Written questions by Evans.

If he will adopt the recommendations of the report by Together for Short Lives entitled Overstretched and underfunded: The state of children’s hospice funding in 2025.

We want a society where every child receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life.Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations.The Together for Short Lives report, Overstretched and underfunded: The state of children’s hospice funding in 2025, highlights variation in the ‘per person’ funding of charitable children’s hospices but does not take into account funding spent via National Health Services, which also supports children with palliative care and end of life care needs. In England, while the majority of palliative care and end of life care is provided by NHS staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including children’s hospices, also play in providing support to children, and their loved ones, at the end of life.We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.We are also providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant. We will confirm funding for 2026/27 in line with usual processes and timelines for Government finances.I have tasked officials to look at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10 Year Health Plan.The Government and the NHS will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that the future state of services reduces variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining how to operationalise the required shifts in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.

Whether he has had discussions with the Royal College of General Practice on reducing overprescribing.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has not had any discussions with these organisations related to reducing overprescribing.The National Health Service and partner organisations are responding to the challenge of overprescribing, as set out in the Government’s review of overprescribing, Good for you, good for us, good for everybody, in September 2021.Progress has been made to implement the recommendations of that review, for example:- implementing the National Medicines Optimisation Opportunities for integrated care boards;- addressing problematic polypharmacy, when there is potential harm associated with taking multiple medicines;- delivering Structured Medication Reviews; and- publication of a repeat prescribing toolkit and oversupply dashboard to support general practices to identify oversupply and improve repeat prescribing processes.Offering treatments that are not medicines is also key to addressing overprescribing. Many other initiatives delivered across the NHS contribute towards this. These include delivery of personalised care and shared decision-making, NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression, and social prescribing.We are continuing to address issues with the prescribing of medicines in line with the NHS’ 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance.

Whether he has had discussions with the National Institute for Health Research on reducing overprescribing.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has not had any discussions with these organisations related to reducing overprescribing.The National Health Service and partner organisations are responding to the challenge of overprescribing, as set out in the Government’s review of overprescribing, Good for you, good for us, good for everybody, in September 2021.Progress has been made to implement the recommendations of that review, for example:- implementing the National Medicines Optimisation Opportunities for integrated care boards;- addressing problematic polypharmacy, when there is potential harm associated with taking multiple medicines;- delivering Structured Medication Reviews; and- publication of a repeat prescribing toolkit and oversupply dashboard to support general practices to identify oversupply and improve repeat prescribing processes.Offering treatments that are not medicines is also key to addressing overprescribing. Many other initiatives delivered across the NHS contribute towards this. These include delivery of personalised care and shared decision-making, NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression, and social prescribing.We are continuing to address issues with the prescribing of medicines in line with the NHS’ 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance.

Whether he has had discussions with NHS Digital on reducing overprescribing.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has not had any discussions with these organisations related to reducing overprescribing.The National Health Service and partner organisations are responding to the challenge of overprescribing, as set out in the Government’s review of overprescribing, Good for you, good for us, good for everybody, in September 2021.Progress has been made to implement the recommendations of that review, for example:- implementing the National Medicines Optimisation Opportunities for integrated care boards;- addressing problematic polypharmacy, when there is potential harm associated with taking multiple medicines;- delivering Structured Medication Reviews; and- publication of a repeat prescribing toolkit and oversupply dashboard to support general practices to identify oversupply and improve repeat prescribing processes.Offering treatments that are not medicines is also key to addressing overprescribing. Many other initiatives delivered across the NHS contribute towards this. These include delivery of personalised care and shared decision-making, NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression, and social prescribing.We are continuing to address issues with the prescribing of medicines in line with the NHS’ 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance.

Whether he has had discussions with the General Pharmaceutical Council on reducing overprescribing.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has not had any discussions with these organisations related to reducing overprescribing.The National Health Service and partner organisations are responding to the challenge of overprescribing, as set out in the Government’s review of overprescribing, Good for you, good for us, good for everybody, in September 2021.Progress has been made to implement the recommendations of that review, for example:- implementing the National Medicines Optimisation Opportunities for integrated care boards;- addressing problematic polypharmacy, when there is potential harm associated with taking multiple medicines;- delivering Structured Medication Reviews; and- publication of a repeat prescribing toolkit and oversupply dashboard to support general practices to identify oversupply and improve repeat prescribing processes.Offering treatments that are not medicines is also key to addressing overprescribing. Many other initiatives delivered across the NHS contribute towards this. These include delivery of personalised care and shared decision-making, NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression, and social prescribing.We are continuing to address issues with the prescribing of medicines in line with the NHS’ 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance.

Whether he has had discussions with Health Education England on reducing overprescribing.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has not had any discussions with these organisations related to reducing overprescribing.The National Health Service and partner organisations are responding to the challenge of overprescribing, as set out in the Government’s review of overprescribing, Good for you, good for us, good for everybody, in September 2021.Progress has been made to implement the recommendations of that review, for example:- implementing the National Medicines Optimisation Opportunities for integrated care boards;- addressing problematic polypharmacy, when there is potential harm associated with taking multiple medicines;- delivering Structured Medication Reviews; and- publication of a repeat prescribing toolkit and oversupply dashboard to support general practices to identify oversupply and improve repeat prescribing processes.Offering treatments that are not medicines is also key to addressing overprescribing. Many other initiatives delivered across the NHS contribute towards this. These include delivery of personalised care and shared decision-making, NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression, and social prescribing.We are continuing to address issues with the prescribing of medicines in line with the NHS’ 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance.

Whether he has had discussions with the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry on reducing overprescribing.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has not had any discussions with these organisations related to reducing overprescribing.The National Health Service and partner organisations are responding to the challenge of overprescribing, as set out in the Government’s review of overprescribing, Good for you, good for us, good for everybody, in September 2021.Progress has been made to implement the recommendations of that review, for example:- implementing the National Medicines Optimisation Opportunities for integrated care boards;- addressing problematic polypharmacy, when there is potential harm associated with taking multiple medicines;- delivering Structured Medication Reviews; and- publication of a repeat prescribing toolkit and oversupply dashboard to support general practices to identify oversupply and improve repeat prescribing processes.Offering treatments that are not medicines is also key to addressing overprescribing. Many other initiatives delivered across the NHS contribute towards this. These include delivery of personalised care and shared decision-making, NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression, and social prescribing.We are continuing to address issues with the prescribing of medicines in line with the NHS’ 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance.

What assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of trends in the numbers of GP training places in the last five years

The number of general practice (GP) training places for the past four years has been 4,001. From September 2025, we are increasing GP training places to 4,500 as part of a broader plan to expand training further by 2031. This increase is part of a larger National Health Service workforce plan to address projected GP shortages.This increase in GP training places will help to grow the number of appointments delivered by GPs and will benefit thousands of patients. It will also secure the future supply of GPs and take pressure off those currently working in the system.We are investing an additional £889 million in GPs to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade, and we are pleased that the General Practitioners Committee England is supportive of the contract changes. Alongside the 2025/26 GP contract announcement, the Government has also committed to reform of the GP contract within this Parliament.The changes to the contract will improve services for patients and make progress towards the Government’s Health Mission, supporting the three key shifts the Government wants to achieve, from analogue to digital, from sickness to prevention, and from hospital to community care. The following table shows the number of accepted GP training places in September of each year, from 2021 to 2025:DateAccepted training placesSeptember 20254,250September 20244,001September 20234,001September 20224,001September 20214,001 From June 2021 to June 2025, there has also been an increase of 2,475 GPs in the training stage. The following table shows the number of GPs in training grade in June of each year, from 2021 to 2025:DateGPs in training gradeJune 20259,450June 20249,371June 20238,847June 20227,890June 20216,975

What recent progress he has made on implementing fracture liaison services in all parts of the country by 2030.

Fracture Liaison Services are commissioned by integrated care boards, which are well-placed to make decisions according to local need.Our 10-Year Health Plan committed to rolling out Fracture Liaison Services across every part of the country by 2030.

What steps he is taking to increase the number of NHS roles for newly-trained GPs.

The Government has invested £82 million in the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS), which has enabled the recruitment of more than 1,900 recently qualified general practitioners (GPs) in England since October. This will increase the number of available appointments, secure the future supply of GPs, and alleviate the pressure on those currently working in the system.Under recently announced changes to the GP contract in 2025/26, the ARRS will become more flexible to allow primary care networks to respond better to local workforce needs. The two ARRS pots have been combined to create a single pot for the reimbursement of patient-facing staff costs. There will be no restrictions on the number or type of staff covered, including GPs.On 27 February, the Government and the British Medical Association agreed to the changes to the GP contract to fix the ‘front door’ of the National Health Service and bring back the family doctor. We are investing an additional £889 million in GPs for 2025/26, bringing total spend on the GP contract to £13.2 billion. This is the largest uplift to GP funding since the beginning of the five-year framework, and means we are reversing recent trends by allocating a rising share of NHS resources to GPs.

With reference to his Department's press release entitled Boost to mental health services from thousands of extra staff, published on 27 June 2025, what roles those 6,700 mental health workers have been recruited to.

NHS England publishes monthly data on the National Health Service Hospital and Community Health Service (HCHS) workforce in England. This includes data on the NHS mental health workforce employed by NHS provider trusts and integrated care boards. The press release presented the change in workforce between the 30 June 2024 baseline and the data for 30 April 2025.Within the NHS Monthly Workforce Statistics series, data on the mental health workforce is included in the file titled Preliminary – NHS HCHS Workforce Statistics, Trusts and core organisations – data tables, April 2025, available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics/march-2025Tab 21 within the file information on the mental health workforce is broken down by staff groups, showing how the total has increased over time.The definition of the HCHS mental health workforce includes those who are providing or supporting the provision of mental health services. Staff are included if they have either an NHS Occupation Code or Area of Work code that is related to mental health services. Further information on the mental health workforce definition, including a list of the relevant Occupation Code and Area of Work variables, can be found on the National Workforce Data Set guidance page, at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-tools-and-services/data-services/mental-health-data-hub/dashboards/mental-health-and-learning-disabilities-workforce-in-the-nhs

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of Designated Prescribing Practitioners for all foundation pharmacists starting their training in 2025.

Every foundation trainee pharmacist that has graduated against the 2021 standards for the initial education and training of pharmacists will require a Designated Prescribing Practitioner (DPP), a healthcare professional with independent prescribing rights, for example, a doctor, pharmacist, or nurse, during their foundation training period to support the supervision and assessment of prescribing activities. Under the terms of the Foundation Trainee Pharmacists National Recruitment Scheme, training providers are required to ensure that the trainee will have access to a DPP. Providers are also required to submit details of the DPP to NHS England once the trainee pharmacist commences in post. Trainee pharmacists in England start their foundation training in the 2025/26 year in two windows: 14 July 2025 to 4 August 2025, summer; and 20 October 2025 to 10 November 2025, autumn. To support the development of DPP capacity, NHS England continues to engage with training providers and invest in training for independent prescribers. From September 2026, all newly qualified pharmacists will be independent prescribers on the day of their registration, which will expand future availability of healthcare professionals who are qualified to become a DPP.

Pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2025 to Question 60209 on Carers, what the outcomes were of the cross-Government meeting.

Unpaid carers play a vital role and can access support from adult and children’s social care and the National Health Service, as well as through benefits, employers, schools, colleges, and universities. However, we know that too often systems are disjointed, difficult to navigate, and don’t appropriately identify and communicate with carers.The Government is determined to work together to provide carers of all ages with the recognition and support they deserve.Ministers from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Business and Trade, and the Department for Education have convened twice this year to discuss support for unpaid carers and consider opportunities to provide further recognition and support. These are early meetings of a group exploring further ways in which carers can be supported, and as such it does not have a statutory remit.

Pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2025 to Question 60209 on Carers, who attends the cross-Government meetings.

Unpaid carers play a vital role and can access support from adult and children’s social care and the National Health Service, as well as through benefits, employers, schools, colleges, and universities. However, we know that too often systems are disjointed, difficult to navigate, and don’t appropriately identify and communicate with carers.The Government is determined to work together to provide carers of all ages with the recognition and support they deserve.Ministers from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Business and Trade, and the Department for Education have convened twice this year to discuss support for unpaid carers and consider opportunities to provide further recognition and support. These are early meetings of a group exploring further ways in which carers can be supported, and as such it does not have a statutory remit.

Pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2025 to Question 60209 on Carers, on how many occasions there has been a cross-Government meeting since July 2024.

Unpaid carers play a vital role and can access support from adult and children’s social care and the National Health Service, as well as through benefits, employers, schools, colleges, and universities. However, we know that too often systems are disjointed, difficult to navigate, and don’t appropriately identify and communicate with carers.The Government is determined to work together to provide carers of all ages with the recognition and support they deserve.Ministers from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Business and Trade, and the Department for Education have convened twice this year to discuss support for unpaid carers and consider opportunities to provide further recognition and support. These are early meetings of a group exploring further ways in which carers can be supported, and as such it does not have a statutory remit.

Pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2025 to Question 60209 on Carers, whether the cross-Government meeting has a statutory remit.

Unpaid carers play a vital role and can access support from adult and children’s social care and the National Health Service, as well as through benefits, employers, schools, colleges, and universities. However, we know that too often systems are disjointed, difficult to navigate, and don’t appropriately identify and communicate with carers.The Government is determined to work together to provide carers of all ages with the recognition and support they deserve.Ministers from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Business and Trade, and the Department for Education have convened twice this year to discuss support for unpaid carers and consider opportunities to provide further recognition and support. These are early meetings of a group exploring further ways in which carers can be supported, and as such it does not have a statutory remit.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the investigation of the pensions regulator into NHSBSA.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is an independent body responsible for the regulation of work-based pension schemes in the UK. TPR conducts its supervisory and investigatory functions independently of the Government. As such, it would not be appropriate for the Government to comment on an ongoing investigation being undertaken by the Regulator.

Pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2025 to Question 28133 NHS Business Services Authority: Workplace Pensions, whether the Pensions regulator has required the NHS Business Services Authority to remedy the (a) errors and (b) delays in NHS pensions.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) is in regular contact with The Pensions Regulator to report on the delivery of the McCloud remedy. They are following all advice, guidance, and recommendations put forward by the regulator.The NHSBSA has taken all available steps to bring in external support to boost its statement production capacity. It has also recruited significant numbers of staff and is reprioritising existing staff to support the implementation of the McCloud remedy. The Pensions Regulator is aware of the proactive measures that the NHSBSA is taking to rectify any previous statements where necessary.

With reference to the 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future, published on 3 July 2025, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of reducing the share of expenditure on hospital care on his Department's goal for 92 percent of patients to be treated within 18 weeks by 2029.

The Elective Reform Plan (ERP) sets out the reform and productivity efforts needed to achieve the target that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by 2029. The ERP includes several efforts which will see care delivered differently. This includes addressing the challenges in diagnostic waiting times, providing the number of computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and other tests that are needed to reduce elective and cancer waits. We will upgrade 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.The 10-Year Health Plan set out how we will take that further. At present, roughly 80% of all elective care does not require admitted treatment but takes place in outpatient settings, mostly in hospitals. By 2035, two thirds of this care will take place digitally or in the community closer to home, with patients able to access the best of their local hospital in a much more responsive way, such as via a local neighbourhood health centre or at home via digital channels. This will deliver more timely, efficient, and flexible care, which is better for patients and will mean we reduce the numbers joining the waiting lists in the first place.

How many and what proportion of remedial pension savings statements (a) remain outstanding and (b) have been issued.

As of 22 July 2025, 108,742 remedial pension savings statements have been issued to NHS Pension Scheme members. 34,404 members either have a statement outstanding or require further calculations to determine whether a statement is needed.