Written questions by Hayes.

What steps he is taking to fund provisions for addiction support services in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) other rural areas.

In addition to the Public Health Grant, the Department provides funding to support drug and alcohol services. In 2024/25 a total of £3,620,918 was allocated to Lincolnshire. This included £2,090,974 for the Supplementary Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery grant, £576,326 for the Housing Support Grant, £624,808 for the Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment Grant, £121,398 for the Inpatient Detoxification Grant, and £207,412 for the Individual Placement and Support Grant, for employment support. Future targeted funding for drug and alcohol treatment services beyond 2025 will be announced shortly.Drug and alcohol use is challenging in any community, including in rural areas, where ensuring easy access to treatment and support can be more of a challenge. Local authorities are responsible for commissioning drug and alcohol treatment services, by assessing the local need for treatment and commissioning a range of services and interventions to meet that need.The Government is providing £70 million of additional funding for local authority-led Stop Smoking Services in England in 2024/25, building on existing funding made available via the Public Health Grant. The Government will also provide a further £70 million of funding for Stop Smoking Services in 2025/26. Allocations of additional funding for Stop Smoking Services are based on the number and proportion of smokers in each local authority. Lincolnshire will be allocated £1,140,181 for 2025/26.In April, the Government will introduce a new statutory levy on gambling operators, providing up to £100 million each year to fund the research, prevention, and treatment of gambling-related harms across Great Britain.

If he will take steps to increase access to PSA tests for the early diagnosis of prostate cancer for men in rural areas.

NHS England and the integrated care boards are responsible for ensuring healthcare needs of local communities are met. These responsibilities include considering adequate healthcare provision, care, and wider support for local populations, including in rural and socio-economically deprived areas.The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) does not currently recommend screening for prostate cancer as the Prostate Specific Antigen test does not meet the required accuracy for use in a national screening programme. Current methods offer insufficient benefits in relation to harms caused by overdiagnosis, such as invasive investigative procedures and unnecessary treatment.However, the National Health Service is prioritising the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing community diagnostic centres, with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics.

If he will take steps to improve information about early diagnosis for prostate cancer for men from areas of socio-economic deprivation.

NHS England and the integrated care boards are responsible for ensuring healthcare needs of local communities are met. These responsibilities include considering adequate healthcare provision, care, and wider support for local populations, including in rural and socio-economically deprived areas.The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) does not currently recommend screening for prostate cancer as the Prostate Specific Antigen test does not meet the required accuracy for use in a national screening programme. Current methods offer insufficient benefits in relation to harms caused by overdiagnosis, such as invasive investigative procedures and unnecessary treatment.However, the National Health Service is prioritising the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing community diagnostic centres, with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics.

For what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

The Department of Health and Social Care does not hold a record of all uses of artificial intelligence by officials and ministers.The Department of Health and Social Care has focused on establishing the enablers for adopting artificial intelligence (AI) responsibly; more specifically, implementing governance and delivery structures that pool internal experts from across the department and drawing on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform our AI and data usage. For example: the Generative AI Framework; the Data Maturity Assessment; the Ethics, Transparency and Accountability Framework; the Data Ethics Framework; and the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard. The Department also has access to the Central Digital & Data Office, based in the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, for expert advice.The Department of Health and Social Care does not currently have any plans to implement automated decision-making systems, people remain in full control of decision-making with AI augmenting their work.

How many delayed discharges there were in Lincolnshire since 2022.

Since September 2024, NHS England has published data on the number of discharges occurring at least one day after a patient has become medically ready for discharge, aggregated at an integrated care system (ICS) level. For the Lincolnshire ICS, between September 2024 and December 2024, there were a total of 2,323 discharges of adult acute patients occurring at least one day after they had become medically ready.The following table shows the average number of patients who remained in hospital each day, despite being medically ready for discharge, from the Lincolnshire ICS, from December 2022 to December 2024:YearAverage number of patients remaining in hospital each day despite being medically ready for dischargeDecember 2022150December 2023137December 2024135Source: NHS England

What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of prostate cancer services in (a) South Holland and The Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.

The Department is committed to improving the adequacy of all cancer services including for prostate cancer, this includes cancer services in South Holland and The Deepings and Lincolnshire. NHS England has funded 10 clinical audits, including a national prostate cancer audit. Using routine data, collected on patients diagnosed with cancer in a National Health Service setting, the audit is looking at what is being done well, where it is being done well, and what needs to be done better. This will seek to reduce unwarranted variation in treatment and reduce inequalities across different groups. The Government recognises that a cancer-specific approach is needed to meet the challenges in cancer care, and to improve all cancer services and outcomes for people living with cancer including those with prostate cancer. Following publication of the 10-Year Health Plan, we will publish a new national cancer plan, which will include further details on how we will improve cancer services across England. We are now in discussions about what form that plan should take, and what its relationship to the 10-Year Health Plan and the Government’s wider Health Mission should be and will provide updates on this in due course.

If he will set targets to reduce memory clinic waiting times in (a) South Holland and The Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.

The national target for dementia diagnosis is 66.7%, with Lincolnshire at 67.8%. Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has received funding to introduce a specific pathway for memory assessments, which will help tackle local waiting times for assessment and diagnosis of conditions such as dementia, and work is underway to finalise the model of care and launch towards the end of the financial year.There is a review of current Memory Assessment Service waiting lists to identify referrals from 24-hour care settings that can be targeted via Diagnosing Advanced Dementia Mandate (DiADeM). The trust will train selected staff in DiADeM to undertake assessment of these identified cohorts from waiting lists in the fourth quarter of 2023/24, including staff in primary care, namely Enhanced Health in Care Homes teams.The South Holland and The Deepings constituency is split across two Older People Community Mental Health Teams (CMHT), Stamford and Spalding CMHTs. The average wait to first appointment across the two CMHTs is 10 weeks. From January 2025, there will be two Memory Assessment Practitioners aligned to Spalding and one aligned to Stamford. This allocation is reviewed every eight weeks to ensure areas with the longest waits are targeted.

What steps he is taking to improve the availability of GP appointments in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

We are committed to improving capacity and access to local services across the country, including in South Holland and Deepings. That is why, in October 2024, we provided an £82 million boost to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, enabling the recruitment of 1,000 newly qualified general practitioners (GPs) across England. This will increase the number of appointments delivered in general practice, which will benefit thousands of patients that are struggling to care the care they desperately need. This will also secure the future supply of GPs and take pressure off those currently working in the system.We will bring back the family doctor for those who would benefit from seeing the same clinician regularly, improving continuity of care, which is associated with better health outcomes and fewer A&E attendances.Additionally, we have announced a proposed £889 million uplift to the GP contract for 2025/26, the largest uplift in years, with a rising share of total National Health Service resources going to general practice. We are currently consulting the profession on key proposals to improve access, continuity of care and GP recruitment.

If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing patient records of diagnostic results held by charities to be consolidated in a central NHS database.

Patient records in the National Health Service are held in different systems, including general practice IT systems, and electronic patient records held by trusts.My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has announced the intention for there to be a single patient record that both empowers patients by giving them access to their records, and gives professionals access to the information they need to make the best-informed decisions when delivering care and treatment. We have begun engaging with the public to help shape our plans, including what information they would want to see included in a single record.

What steps he is taking to (a) record and (b) report the number of miscarriages each year.

The Government recognises that experiencing a miscarriage can be an extremely difficult time. We are determined to make sure all women receive safe, personalised, and compassionate care, particularly when things go wrong.While miscarriage hospital stay data is collected, the majority of baby losses occur outside of healthcare settings, and it is rightly the choice of the individual who has experienced the loss to disclose this information to healthcare professionals. It is therefore not possible to gather accurate and comprehensive data on miscarriages.The Pregnancy Loss Review was published in July 2023 and recommended policies to improve data around miscarriage. We will ensure that we listen to women and their families, and learn lessons from recent inquiries and investigations, including this report.

How many full-time equivalent diversity, equality and inclusion staff are employed by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

I am informed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence that it has a 0.5 full time equivalent in post, as an Organisational Design and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Consultant.

What steps he is taking to raise awareness of sudden deaths in young people due to undiagnosed heart conditions.

NHS England published a national service specification for Inherited Cardiac Conditions (ICC) in 2017, which defines the standards of care expected from organisations funded by NHS England. This specification covers young adults with previously undiagnosed cardiac disease. The aim of the ICC services is to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of patients with inherited cardiac conditions. NHS England is currently reviewing this service specification, working with a broad range of stakeholders as part of the review, including National Health Service clinical experts, the Association of Inherited Cardiac Conditions, Cardiomyopathy UK, Heart Valve Voice, and the British Heart Foundation.

If he will take steps to increase access to heart screening for young people through sports and community clubs.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) last reviewed screening for sudden cardiac death (SCD) in people under 39 years old in 2019 and concluded that screening should not be offered. More information on this is available at the following link:https://view-health-screening-recommendations.service.gov.uk/sudden-cardiac-death/Research showed that current tests are not accurate enough to use in young people without symptoms, and that treatments and interventions were not based on good scientific evidence to prevent SCD.We are aware that the UK NSC has received a submission via its annual call process to consider SCD screening in young people aged between 14 and 35 years old engaging in sport. The UK NSC is currently reviewing all annual call proposals. More information on the annual call process is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-nsc-annual-call-submitting-a-screening-proposal/uk-nsc-annual-call-how-to-submit-a-proposal

How many full-time equivalent diversity, equality and inclusion staff are employed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) headcount stands at 1,452 employees. The MHRA has a Head of Diversity and Staff Engagement, and a Diversity and Staff Engagement Coordinator, who are focussed on diversity, equality, and inclusion for half of their full-time equivalent (FTE) hours, with the remaining half of their FTE hours focussed on other human resources portfolio priorities.

If he will increase the staffing budget for the East Midlands Ambulance Service.

The allocation of National Health Service funding, including local staffing budgets, is set by NHS England.

What steps he is taking to improve dementia care and support for families post-diagnosis in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) other rural areas.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision of dementia care services. NHS England expects ICBs to commission services based on local population needs, and supports them with relevant resources, such as the recently updated RightCare scenario for dementia. Lincolnshire is committed to continuing to look at how it can improve its offer to support the local population, following a diagnosis of dementia. The ICB is developing plans for a dedicated standalone service which will increase its capacity to offer support before, during, and after diagnosis. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network has been commissioned by NHS England to develop a tool for local health systems to support investigation of the underlying variation in dementia diagnosis rates. This includes the assessment of underlying population characteristics, such as rurality and socio-economic deprivation. The aim of this work is to provide context for variation, and to enable targeted investigation and provision of support at a local level to enhance diagnosis rates. The tool has been released, and is available via the NHS Futures Collaboration platform.

If his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on the NHS budget.

Now that Parliament has voted to give the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill a Second Reading, the Government will assess the impacts of the bill and publish these in due course.This continues to be a matter for Parliament and, as the bill progresses, Members of Parliament, both Honourable and Right Honourable, will further debate and scrutinise the legislation and the Government will respect Parliament’s will.

What steps he is taking to increase (a) recruitment and (b) retention of NHS staff in (i) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (ii) Lincolnshire.

This information is not collected centrally. National Health Service organisations are responsible for their own recruitment and develop their own workforce plans based on service needs. At a national level, we are committed to training the staff the NHS needs, and will work closely with partners in education to do this.NHS England continues to lead on a range of initiatives to boost the retention of existing staff and to ensure that the NHS remains an attractive career choice for new recruits. This includes a strong focus on improving organisational culture, supporting staff wellbeing, and promoting flexible working opportunities. It is continually reviewing the effectiveness of these, and their impact on the workforce.

How many and what proportion of GP surgeries in South Holland and the Deepings constituency are rated as (a) outstanding and (b) good by the Care Quality Commission.

As of 27 November 2024, there are nine general practice surgeries in the South Holland and the Deepings constituency. Of these, one, or 11%, is rated Outstanding, and eight, or 89%, are rated Good by the Care Quality Commission.

What steps he is taking to support hospices in (a) rural and (b) remote areas.

Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing National Health Services. The amount of funding each charitable hospice receives varies both within and between integrated care board (ICB) areas. This will vary depending on demand in that ICB area but will also be dependent on the totality and type of palliative and end of life care provision from both NHS and non-NHS services, including charitable hospices, within each ICB area.Due to the way the hospice movement organically grew, hospice locations were largely not planned with a view to providing even access across the country, or to prioritise areas of greatest need based on demographics. Therefore, there are inequalities in access to hospice services, especially for those living in rural or socio-economically deprived areas. NHS England has developed a palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative and end of life care needs of those in their local population, thereby enabling ICBs to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities.I have met NHS England to discuss how to reduce inequalities and variation in access to, and the quality of, palliative and end of life care. We, alongside key partners NHS England, will continue to proactively engage with our stakeholders, including the voluntary sector and independent hospices, on an ongoing basis, in order to understand the issues they face.