Written questions by Hayes.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of lack of access to NHS dental services on health outcomes in Lincolnshire.

The dental statistics publication Dental Statistics - England 2023/24, published by the NHS Business Services Authority on 22 August 2024, is available from the following link:https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202324The data for the Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board shows that 37% of adults were seen by a National Health Service dentist in the previous 24 months up to June 2024, compared to 40% in England, and 51% of children were seen by an NHS dentist in the previous 12 months up to June 2024, compared to 56% in England.The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.

For what purposes NHS England has used AI in the last 12 months.

Artificial intelligence (AI) presents significant opportunities within NHS England to improve delivery of care and outcomes for patients by increasing the speed and accuracy of diagnosis, alongside improving staff productivity, by freeing up staff time from some routine and administrative work.Many of these AI technologies are being tested and evaluated in NHS England to aid clinical decision-making, healthcare diagnostics, and imaging. For example, AI has been used to analyse and interpret acute stroke brain scans to support doctors in making treatment decisions in 100% of stroke units in England. In addition, many new technologies have been deployed in over half of acute trusts in England in high-demand areas, such as chest x-rays and chest computed tomography scans, to enable faster diagnosis of diseases like cancer.AI can support clinicians and National Health Service managers in running clinical operations through note taking during mental health consultations, appointment scheduling, and bed management. For example, automated voice to text tools, which use AI to listen to and transcribe patient notes, could help ease the administrative burden faced by staff and make systems more efficient. Several trusts in NHS England are currently running trials, including a multi-site assessment of the impact of using automated transcription software.The deployment of AI in the NHS is still at a relatively early stage, with many AI tools being used in a research capacity. To address this, the Department is carrying out work, with NHS England, to assess the barriers of safe, ethical, and effective adoption and improve the way AI tools are deployed and used in NHS England.

What estimate he had made of the number of additional urgent dental appointments there will be in Lincolnshire in each of the next four years.

The Government is committed to tackling the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care. We are working to ensure that patients can start to access the 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments as soon as possible, targeting the areas that need them most, including Lincolnshire.We will set out further information on this commitment, including how this will be measured, in due course.

Whether he plans to take steps to allow up-to-date medical information to be shared between the NHS and care staff in Lincolnshire.

At a national level, in partnership with NHS England, the Department is building the foundations for improved information sharing between care and health staff. Digital social care records, that contain a person’s care information, are now in use by more than 72% of Care Quality Commission-registered care providers, from a starting point of 41% in December 2021. In the recent announcement on short term reforms in adult social care, we set our ambition that all care providers will be fully digitised by the end of this Parliament.Within the coming months, all assured digital social care records will also enable medical information to be shared with social care providers through GP Connect, which provides a restricted view of a person’s general practice (GP) record to social care staff for direct care purposes, where there is consent for the data to be shared. Currently about 2,000 care providers use GP Connect to access medical information through digital social care records and next year we will be supporting wider adoption of this functionality. Access to this information improves the quality and safety of care and saves time, currently spent on the phone waiting to speak to GP surgeries.In Lincolnshire, the Lincolnshire Care Record enables medical information sharing for direct care purposes across health and social care. This initiative has been live for several years. There is not currently a consistent way for information held by social care providers to be shared, and from April 2025, we will begin work to establish a national shared platform that enables this essential information sharing and ensures health and care staff can access real-time social care, GP, and hospital data, providing access to essential medical information in a timely way. This could include when someone last took their medication, or whether there’s been a change to their care regimen. By linking up systems, National Health Service and care staff will have access to the latest information, speeding up and improving care both in health and in care settings.

What steps his Department is taking to improve provision of post-natal mental health care in Lincolnshire.

Significant progress across England has been made in recent years to ensure that women experiencing moderate to severe perinatal mental health problems can access specialist perinatal mental health services for up to two years after giving birth. This includes Mother and Baby Units, such as the one in Lincolnshire, maternal mental health services, and specialist perinatal mental health community teams.Lincolnshire is one of 75 local authorities that is receiving funding to provide bespoke perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationship support through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme.However, more is needed. Access to these services varies across the country and too many people with mental health issues, including mothers in the 24 months postpartum, are not getting the support or care they need. NHS England is working to ensure that services are accessible to all women who need them.

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 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.

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.

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 inten...

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 da...

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.

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:...

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 undiagnose...

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 inclu...

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.