Written questions by Maguire.

What recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of delayed discharges from hospitals due to inadequate adult social care provision on overall NHS capacity.

The Government recognises that delays to hospital discharge impact National Health Service capacity. There are multiple factors contributing to delayed discharges, including processes within hospitals and the availability of appropriate care packages.The Government has committed approximately £9 billion through the Better Care Fund (BCF) in 2025/26, to support integrated services including intermediate care, which are vital for timely discharge and preventing readmissions. The Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 made it a priority for hospitals to tackle discharge delays, starting with those waiting over 21 days after becoming medically fit for discharge.From 2026/27, the BCF will be reformed to ensure consistent joint NHS and local authority funding for services essential to integrated care, including hospital discharge.

Whether he plans to bring forward the timeline for social care reform.

The Government is already delivering reform to adult social care and progressing towards a future National Care Service. This progress is built on higher standards, greater choice and control, and better join-up between services — with over £4 billion of additional funding available for adult social care by 2028/29.We are:Raising the quality of care, including by legislating for a Fair Pay Agreement backed by £500 million, expanding career pathways, and investing £12 million in workforce development.Improving join-up between health and social care through neighbourhood health services, reform of the Better Care Fund, and enhanced digital and data infrastructure to support safer, more personalised care.Expanding choice and control, including through encouraging the greater use of direct payments, £172 million for home adaptations, and new care technology standards to help people choose the right support.To help shape medium and longer-term reforms, the Independent Commission into Adult Social Care, chaired by Baroness Casey, will report in two phases — first in 2026, and again by 2028. Implementation will follow each phase. We have been clear that addressing the complex, deep-rooted challenges facing the sector will take time. This timeline allows Baroness Casey to carry out the national conversation needed to reach broad public and cross-party consensus on reforms to build a social care system fit for the future.

Whether his Department has conducted detailed (a) costings and (b) delivery timetables for the commitments outlined in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.

The Government has been clear that the previous administration’s 2023 Long Term Workforce Plan was unsustainable and based on outdated models of care. We have committed instead to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan which will replace the 2023 plan and create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.

What steps he is taking to support (a) schools, (b) sports clubs and (c) community groups with the cost of purchasing defibrillators.

The Department of Health and Social Care’s Community AED Fund delivered 3,080 new automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to local communities between September 2023 and February 2025.The Department for Education has published specific guidance on the provision of AEDs in schools. This guidance is available at the following link:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67936b102de28ea2d392f35b/Automated_External_Defibrillators__AEDs__guidance_for_schools.pdf

What steps his Department is taking to increase women’s engagement with healthcare providers for fertility concerns.

There are no particular measures in place to increase women’s engagement with healthcare providers for fertility concerns.More broadly, achieving our vision for a Neighbourhood Health Service will rely critically on a strong partnership working between health and social care, also working closely with wider local government services and the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector to better understand and meet the needs of individuals and local populations in a holistic way.

What steps his Department is taking to promote regular exercise.

The Government and the National Health Service recognise that reducing physical inactivity in people of all ages is important in helping people live longer, healthier lives. Building movement back into people’s everyday lives is a key part of the Health Mission and requires action across the Government and the NHS to deliver, as part of the shift from treatment to prevention.As committed to in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will develop a national movement campaign led by Brendan Foster and will explore ways to recognise what places and communities are doing to help people build movement back into everyday lives. Wider cross-Government action is underway to invest in grassroots sport, develop a new physical education and school sports partnership network, to support children in reaping the benefits of movement, and to support cycling and walking infrastructure and promote active travel.The NHS Better Health Campaign promotes ways for people of all ages to move more, and signposts to digital support like the NHS Couch to 5k and the NHS Active 10 walking app providing free and accessible ways of building movement into everyday life.

What steps his Department is taking to increase funding for sexual health services in Surrey.

Upper tier local authorities in England, including Surrey, are responsible for commissioning comprehensive, open access to most sexual health services (SHSs) funded through the public health grant (PHG). In 2025/26, we increased funding through the PHG to £3.884 billion, providing local authorities with an average 6.1% cash increase and a 3.4% real terms increase, the biggest real-terms increase after nearly a decade of reduced spending.From 2026/27, we will bring together over £4 billion of public health funding for local government by consolidating service-specific grants into the PHG. Individual local authorities are well-placed to make funding and commissioning decisions about the SHSs that best meet the needs of their local populations.The Government is committed to ending new HIV transmissions in England by 2030 and is developing a new HIV Action Plan in collaboration with the UK Health Security Agency, NHS England, and a broad range of system partners, which we aim to publish this year. The Action Plan will have a key objective to support the system to work better together in the delivery of SRH services.

What steps he is taking in response to the findings by Together for Short Lives in their report entitled The State of Children’s Palliative Care 2025.

Children and young people’s hospices do incredible work to support seriously ill children and their families and loved ones when they need it most, and we recognise the incredibly tough pressures they are facing.We are providing £26 million in 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’s Hospice Grant.I can also now confirm the continuation of this vital funding for the three years of the next spending review period, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive. This funding will see circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children’s and young people’s hospices in England each year, via their local ICBs on behalf of NHS England, as happened in 2024/25 and 2025/26. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.This revenue funding is intended to be spent by hospices to provide high-quality care and support for the children and the families they care for, either in the hospice or in the community, including in children's homes. They can, for example, use this funding for providing respite care for children who have high health needs, by providing physiotherapy or occupational therapy, or by providing 24/7 nursing support for a child at the end of their life.We are also 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.

What steps his Department is taking to regulate fertility apps.

No formal assessment has been made of fertility apps and no steps are being taken to regulate them. Fertility apps are privately owned health apps, and as such they do not share data directly with the Department.Where fertility apps meet the definition of a medical device, the safety of these products already falls under the remit of the United Kingdom’s medical device regulations and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Examples of products that would fall within the remit of these regulations would be apps intended to facilitate conception and enable contraception based on basal body temperature.Patients looking for fertility advice should speak to their general practitioner or a licensed fertility clinic. They can also find unbiased information on fertility treatments and UK licenced clinics on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s website, at the following link:www.hfea.gov.uk

If he will set a national target for eliminating corridor care in NHS hospitals.

We are doing everything we can as fast as we can to eliminate corridor care. The Government is determined to get the National Health Service back on its feet, so that patients can be treated with dignity.Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, published in June 2025, set out the steps we are taking to ensure that patients will receive better, faster, and more appropriate emergency care, backed by a total of nearly £450 million of funding. This plan includes a target to reduce the number of patients waiting over 12 hours for admission or discharge from an emergency department compared to 2024/25, with the aim of this occurring less than 10% of the time, and a commitment to publish data on the prevalence of corridor care.We will also publish new clinical operational standards for the first 72 hours of care which will support better hospital flow, which aims to reduce overcrowding and long waits.

Whether he plans to introduce multi-year funding settlements for children’s hospices.

Children and young people’s hospices do incredible work to support seriously ill children and their families and loved ones when they need it most, and we recognise the incredibly tough pressures they are facing.We are providing £26 million in 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’s Hospice Grant.I can also now confirm the continuation of this vital funding for the three years of the next spending review period, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive. This funding will see circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children’s and young people’s hospices in England each year, via their local ICBs on behalf of NHS England, as happened in 2024/25 and 2025/26. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.This revenue funding is intended to be spent by hospices to provide high-quality care and support for the children and the families they care for, either in the hospice or in the community, including in children's homes. They can, for example, use this funding for providing respite care for children who have high health needs, by providing physiotherapy or occupational therapy, or by providing 24/7 nursing support for a child at the end of their life.We are also 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.

What the planned level of ringfenced NHS funding for children’s hospices is after 2025-26.

Children and young people’s hospices do incredible work to support seriously ill children and their families and loved ones when they need it most, and we recognise the incredibly tough pressures they are facing.We are providing £26 million in 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’s Hospice Grant.I can also now confirm the continuation of this vital funding for the three years of the next spending review period, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive. This funding will see circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children’s and young people’s hospices in England each year, via their local ICBs on behalf of NHS England, as happened in 2024/25 and 2025/26. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.This revenue funding is intended to be spent by hospices to provide high-quality care and support for the children and the families they care for, either in the hospice or in the community, including in children's homes. They can, for example, use this funding for providing respite care for children who have high health needs, by providing physiotherapy or occupational therapy, or by providing 24/7 nursing support for a child at the end of their life.We are also 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.

What assessment his Department has made of the safety of fertility apps for their users.

No formal assessment has been made of fertility apps and no steps are being taken to regulate them. Fertility apps are privately owned health apps, and as such they do not share data directly with the Department.Where fertility apps meet the definition of a medical device, the safety of these products already falls under the remit of the United Kingdom’s medical device regulations and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Examples of products that would fall within the remit of these regulations would be apps intended to facilitate conception and enable contraception based on basal body temperature.Patients looking for fertility advice should speak to their general practitioner or a licensed fertility clinic. They can also find unbiased information on fertility treatments and UK licenced clinics on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s website, at the following link:www.hfea.gov.uk

What estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of cyber-attacks against the NHS since 2021.

We do not hold data for the total economic impact of cyber incidents on National Health Service organisations specifically.Cyber-attacks can have a significant economic impact. The WannaCry cyber-attack in 2017 was estimated by the Department to have cost the NHS £92 million. Public estimates of the impact of the Synnovis cyber-attack stand at £32.7 million, according to accounts filed on Companies House.NHS trusts are independent organisations with their own set budgets, and a decision will be made on a case-by-case basis as to whether the economic impact of smaller incidents is assessed.Government is working to fully assess the impact of cyber-attacks on the wider public sector. It is worth noting that the economic impact of cyber incidents affected by a wide variety of complex factors. Further information about the financial cost of breaches or attacks can be found in the Cyber security breaches survey 2025, published by the Department for Science, innovation and Technology (DSIT). This is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2025/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2025

What steps his Department is taking to increase evacuations of (a) medically vulnerable children and (b) their dependents from Gaza.

I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Statement HCWS899 made to the House on 1 September 2025 by my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Child patients are accompanied by their immediate families. Three groups of patients have now arrived, and we expect further evacuations to happen later in the autumn.

What steps his Department is taking to (a) improve access to effective treatments for migraine and (b) reduce waiting times for (i) diagnosis and (ii) referral to specialist services.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline, Headaches in over 12s: diagnosis and management, sets out best practice for healthcare professionals in the care, treatment, and support of people who suffer from headaches, including migraine. It aims to improve the recognition and management of headaches and migraine.NICE updated its guideline in June 2025. Updates included a change to the strength of recommendations on treatments for migraine prevention to better reflect the balance between their benefits and harms, and incorporation of relevant technology appraisal guidance for treating and preventing migraine with or without aura.At the national level, there are several initiatives supporting service improvement and better care for patients with migraine, including the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Programme for Neurology and the RightCare Headache and Migraine Toolkit. The GIRFT programme published a National Speciality Report, which makes several recommendations in relation to improving recognition and diagnosis of migraine by general practitioners. Additionally, the RightCare Toolkit sets out key priorities for improving care for patients with migraine, which includes correct identification and diagnosis of headache disorders.The Royal College of General Practitioners has developed two e-learning modules about migraine and cluster headaches, which aim to raise awareness amongst primary care clinicians about the different types of migraine and their associated symptoms, and how to differentiate.Over the last four years, a new class of drugs, calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitors, has been made available on the National Health Service for the prevention and treatment of episodic and chronic migraines. On 15 May 2024, Atogepant became the latest CGRP inhibitor recommended by NICE for use as a preventive medication for the treatment of migraine.A key priority for the Government is to cut waiting lists, including for patients with migraine. 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 in neurology services. We have reduced the elective waiting list by over 206,000 since July 2024. Between July 2024 and June 2025, we have delivered 5.2 million additional appointments, many of which will have been for patients with migraine.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of implementing baby boxes that contain a free box of essential items for every baby born in England.

There are currently no plans to roll out baby boxes for every baby born in England. Some local organisations choose to provide baby boxes containing free items to families in their area. Whilst we welcome efforts to provide support to babies and their families, these boxes are sometimes shown as a place for babies to sleep. The Department advises that the safest place for babies to sleep is in a cot or a Moses basket, with further information available at the following link:https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/baby/baby-basics/newborn-and-baby-sleeping-advice-for-parents/safe-sleep-advice-for-babies/The Lullaby Trust has provided guidance which states that baby boxes should only be used for sleep in unplanned and emergency situations, with further information available at the following link:https://www.lullabytrust.org.uk/baby-safety/travel-and-weather/safer-sleep-away-from-home-in-emergency-situations/It is important that professionals, parents, and carers follow safe sleep guidance. Ensuring babies have an appropriate place to sleep reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, with further information available at the following link:https://www.nhs.uk/baby/caring-for-a-newborn/reduce-the-risk-of-sudden-infant-death-syndrome/#:~:text=always%20place%20your%20baby%20on,no%20higher%20than%20their%20shouldersMidwives, health visitors, general practitioners, and other health and care professionals all provide advice, support, and health promotion regarding safer sleep for families. As part of the universal Healthy Child Programme, health visiting teams offer safe sleeping advice, and intervention where appropriate, to families.The Government’s Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life strategy sets out how we will expand and strengthen family and health services in early childhood to improve child development, health, and education outcomes. Building on the £126 million funding boost for the Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme in 2025/26, Best Start Family Hubs will be rolled out to every local authority from April 2026. Best Start Family Hubs will provide a new evidenced-informed core offer for parents, a clear local mission around children’s early development, and a digital parenting offer.

What steps he is taking to help increase he number of suicide prevention services.

The Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, published in 2023, identifies eight priority groups for targeted and tailored support at a national level, including people in contact with mental health services. The strategy also identifies key risk factors for suicide, providing an opportunity for effective early intervention. The purpose of the Suicide Prevention Strategy is to set out our aims to prevent suicide through action by Government and other organisations. One of the key visions of the strategy to reduce the stigma surrounding suicide and mental health, so people feel able to seek help through the routes that work best for them. This includes raising awareness that no suicide is inevitable. The 10-Year Health Plan sets out ambitious plans to boost mental health support across the country. This includes transforming mental health services into 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres, improving assertive outreach, expanding talking therapies, and giving patients better access to 24/7 support directly through the NHS App.

What steps he is taking to support parents whose child is diagnosed with a serious or life-limiting illness.

As per Section 97 (3b) of the Children’s and Families Act 2014, parent carers have the right to request an assessment of their need for support from the local authority. Having been assessed, Section 17 (10b) of the Children’s Acts 1989 makes provision for a child whose physical or mental health is impaired, as well as his or her family, to receive the appropriate support services from the local authority. Local authorities have a statutory duty to assess the social care needs of children and young people with serious or life-limiting illness, and to provide respite care where necessary. Local authorities and integrated care boards regularly liaise to plan and commission the most appropriate package of short breaks for the children and young people with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition in their area.The statutory guidance on palliative and end of life care produced by NHS England states that the core responsibility for commissioners is to commission high-quality, safe services that are tailored to the needs of the individual. The duty is intended to ensure that those of all ages with palliative and end of life care needs, with progressive illness or those nearing the end of their lives, as well as their loved ones and carers, receive the care and support they need to live and to die well.I am pleased to confirm the continuation of children’s hospice funding for the next three financial years, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive. This funding will see circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children’s hospices in England each year, via their local integrated care boards on behalf of NHS England, as happened in 2024/25 and 2025/26. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.

How many UK-trained junior doctors were unable to secure NHS training placements in 2024.

In 2024, 14,620 graduates from United Kingdom medical schools applied for medical specialty training posts. Of these 1,299 were unsuccessful and deemed unappointable in any of their applications. A further 1,476 UK graduates were deemed appointable at interview but did not receive any offers due to post availability.