Written questions by Platt.

What steps his Department is taking to help ensure doctors and hospital staff receive adequate training and up‑to‑date awareness on Long-COVID and related post‑viral conditions.

Awaiting answer.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that primary and secondary care services have the capacity and expertise to meet demand for Long COVID assessment and treatment.

Awaiting answer.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure ICBs standardise Long COVID care across regions.

Awaiting answer.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of expanded Integrated Retirement Community provision on NHS and social care expenditure.

We recognise the important role integrated retirement communities play in providing high quality, safe, and suitable homes which can help people stay independent and healthy for longer and reduce the need to draw on health and social care provision.The Government has not made a formal assessment on the impact of integrated retirement community provision on National Health Service and social care expenditure, but we are committed to enhancing provision and choice in the housing market for older people.

If he will consider a nationally defined prescribing pathway for ADHD within Right to Choose services.

Building on the work of the independent ADHD Taskforce, on 4 December 2025 my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, announced an independent review into the prevalence and support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and autism, which will inform our approach to ensuring appropriate support is in place.The independent review published an interim report on the 31 March 2026 which sets out key findings from the data and evidence reviewed so far, learning to date from discussions with people, including people with lived experience, and organisations as well as setting out plans for the next phase of the review and the key questions to address in more detail.The Department has made no specific assessment of the effectiveness of shared care agreements with independent sector providers for patients prescribed ADHD medication or held discussions with General Medical Council on their guidance.

To outline what interim arrangements will be put in place to ensure care and support for people with very severe ME, following the decision to pause development of a national specialist service for this group.

The Government published the ME/CFS Final Delivery Plan in July 2025, which is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mecfs-the-final-delivery-planThe plan focuses on three main areas to improve care and support for those with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), boosting research, improving attitudes and education, and bettering the lives of people with this debilitating disease. It also sets out a series of actions, which will help address the key challenges and drive forward improvements to outcomes and quality of life for people living with ME/CFS in England.The Department worked closely with ME/CFS patients, carers, clinicians, charities, research funders and researchers throughout the development of the plan. This engagement has helped to shape new and more ambitious actions that deliver meaningful change for the ME/CFS community.Due to transformation in NHS England, the decision has been made to delay the action to review a case for a specialised service commission until April 2027. Until this time, integrated care boards (ICBs) should continue to commission appropriate services for patients with very severe ME/CFS as needed. ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of services for all severity levels of ME/CFS. NHS England and the Department are developing a new template service specification for mild and moderate ME/CFS which will include reference to severe and very severe ME/CFS. Officials, alongside stakeholders, are considering interim measures to support people with very severe ME/CFS.The Department and NHS England will continue to work with stakeholders across and beyond government and the NHS to progress the agreed actions set out in the plan and to ensure the best possible care for people with ME/CFS.

What action the Department is taking to [a] raise awareness, [b] improve support, and [c] tackle women's heart health.

The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health as we fix the National Health Service and tackling women’s heart health will be key aspect of our mission.To accelerate progress on the Government’s ambition to reduce premature deaths from heart disease and stroke by 25% within a decade, we will publish a Cardiovascular Disease Modern Service Framework (CVD MSF) later this year. The Department and NHS England are engaging widely with stakeholders to co-produce the CVD MSF, ensuring that experts, people and communities are at the heart of its development.The renewed Women’s Health Strategy will update on the delivery of the 2022 Strategy and set out how the Government is taking further steps to improve women’s health, including action regarding CVD, as we deliver the 10-Year Health Plan.Alongside this, since January, the Government has run the Healthy Choices Quiz campaign which supports women to prioritise health improvements and take proactive action on a range of behaviours, many of which support heart health.Furthermore, work to improve access to the NHS Health Check programme, a core component of England’s CVD prevention programme, is ongoing. The programme prevents around 500 heart attacks or strokes annually and every year, around 770,000 women complete an NHS Health Check. The Department is currently piloting the NHS Health Check Online service in local authorities across England, which will allow women to undertake their health check at home, at a time and place convenient to them.

If his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of including cardiovascular disease in the Government's Women's Health Strategy.

The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health as we reform the National Health Service, and women’s equality will be at the heart of our mission. We know that women deserve better, which is why we are delivering our commitment that women’s health will never be neglected again. Strong progress has already been made in turning the commitments in the 2022 Women's Health Strategy into tangible action.The renewed strategy will update on the delivery of the 2022 Women’s Health Strategy and set out how the Government is taking further steps to improve women’s health as we deliver the 10-Year Health Plan. It will also address gaps from the 2022 strategy and drive further change on enduring challenges such as creating a system that listens to women, and that tackles health inequalities. We are currently considering evidence from experts to inform the contents of the renewed strategy.

What steps his Department is taking to improve support housing-with-care for older people.

The Government is committed to enhancing provision and choice for older people in the housing market. The Department of Health and Social Care continues to work closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to consider the recommendations from the Older People’s Housing Taskforce report.Both departments are also working together on the development of the Government’s forthcoming long-term housing strategy.More broadly, at the Spending Review, the Government announced £39 billion for a new Social and Affordable Homes Programme over ten years from 2026/27 to 2035/36. The programme has been designed to be flexible to support the greater diversity of supply needed in the housing market, including supported housing for older people.

If the Department can outline the length and mechanism for delivery of the new mandatory safeguarding learning programme for the NHS workforce.

Mandatory safeguarding training in NHS England is a strict, contractual obligation for all staff. The current Statutory and Mandatory Training e-learning programme has been developed to align with the UK Core Skills Training Framework which sets out 11 statutory and mandatory training topics for all staff working in health and social care settings.NHS England is collaborating with national and local subject matter experts to create a new approach and some revised content to the mandatory and statutory learning for all National Health Service staff, which includes all statutory safeguarding duties and programs for NHS Providers. We expect this to be rolled out to the NHS later this year.

If his Department will consider Tourette's in its Independent Review into Mental Health Conditions, ADHD and Autism.

This review focuses on mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism. Tourette’s is a neurological disorder and therefore it will be at the Chair's discretion as to how far the review considers Tourette's with this in mind.

In response to Question tabled on 15 December 2025, UIN 99871, if the Government can outline what steps are being taken to ensure the needs of people with severe Myalgic Encephalomyelitis are adequacy met.

The final delivery plan on myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), published in July 2025, includes an action for the Department and NHS England to explore whether a specialised service should be prescribed by my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for severe ME/CFS. Officials from the Department have commenced discussions with NHS England on how best to take forward this action.The third and final session in NHS England’s newly-developed ME/CFS e-learning series, Managing Severe ME/CFS, is now live on the NHS Learning Hub. This session provides practical, evidence-based guidance for healthcare professionals to support people living with severe and very severe ME/CFS.Additionally, as set out in the Plan for Change, we are committed to returning to the NHS constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029. We exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra two million appointments, tests, and operations in our first year of government, having delivered 5.2 million additional appointments between July 2024 and June 2025. This will help people with severe ME/CFS to get support sooner.The 10-Year Health Plan sets out a transformed vision for elective care by 2035, where most interactions no longer take place in a hospital building, instead happening virtually or via neighbourhood services. We will empower patients by giving them greater choice and control and establishing expected standards for making their experience of planned NHS care as smooth, supportive and convenient as possible, including for people with severe ME/CFS.

What plans his Department has to ensure that the needs of patients with severe and very severe Myalgic Encephalomyelitis are fully addressed within future NHS service provision.

Most of the actions included in the final delivery plan on myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), which we published in July, will benefit all patients with ME/CFS, irrespective of condition severity. However, we are taking specific steps to ensure that patients with severe and very severe ME/CFS are not overlooked. For instance, the ME/CFS final delivery plan includes an action for the Department and NHS England to explore whether a specialised service should be prescribed by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for very severe ME/CFS. Officials from the Department have commenced discussions with NHS England on how best to take forward this action.To support healthcare professionals in the diagnosis and management of ME/CFS, the Department has worked with NHS England to develop an e-learning programme on ME/CFS for healthcare professionals, with the aim of supporting staff to be able to provide better care and improve patient outcomes. All three sessions of the e-learning programme are now available at the following link:https://learninghub.nhs.uk/catalogue/mecfselearning?nodeId=7288The 10-Year Health Plan for the National Health Service also sets out a plan to shift healthcare from hospitals to the community, enabling people to feel supported managing their long-term conditions, including ME/CFS, closer to home. The Neighbourhood Health Service, delivered by new multidisciplinary teams of professionals, will support more services being delivered in the community, helping to create capacity within secondary services for those patients that need it. This will aim to help ensure that those who suffer from ME/CFS are able to live as independently as possible.

What assessment he has made of the implications for his Department’s policies of the reports by the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

The Government welcomes the inquiry’s investigations, including the recent Module 2 report. The Government thanks Baroness Hallett and her team for their thorough work on these serious issues. We will consider the findings and recommendations in detail and respond in due course. The Government remains committed to learning the lessons needed from the COVID-19 Inquiry to protect and prepare us for the future.The Government will also provide regular progress updates on commitments made following reports. The first progress update, on the Inquiry’s Module 1 report on resilience and preparedness, was published 8 July 2025, and is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-government-response-to-the-covid-19-inquiry-module-1-report/uk-government-uk-covid-19-inquiry-response-module-1-implementation-updateIt included an update on the Department’s commitments, such as the intention to publish a health and care pandemic preparedness strategy. The next update is scheduled for January 2026.

What steps he is taking to ensure that the findings and recommendations of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry are incorporated into future pandemic planning and preparedness exercises.

Ensuring the United Kingdom is prepared for a future pandemic is a top priority for the Government, and we are embedding lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic within our pandemic preparedness. We aim to have flexible, adaptable, and scalable capabilities that can respond to any infectious disease or other threat, along all routes of transmission, rather than relying on plans for specific threats.The Government is committed to learning the lessons from the United Kingdom COVID-19 Inquiry to protect and prepare us for the future. On 16 January 2025, the Government published its response to the inquiry’s module one report on resilience and preparedness. The Department has committed, as part of this response, to publishing a new pandemic preparedness strategy that will show how we are embedding our new approach to pandemic preparedness. The response is published online and is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-government-response-to-the-covid-19-inquiry-module-1-report/uk-government-response-to-the-covid-19-inquiry-module-1-report-htmlIn Autumn 2025, the Department and the UK Health Security Agency conducted Exercise PEGASUS, a national exercise on the UK’s preparedness for a pandemic, which concluded live participation on 5 November. It aimed to test our ability to respond to a pandemic, involving all regions and nations of the UK, as well as thousands of participants. The exercise has provided valuable experience which is being used to inform our strategy and planning.Exercises like this are an essential and valuable tool to test our preparedness, capabilities, and response arrangements in the context of a pandemic. Future domestic and international exercises to test our preparedness and defences to biological threats, including pandemics, should factor in findings and lessons from a variety of sources to inform their design. This was an important part of the design of Exercise PEGASUS, the tier one pandemic preparedness exercise, where a variety of lessons, including from previous pandemic exercises such as Exercise CYGNUS, as well as recommendations from the COVID-19 Inquiry, were factored into the exercise’s design and planning.

What discussions his Department has had since the publication of the Final Delivery Plan for ME/CFS regarding the commissioning of a specialised service for people with very severe ME/CFS.

Our ME/CFS Final Delivery Plan, published in July 2025, includes an action for the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to explore whether a specialised service should be prescribed by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for very severe myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).The third and final session in NHS England’s ME/CFS e-learning series, Managing Severe ME/CFS, is now live on the NHS Learning Hub. This session provides practical, evidence-based guidance to support people living with severe and very severe ME/CFS, and has universal access. There is also an additional version of this module, which is only available to healthcare professionals, and includes clinical guidance on severe and very severe ME/CFS.NHS England has already started its work on co-designing resources, including a ‘template service specification’ for mild/moderate ME/CFS services, to support systems to improve services for mild and moderate ME/CFS. NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care have met with a group of key stakeholders to move this work on. This template will now include reference to severe ME/CFS.

If the Department can outline how many NHS outpatient services for ME/CFS are currently operational in England, and how many of these accept referrals for patients with severe or very severe ME/CFS.

Our ME/CFS Final Delivery Plan, published in July 2025, includes an action for the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to explore whether a specialised service should be prescribed by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for very severe myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).The third and final session in NHS England’s ME/CFS e-learning series, Managing Severe ME/CFS, is now live on the NHS Learning Hub. This session provides practical, evidence-based guidance to support people living with severe and very severe ME/CFS, and has universal access. There is also an additional version of this module, which is only available to healthcare professionals, and includes clinical guidance on severe and very severe ME/CFS.NHS England has already started its work on co-designing resources, including a ‘template service specification’ for mild/moderate ME/CFS services, to support systems to improve services for mild and moderate ME/CFS. NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care have met with a group of key stakeholders to move this work on. This template will now include reference to severe ME/CFS.

What steps his Department is taking to clear the backlog for the Overseas Registration Exam.

The General Dental Council (GDC), as the independent regulator of dentists and dental care professionals in the United Kingdom, is responsible for overseeing provision of the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE).The GDC shortly expects to be able to announce the outcome of its procurement for a new provider to deliver the ORE from April 2026.Once the new exam provider has been announced, the GDC will meet with me to present its action plan to reduce the waiting list for the ORE. This meeting will take place in the coming weeks. I will continue to meet regularly with the GDC to monitor and review progress as its plan is implemented.

What steps his Department is taking to support Integrated Care Boards to use flexible commissioning to improve (a) dental provision and (b) efficiency.

Flexible commissioning is available to commissioners where they have identified a need that cannot be easily met through the provision of mandatory services.It is the responsibility of integrated care boards to commission primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local populations, and to determine the priorities for investment. Commissioners are encouraged to work with local dental network chairs, managed clinical network chairs, dental public health experts, professional representatives, and with the public as appropriate and necessary to discharge statutory duties. NHS England published guidance on flexible commissioning in 2023, which is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/opportunities-for-flexible-commissioning-in-primary-care-dentistry-a-framework-for-commissioners/

What steps his Department is taking to ensure Integrated Care Boards maintain timely ADHD (a) assessment and (b) diagnosis services.

The Government has recognised that, nationally in England, demand for assessments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has grown significantly in recent years and that people are experiencing severe delays accessing such assessments. The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan for England will make the National Health Service fit for the future, recognising the need for early intervention and support.It is the responsibility of the integrated care boards (ICBs) in England to make appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including providing access to ADHD assessment and treatment, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.NHS England established an ADHD taskforce which brought together those with lived experience with experts from the NHS, education, charity, and justice sectors to get a better understanding of the challenges affecting those with ADHD, including in accessing services and support. An interim report was published on 20 June, with the final report expected in the coming weeks. We will carefully consider its recommendations.