impact change models to support improvements to hospital flow and discharge processes, which can be found at the following link:https://www.local.gov.uk/our-support/partners-care-and-health/better-care-fund-support-programme-2025-26Officials held a call on 18 July 2025 with the Epsom and St. Helier Trust regarding the trust’s discharge challenges and proposed actions to improve the situation.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential implications for its policies of the Adult Oral Health survey published on 9 December 2025.

The Adult Oral Health Survey 2023 provides the first picture of adult oral health in England for more than a decade. It provides further evidence of the need for dental contract reform.We are taking forward significant changes to the National Health Service dental contract. The reforms will prioritise patients with urgent dental needs and those requiring complex treatments, and will come in from April 2026. We are committed to fundamental reform of the NHS dental contract by the end of this Parliament, with a focus on improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly.The Government is also focussed on prevention of poor dental health through our supervised toothbrushing programme to reach up to 600,000 children in the 20% most deprived areas of England, and by expanding community water fluoridation to the North East of England. This intervention will reach an additional 1.6 million people and will reduce tooth decay and inequalities in dental health, particularly in children and vulnerable adults.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of implementing a mandatory care marker for care workers on their GP record.

The Department has not undertaken a formal assessment of introducing a mandatory care marker for those employed as care workers on general practice records. Any request for new coding would need to consider the purpose and proportionality of the introduction for employed care staff, and the impact on general practice.There are existing SNOMED, the structured clinical vocabulary for use in an electronic health record, and clinical term codes which can be used to indicate a person’s unpaid caring role on their health record.

What steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of adults with tooth decay.

The Government is proceeding with the reforms to the National Health Service dental contract. These will be introduced from April 2026 so that patients with gum disease or tooth decay will be better able to get long-term treatment through new clinical treatment pathways. Further information is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/nhs-dentistry-contract-quality-and-payment-reformsWe are also committed to fundamental reform of the NHS dental contract by the end of this Parliament, with a focus on improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly.Sugar consumption is the main cause of tooth decay. We are taking measures to reduce sugar consumption, which will have a positive effect on improving children’s oral health. Following the Strengthening the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) consultation, we will reduce the current lower threshold at which the SDIL applies from five grams of total sugar per 100 millilitres to 4.5 grams of total sugar per 100 millilitres and will remove the current exemption for milk-based drinks.We are expanding community water fluoridation to the North East of England. This intervention is expected to reach an additional 1.6 million people and will reduce tooth decay and inequalities in dental health.We have published guidance on how dental health professionals can improve the oral and general health of their patients, including preventative interventions. This can be viewed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/delivering-better-oral-health-an-evidence-based-toolkit-for-preventionGuidance for local service commissioners on better oral health of vulnerable older people is also available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/commissioning-better-oral-health-for-vulnerable-older-people

What steps his Department is taking to ensure annual statutory reviews for people in care are undertaken.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities must keep care and support plans under review, respond to reasonable requests for review, and update plans when circumstances change, involving the individual drawing on care and support, and their carer, if applicable, throughout.Local authorities should establish systems that allow the proportionate monitoring of both care and support plans to ensure that needs are continuing to be met. In the absence of any request of a review, or any indication that circumstances may have changed, the local authority should conduct a periodic review of the plan. It is the expectation that local authorities should conduct a review of the plan no later than every 12 months after the plan is first agreed or last reviewed.The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is assessing how local authorities in England are meeting the full range of their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, including how local authorities assess the needs of individuals who draw on care and support. The assessments identify local authorities’ strengths and areas for improvement, facilitating the sharing of good practice and helping us to target support where it is most needed. If the CQC identifies that a local authority has failed or is failing to discharge its duties under the Care Act to an acceptable standard, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has powers to intervene. Reports are made available on the CQC’s website, at the following link:www.cqc.org.uk/care-services/local-authority-assessment-reports