Written questions by Maguire.

How much funding his Department plans to provide for primary care services in each of the next three years.

The Department’s settlement was announced at the 2025 Spending Review. The details of Spending Review budget allocations, inclusive of primary care services, within departments is still being determined for 2026/27 and we are working to provide the detail and certainty needed on future funding and spending plans. The budget allocations for 2027/28 and 2028/29 will be determined through the business planning rounds for the corresponding years and will tie back to the 2025 Spending Review settlement.

If he will take steps to ensure that people can see a GP within (a) seven days and (b) within 24 hours if it is urgent.

We are committed to ensuring that patients can access digital consultations within 24 hours, recognising the significance of timely care for all.Under the current GP Contract, practices are required to ensure that anyone needing an appointment at a general practice is offered one within two weeks, with those requiring urgent attention being seen on the same day.We expect practices to offer patients an appropriate response on the day they contact the practice, according to the urgency of their clinical needs. There are various forms this response could take, and an appointment will not be required in all cases.In August 2025, 44.4% of all appointments were delivered on the same day as they were booked. This is up 0.7% since August 2024. 87.7% of appointments not usually booked in advance were delivered within two weeks of booking.

What steps his Department is taking to recruit dentists into the NHS.

We are determined to rebuild National Health Service dentistry, but it will take time and there are no quick fixes. Strengthening the workforce is key to our ambitions.To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists. The Government’s ambition is to deliver fundamental contract reform before the end of this Parliament.Integrated care boards are recruiting more dentists through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.As announced in our 10-Year Health Plan, the Government will make it a requirement for newly qualified dentists to practice in the NHS for a minimum period, intended to be at least three years. That will mean more NHS dentists and more NHS appointments.We will also publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan and ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the best care for patients, when they need it.

What information his Department holds on the number of people who were seen by a GP in (a) September and (b) October 2025.

NHS England collects and publishes statistics on the total number of general practice (GP) appointments delivered each month. This data is published one month in arrears in order to allow for sufficient time for all appointment records to be collated, validated, and quality assured. As a result, data for October will be available at the end of November. For context, in September 2025, 32 million appointments were delivered, 14 million of which were delivered by GPs, or 43%. In August 2024, 27 million appointments were delivered, with 12 million provided by GPs, also 44%.

Whether the forthcoming national cancer plan will include specific (a) targets and (b) actions for (i) brain, (ii) liver, (iii) lung, (iv) oesophageal, (v) pancreatic and (vi) stomach cancer.

Reducing the number of lives lost to cancer is a key aim of the National Cancer Plan. Having consulted with key stakeholders and patient groups, I confirm that the plan will be published early in the new year. The plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for patients with cancer, including less survivable cancers, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately driving up this country’s cancer survival rates.The Department has been working with members of the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce as part of the development of the plan to identify how to improve diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes for less survivable cancers, which includes lung, pancreatic, liver, brain, oesophageal, and stomach cancer.

Whether his Department plans to launch public awareness campaigns to promote earlier recognition of (a) liver disease and (b) liver cancer symptoms.

Awareness of liver disease can be raised by providing information to the public and by supporting health and care professionals to discuss liver disease with their patients. The NHS.UK website provides the public with essential information on the types of liver disease, their possible causes, symptoms, treatment, and prevention. Further information is available at the following link:https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/liver-disease/NHS England runs Help Us Help You campaigns in England to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and address barriers to acting on them, to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms, as well as encouraging body awareness, to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers at an earlier point, including abdominal cancers.NHS England and other National Health Service organisations, nationally and locally, publish information on the signs and symptoms of many different types of cancer, including liver cancer. This information can be found at sources like the NHS.UK website, which is available at the following link:https://www.nhs.uk/

What steps his Department is taking to help ensure that people with liver (b) cirrhosis, (b) advanced liver disease and (c) those at high risk of liver cancer receive systematic (i) surveillance and (ii) early diagnosis.

As part of a program to transform liver disease outcomes we will work with partners, including the British Liver Trust, to raise awareness and address the stigma related to hazardous and harmful levels of alcohol use, obesity, and viral hepatitis, which are key drivers of liver disease.We will improve early detection of liver disease by developing best practice diagnostic pathways for primary care with agreed common referral thresholds. This includes exploring innovative approaches to increasing early detection, such as Intelligent Liver Function Testing, and improving access to treatments for liver disease, thereby tackling health inequalities in relation to access, uptake, patient experience, and outcomes.We will continue to reach out to the communities that are worst affected by liver disease through the Community Liver Health Checks programme to proactively identify people with undiagnosed liver disease, who are suitable for liver cancer surveillance. The number of mobile liver scanning teams has almost doubled in the last two years. Over 100,000 people have had a fibroscan of their liver, and over 8,000 have been referred on for vital liver cancer checks since the programme began.My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has announced that a National Cancer Plan for England will be published in the new year. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care to better the experiences and outcomes for people with cancer, including for liver cancer. Our goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next 10 years.

What steps his Department is taking to help improve underperforming NHS dental contract holders in Surrey.

The Government wants to ensure that every penny we allocate for dentistry is spent on dentistry, and that the ringfenced dental budget is spent on the patients who need it most.Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local populations and to determine the priorities for investment.

What steps his Department is taking to help increase the number of children who have been seen by an NHS dentist in Surrey in line with the national average.

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Epsom and Ewell constituency, this is the Surrey Heartlands ICB.We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from 1 April 2025. The Surrey Heartlands ICB is expected to deliver 6,585 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.We recently held a full public consultation on a package of changes to improve access to, and the quality of, NHS dentistry, which will deliver better care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. The consultation closed on 19 August 2025. The Government is considering the outcomes of the consultation and will publish a response in due course.We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability. The Government is committed to achieving fundamental contract reform before the end of this Parliament.

What steps his Department is taking to help increase the number of adults who have been seen by an NHS dentist in Surrey in line with the national average.

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Epsom and Ewell constituency, this is the Surrey Heartlands ICB.We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from 1 April 2025. The Surrey Heartlands ICB is expected to deliver 6,585 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.We recently held a full public consultation on a package of changes to improve access to, and the quality of, NHS dentistry, which will deliver better care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. The consultation closed on 19 August 2025. The Government is considering the outcomes of the consultation and will publish a response in due course.We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability. The Government is committed to achieving fundamental contract reform before the end of this Parliament.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the minimum unit of dental activity rates to help tackle recruitment issues for practices.

A minimum Unit of Dental Activity (UDA) value of £28 is in place to support practices with historically low UDA rates. There are differential UDA rates across England, and integrated care boards have the flexibility to set the UDA rate locally, which may help to support local interventions. The current differential UDA rates allow providers to use differing pay rates to reflect the local market rates.We recently held a public consultation on a package of changes to improve access to, and improve the quality of, National Health Service dentistry, which will deliver better care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. The consultation closed on 19 August, and the Government is considering the outcomes of the consultation and will publish a response in due course, with the expectation of implementing the reforms from April 2026.We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability. The Government is committed to achieving fundamental contract reform by the end of this Parliament.

What assessment has he made of effectiveness of the Carr-Hill formula.

The Carr-Hill formula is outdated, as the formula is based on data that is 25 years old in some cases. It uses the expected workload of general practices (GPs) to determine the distribution of funding for GPs across England. Currently, GPs serving more deprived areas receive on average 10% less funding per patient when adjusted for need than those in less deprived communities, despite having greater health needs and significantly higher patient-to-GP ratios.We recognise the importance of ensuring that funding for core services is distributed equitably between practices across the country. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, announced on 25 June that, through the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government will review the Carr-Hill formula with the aim of ensuring that resources are targeted where they are most needed.The review, conducted by National Institute for Health and Care Research, has now commenced. It will draw on a range of evidence and advice from experts, with a focus on how health need is reflected in funding.

Whether his Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of research funding allocated to pancreatic cancer given its rates of (a) mortality, (b) survival and (c) late diagnosis; and whether he plans to increase that funding.

The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and in 2024/25, spent £141,649,374 on cancer research, signalling its high priority. This includes studies that focus specifically on pancreatic cancer as well as studies that are relevant or include pancreatic cancer. For example, between financial years 2020/21 and 2024/25, the NIHR committed £1.5 million to specific pancreatic cancer studies. The NIHR has also invested £1.9 million in research to detect early stages of gastrointestinal cancers, which includes pancreatic cancer. This non-invasive breath test will aim to streamline the referral process for primary care.NIHR’s wider investments in research infrastructure, including facilities, services and the research workforce, supported the delivery of 160 pancreatic cancer research studies and enabled over 8,200 people to participate in potentially life-changing research during this time period. This includes support for the PemOla trial, which is the first to explore using precision immunotherapies to treat pancreatic cancer. More information about the trial is available at the following link:https://cambridgebrc.nihr.ac.uk/2025/07/18/pancreatic-cancer-precision-medicine-trial/

What estimate he has made of the cost to the taxpayer of raising NICE’s value for money threshold by 25 percent.

The pharmaceutical sector and the innovative medicines it produces are critical to our national interest, helping people access life changing treatments, reducing pressure on the health service over the longer-term, and ensuring we have a National Health Service that is fit for the future.That is why through our Life Sciences Sector Plan, we have committed to working with industry to accelerate growth in spending on innovative medicines, compared to the previous decade. Our 10-Year Health Plan sets out how we will reform the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

If his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of stipulating that GP practices only receive the uplift to the Global Sum if that funding is passed onto employees.

General practices (GP) are independent businesses, contracted to provide National Health Services. Every year we consult the profession regarding what services GPs will provide and the funding they will receive in return for these services.We are investing an additional £1.1 billion in GPs to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26, the biggest cash increase in over a decade. The independent review body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) recommended an uplift of 4% to the pay ranges for salaried GPs, and to GP contractor pay. As with last year, we have accepted the DDRB’s pay recommendation and have uplifted the pay elements of the GP Contract by 4% on a consolidated basis, an increase of 1.2% on top of the 2.8% interim uplift in April. Funding for these awards will be backdated to April 2025. We expect GP contractors to implement pay rises to other GP staff in line with the uplift in funding they are receiving. As self-employed contractors to the NHS, it is for GPs to determine uplifts in pay for their employees.

What steps his Department is taking to reduce the impact of chronic respiratory conditions on the NHS in winter 2025-26.

NHS England, working with the Department, the UK Health Security Agency, and other partners, is taking action to reduce the impact of respiratory conditions on the National Health Service this winter. This includes robust, consistent infection prevention and control measures, and a campaign to encourage eligible people to get their winter vaccinations. Further information on the actions being taken to reduce the demand on acute services during winter is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/urgent-and-emergency-care-plan-2025-26/

How many GPs in Epsom and Ewell constituency are not employed on the General Medical Services British Medical Association model contract.

The Department does not centrally hold data on the employment contracts of individual salaried general practitioners (GPs), as GP practices are self-employed contractors to the National Health Service.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of embedding specialist dementia Admiral Nurses within neighbourhood health teams.

Neighbourhood Health Services will bring together teams of professionals, including nurses, doctors, social care workers, pharmacists, health visitors, and more, closer to people’s homes, to work together to provide comprehensive care in the community.We expect neighbourhood teams and services to be designed in a way that reflects the specific needs of local populations. While the focus on personalised, coordinated care will be consistent, this will mean services will look different in rural communities, coastal towns, and deprived inner cities.The provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs). We would expect ICBs to commission services, which may include dementia specialist nurses or admiral nurses, based on local population needs, taking account of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines. NICE recommends providing people living with dementia with a single named health or social care professional who is responsible for coordinating their care. We are intending to publish a National Framework for Neighbourhood Health Plans in the autumn. This will set-out how areas should design neighbourhood health services around local needs and different patient cohorts.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential challenges of working with private finance companies to help deliver neighbourhood health centres.

The Government announced in the 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy on 19 June 2025, and in the 10-Year Health plan published on 3 July 2025, that it will explore the feasibility of using new Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to deliver certain types of primary and community health infrastructure, including Neighbourhood Health Centres.Any new model will be subject to market-testing, and will build on the lessons learned from past administrations’ experiences, the models currently in use elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and the March 2025 National Audit Office report titled Lessons Learned: private finance for infrastructure. The decision on whether to proceed with the use of PPPs for Neighbourhood Health Centres will be made by HM Treasury and the relevant ministers by the 2025 Autumn Budget.

What discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on zero-rating defibrillators for VAT.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has not discussed zero-rating defibrillators for VAT with my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.The Government provides VAT reliefs to aid with the purchase of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) through VAT refunds on purchases made by local authorities, including parish councils, and VAT reliefs for purchases made through voluntary contributions where the AED is donated to eligible charities or the National Health Service.