Written questions by Morgan.

Whether he plans to commission more adult vaccines from community pharmacy.

We are committed to increase vaccine uptake and improving access, including by exploring new and innovative delivery models to deliver vaccinations, as outlined in the 10-Year Health Plan for England.Community pharmacies already play a key role in delivering seasonal flu and COVID-19 vaccinations to adults, and we are exploring options to expand this offer to other vaccination programmes For example, in 2024, NHS England commissioned selected community pharmacies in the East of England to help deliver year-round respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccination programmes for pregnant women, to protect newborns, and adults aged between 75 and 79 years old. This is being expanded to support the maternal pertussis vaccination programme, and selected pharmacies in other regions have now also been commissioned to deliver these vaccines.Looking ahead, the 10-Year Health Plan sets out the Government’s ambition to expand the role of community pharmacy in prevention, including through the delivery of more National Health Service vaccination services. We will increase uptake of human papillomavirus vaccinations among younger adults who have left school including by making it available in pharmacies, supporting our aim to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040.

Pursuant to the Answer of 12 May to Question 50600 on Integrated Care Boards: Per Capita Costs and with reference to the NHS England publication entitled, Working together in 2025/26 to lay the foundations for reform, published on 1 April 2025, how many integrated care boards have signed-off plans that are affordable within the reduced running cost envelope.

Plans are still in development. NHS England is continuing to work closely with integrated care boards to support them in finalising plans that are deliverable within the reduced running cost envelope.

If he will take steps to establish mutual recognition schemes for dental qualifications with other countries.

The General Dental Council (GDC) is the independent regulator of dentistry in the United Kingdom. Only dentists and dental care professionals registered with the GDC can legally practise dentistry.As an independent regulator, it is for the GDC to determine the standards that must be met by domestic and international applicants wishing to be added to the dental register. Changes to the GDC’s legislation made in 2023 enable it to apply a range of assessment options in determining whether international dentist applicants have the necessary knowledge, skills, and experience for practice in the UK. This includes the ability to recognise overseas dentistry diplomas.The GDC is currently consulting on its 2026 to 2028 Corporate Strategy, in which it has stated that it will develop a comprehensive and accessible framework for registering overseas-qualified dental professionals, considering routes to registration in a holistic way. We will continue to encourage the GDC to make full use of the flexibilities that the 2023 legislation introduced when developing this framework.

Pursuant to the Answer of 12 June to Question 56902 on Integrated Care Boards: Redundancy, (a) how the costs of restructuring will be met and (b) when when the national redundancy scheme will be launched.

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we have been clear on the need for a smaller centre, as well as scaling back integrated care board running costs and National Health Service provider corporate costs reductions, 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. We are now carefully reviewing how the settlement is prioritised, including making provision for redundancy costs ahead of announcing further redundancy schemes.

If he will make an assessment of the adequacy of funding provided for social care in the Spending Review 2025, in the context of estimated demographic trends in the next three years.

The Government assessed the impact of the cost pressures facing adult social care as part of the wider consideration of local government spending within the Spending Review process in 2025. This assessment took account of a range of factors, including demographic pressures, that could affect the delivery of social care services.The Spending Review process allows for an increase of over £4 billion of funding available for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26. This includes additional grant funding, growth in other sources of income available to support adult social care, and an increase to the National Health Service contribution to adult social care via the Better Care Fund, in line with the Department’s Spending Review settlement.

What steps he is taking to increase the number of NHS dentists in North Shropshire.

The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the North Shropshire constituency, this is the NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB.ICBs have been asked to start making extra urgent dental appointments available from April 2025. The NHS Shropshire, Telford, and Wrekin ICB is expected to deliver 7,408 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.ICBs have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years. As of 6 June 2025, in England there were 93 dentists in post or appointed to post. A further 230 posts are currently being advertised.

If he will take steps with the General Dental Council to improve the registration process for dentists who qualified outside the UK.

The General Dental Council (GDC) is the independent regulator of dentistry in the United Kingdom. Only dentists and dental care professionals registered with the GDC can legally practise dentistry. As an independent regulator, it is for the GDC to determine the standards that must be met by domestic and international applicants wishing to be added to the dental register.Changes to the GDC’s legislation made in 2023 gave it greater flexibility to expand the registration routes for international applicants and improve its international registration processes, including additional flexibility in how it operates the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) and the ability to recognise overseas dentistry diplomas. New rules for the ORE made by the GDC under these reforms came into effect in March 2024.I have welcomed the additional sittings of both parts of the ORE that the GDC has put in place and its ongoing procurement of new ORE provider contracts. However, I recognise that there remains a considerable waiting list for candidates to sit the exam. I met with the GDC earlier in July 2025 and have asked it to urgently develop an action plan of concrete measures to reduce the ORE waiting list and will be regularly meeting with it to monitor progress with this plan.The GDC is currently consulting on its 2026-28 Corporate Strategy in which it has stated it will develop a comprehensive and accessible framework for registering overseas-qualified dental professionals, considering routes to registration in a holistic way. We will continue to encourage the GDC to make full use of the flexibilities that the 2023 legislation introduced when developing this framework.

How many NHS dental positions have been advertised under the NHS Golden Hello Scheme; and how many of those have been accepted, by (a) region and (b) month since February 2024.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.We do not hold monthly breakdowns on how many National Health Service dental positions have been advertised under the Golden Hello scheme, but as of 6 June 2025, 73 dentists are in post. A further 20 dentists have been recruited but are yet to start in post under this scheme, and a further 230 posts are currently being advertised. ICBs continue to work with practices in their area to support recruitment to these posts.

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the funding provided for local authority adult social care services in the Spending Review 2025.

The Government assessed the impact of the cost pressures facing adult social care as part of the wider consideration of local government spending within the Spending Review process in 2025. This assessment took account of a range of factors that could affect the delivery of social care services.The Spending Review allows for an increase of over £4 billion of funding for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26. This includes additional grant funding, growth in other sources of income available to support adult social care, and an increase to the National Health Service’s contribution to adult social care via the Better Care Fund, in line with the Department’s Spending Review settlement.

If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reforming the Overseas Registration Exam for dentists.

The General Dental Council (GDC) is the independent regulator of dentistry in the United Kingdom. Only dentists and dental care professionals registered with the GDC can legally practise dentistry. As an independent regulator, it is for the GDC to determine the standards that must be met by domestic and international applicants wishing to be added to the dental register.Changes to the GDC’s legislation made in 2023 gave it greater flexibility to expand the registration routes for international applicants and improve its international registration processes, including additional flexibility in how it operates the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) and the ability to recognise overseas dentistry diplomas. New rules for the ORE made by the GDC under these reforms came into effect in March 2024.I have welcomed the additional sittings of both parts of the ORE that the GDC has put in place and its ongoing procurement of new ORE provider contracts. However, I recognise that there remains a considerable waiting list for candidates to sit the exam. I met with the GDC earlier in July 2025 and have asked it to urgently develop an action plan of concrete measures to reduce the ORE waiting list and will be regularly meeting with it to monitor progress with this plan.The GDC is currently consulting on its 2026-28 Corporate Strategy in which it has stated it will develop a comprehensive and accessible framework for registering overseas-qualified dental professionals, considering routes to registration in a holistic way. We will continue to encourage the GDC to make full use of the flexibilities that the 2023 legislation introduced when developing this framework.

If he will make an estimate of the potential impact of mutual recognition schemes on the average time taken to recruit dentists from overseas.

The General Dental Council (GDC) is the independent regulator of dentistry in the United Kingdom. Only dentists and dental care professionals registered with the GDC can legally practise dentistry. As an independent regulator, it is for the GDC to determine the standards that must be met by domestic and international applicants wishing to be added to the dental register.Changes to the GDC’s legislation made in 2023 gave it greater flexibility to expand the registration routes for international applicants and improve its international registration processes, including additional flexibility in how it operates the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) and the ability to recognise overseas dentistry diplomas. New rules for the ORE made by the GDC under these reforms came into effect in March 2024.I have welcomed the additional sittings of both parts of the ORE that the GDC has put in place and its ongoing procurement of new ORE provider contracts. However, I recognise that there remains a considerable waiting list for candidates to sit the exam. I met with the GDC earlier in July 2025 and have asked it to urgently develop an action plan of concrete measures to reduce the ORE waiting list and will be regularly meeting with it to monitor progress with this plan.The GDC is currently consulting on its 2026-28 Corporate Strategy in which it has stated it will develop a comprehensive and accessible framework for registering overseas-qualified dental professionals, considering routes to registration in a holistic way. We will continue to encourage the GDC to make full use of the flexibilities that the 2023 legislation introduced when developing this framework.

If he will make an estimate of the cost to the NHS of patient transfers from ambulance to A&E taking longer than 15 minutes in each of the last five financial years.

No estimate is currently planned. The Government recognises the pressures on the National Health Service and the impact this is having on ambulance response times, including in Shropshire.We are determined to turn things around, and our 10-Year Health Plan will be published in the summer, setting out major NHS reforms to move healthcare from the hospital to the community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.The NHS Urgent and emergency care plan 2025/26, published on 6 June 2025, requires health systems to focus on those areas that are likely to have the biggest impact on urgent and emergency care services this year. The plan includes actions that will reduce category 2 ambulance response times to 30 minutes and reduce ambulance handovers to 45 minutes, helping to get 550,000 more ambulances back on the road.

How many hours each ambulance service has spent on hospital handovers in each of the last five financial years.

The following table shows the aggregate number of handover hours recorded by each ambulance service by year:TrustTotal handover time in hoursOctober to March 2023/24April to March 2024/25April to 25 May 2025/26East Midlands Ambulance Service153,860305,71743,598East of England Ambulance Service143,789272,83637,300Isle of Wight Ambulance Service2,6726,692819London Ambulance Service129,007274,02147,281North East Ambulance Service39,28083,99513,293North West Ambulance Service144,460336,57949,600South Central Ambulance Service82,926143,50918,152South East Coast Ambulance Service67,139132,97421,046South Western Ambulance Service267,813436,01963,329West Midlands Ambulance Service225,806506,41487,221Yorkshire Ambulance Service123,836245,67531,920Source: the Ambulance Quality Indicators dataset, with further information available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/Note: Data is unavailable prior to October 2023.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of ambulance handover times on the number of paramedics employed by West Midlands Ambulance Service.

No specific assessment has been made for West Midlands Ambulance Service Trust. It is for local ambulance trusts and their commissioners to take decisions on staff resourcing to meet local patient demand.However, we recognise the impact that handover delays have on ambulance resourcing, which is why the Urgent and emergency care plan 2025/26, published on 6 June 2025, sets out specific actions to tackle ambulance handover delays by meeting the maximum 45-minute ambulance handover time standard. This will help to get 550,000 more ambulances back on the road for patients. The plan is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/urgent-and-emergency-care-plan-2025-26/

What steps he is taking to reduce ambulance handover delays at hospitals in Shropshire.

The Government recognises the pressures on the National Health Service and the impact this is having on ambulance response times, including in Shropshire.We are determined to turn things around, and our 10-Year Health Plan will be published in the summer, setting out major NHS reforms to move healthcare from the hospital to the community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.The Urgent and emergency care plan 2025/26, published on 6 June 2025, requires health systems to focus on those areas that are likely to have the biggest impact on urgent and emergency care services this year. The plan includes actions that will reduce ambulance handovers to 45 minutes, helping to get 550,000 more ambulances back on the road. The plan is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/urgent-and-emergency-care-plan-2025-26/

How many foundation pharmacist training places have a named designated prescribing practitioner confirmed in the ORIEL recruitment system in 2025.

All training posts in the National Recruitment Scheme for the 2025/26 training year were required to declare that they would provide access to a Designated Prescribing Practitioner (DPP) for prescribing supervision as part of their agreement to the Terms of Participation.NHS England requires that DPP information is submitted within 13 weeks of the trainee pharmacist starting in post. Trainee pharmacists will start in post from July 2025. NHS England is therefore, currently in the process of contacting training sites and requesting details of all supervisors, including Designated Supervisors and DPPs.It should be noted that only the training sites hosting trainee pharmacists that have graduated from a Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) degree against the 2021 learning outcomes are required to have a DPP. Those who have completed an MPharm which meets the previous (2011) standards for education and training or are studying on an Overseas Pharmacists Assessment Programme course, must take a separate accredited independent prescribing course.

What assessment he made of the correlation between BMI levels and referrals for joint replacement surgery.

Cutting waiting lists is a key priority for the Government. We have committed to achieving the NHS Constitutional standard that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment by March 2029, including patients waiting for joint replacement surgery.We also want to improve patients’ experience while waiting, to ensure their experience of planned National Health Service care is as supportive and convenient as possible. In our Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, we committed to giving patients more choice and control, including choice of their provider, and whether they want routine follow up appointments. We are upgrading the NHS app, so patients can book and rearrange appointments, choose which hospital to be treated at, receive test results, and choose if they want to be seen in person or remotely. We will also work with patients and carers to establish minimum standards for experience.The My Planned Care app gives people advice and support while they wait and helps them to prepare for their hospital consultation, treatment, or surgery. This includes giving people information about waiting times at their hospital and other supporting and local services. There has been no formal assessment on the correlation between body mass index levels and referrals for joint replacement surgery.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of surgical hubs on (a) waiting times for (i) trauma and (ii) orthopaedic treatment and (b) equity in access to treatment.

No formal assessment has been specifically made on the potential impact of surgical hubs on clinical speciality waiting times or equity in access to treatment.A mixed methods evaluation of the surgical hub programme is currently underway, led by the University of York, and is expected to complete in 2027.Surgical hubs transform the way the National Health Service provides elective care by focusing on providing high volume low complexity surgery, as recommended by the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Hubs separate elective care facilities from urgent and emergency care, improving outcomes for patients and reducing pressures on hospitals.

What steps he is taking to help support people waiting for joint replacement surgery.

Cutting waiting lists is a key priority for the Government. We have committed to achieving the NHS Constitutional standard that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment by March 2029, including patients waiting for joint replacement surgery.We also want to improve patients’ experience while waiting, to ensure their experience of planned National Health Service care is as supportive and convenient as possible. In our Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, we committed to giving patients more choice and control, including choice of their provider, and whether they want routine follow up appointments. We are upgrading the NHS app, so patients can book and rearrange appointments, choose which hospital to be treated at, receive test results, and choose if they want to be seen in person or remotely. We will also work with patients and carers to establish minimum standards for experience.The My Planned Care app gives people advice and support while they wait and helps them to prepare for their hospital consultation, treatment, or surgery. This includes giving people information about waiting times at their hospital and other supporting and local services. There has been no formal assessment on the correlation between body mass index levels and referrals for joint replacement surgery.

If he will publish quarterly reports on the steps he has taken to meet targets set out in the Elective Reform Plan.

There are no formal plans to publish quarterly reports on the steps taken to meet targets set out in the Elective Reform Plan.The Department is committed to ensuring that 92% of patients return to waiting no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment by March 2029 and that 65% of patients wait for 18 weeks or less by March 2026. The Department and NHS England regularly monitor progress against these targets.Monthly statistics on the size of the elective waiting list and performance against the 18-week target is published and available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/