Written questions by Evans.

Pursuant to the Answer of 1 December 2025 to Question 87412, how many applications have been received to NHS England’s voluntary redundancy scheme.

NHS England’s voluntary redundancy scheme opened on 1 December 2025 and closed for applications on 16 December 2025. Applications to the scheme are currently being reviewed.Our ambition is to let as many people leave voluntarily as possible and alongside ongoing recruitment controls and natural staff turnover, we believe this will allow us to make significant progress towards the 50% headcount reduction.

Pursuant to the Answer of 1 December 2025 to Question 87412, if he will make an estimate of the potential cost of the applications received to NHS England’s voluntary redundancy scheme.

The estimated overall cost of redundancy exits across the Department, NHS England, integrated care boards (ICBs) and commissioning support units is estimated at approximately £1 billion to £1.3 billion. This calculated estimate was informed by inputs from subject matter experts across both organisations, including human resources, the transformation team, and other relevant functions, to ensure that the estimate reflected the full range of financial and operational implications, as well as staff exit estimates provided by ICBs. The process included designing modelling frameworks, integrating workforce data, stress-testing scenarios and ensuring alignment between the Department’s and NHS England’s finance teams.The redundancy and restructuring programme is now in the stage of active policy development. Final costs are subject to actual take-up of exit schemes and calculated individual costs, which is being continuously monitored.

What materials will be provided by the Government for the (a) the Premier League and (b) Samaritans in the Together Against Suicide Partnership.

As part of England's first ever Men's Health Strategy, the Government announced a groundbreaking partnership with the Premier League to tackle male suicide and improve health literacy. We will work with the Premier League to co-create materials that promote signposting to existing mental health and suicide prevention support. The partnership will also champion NHS England’s new Staying Safe from Suicide guidance, embedding its principles across club staff and driving adoption of the associated e-learning among mental health practitioners within club networks, ensuring best practice reaches those supporting players and fans. Further information on the Staying Safe from Suicide guidance and the associated e-learning is available, respectively, at the following two links:https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/staying-safe-from-suicide/#https://www.minded.org.uk/Component/Details/849008

How much funding the (a) Government, (b) Premier League and (c) Samaritans are providing for the Together Against Suicide Partnership.

Through the Men’s Health Strategy, we have established a partnership with the Premier League to tackle male suicide and improve health literacy. This supports the Premier League’s Together Against Suicide initiative with the Samaritans. The funding contributed towards the Together Against Suicide initiative is not within the Department’s remit.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 December 2025 to Question 87411 on NHS England: Redundancy, what proportion of the £860 million will be spent in each financial year.

The £860 million figure reflects funding brought forward from the Department’s 2025 Spending Review settlement. It will be brought forward to earlier years to bring NHS England into the Department, resulting in one organisation, and significantly reducing integrated care board running costs. This investment now will deliver savings of at least £1 billion per year by the end of this Parliament. This reprofiling was agreed following detailed discussions with HM Treasury and was announced at the Budget in November 2025.The cost estimates to support this reprofiling were calculated jointly by the Department and NHS England’s finance teams, with input from subject matter experts. The calculations remain subject to ongoing policy development and refinement as part of wider transformation planning and prioritisation. Relevant material financial information will be published in due course in line with transparency obligations.The profile by financial year has been published by HM Treasury within table 4.1, page 90, line 38 of the 2025 Budget policy paper, a copy of which is attached. It should be noted that these figures represent United Kingdom-wide allocations informed by the Barnett formula, rather than the England-only value referenced in the question.

Pursuant to question 87411, if he will publish the calculations for the figure of £860 million.

The £860 million figure reflects funding brought forward from the Department’s 2025 Spending Review settlement. It will be brought forward to earlier years to bring NHS England into the Department, resulting in one organisation, and significantly reducing integrated care board running costs. This investment now will deliver savings of at least £1 billion per year by the end of this Parliament. This reprofiling was agreed following detailed discussions with HM Treasury and was announced at the Budget in November 2025.The cost estimates to support this reprofiling were calculated jointly by the Department and NHS England’s finance teams, with input from subject matter experts. The calculations remain subject to ongoing policy development and refinement as part of wider transformation planning and prioritisation. Relevant material financial information will be published in due course in line with transparency obligations.The profile by financial year has been published by HM Treasury within table 4.1, page 90, line 38 of the 2025 Budget policy paper, a copy of which is attached. It should be noted that these figures represent United Kingdom-wide allocations informed by the Barnett formula, rather than the England-only value referenced in the question.

If he will make an assessment for the reasons for the difference in the number of additional NHS appointments that were provided between (a) July 2024 and June 2025 and (b) the preceding 12 months.

Between July 2024 and June 2025, we delivered over 5.2 million additional appointments compared to the previous year, more than double our pledge of two million. Further information is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/recovery-of-elective_activity-mi/Consequently, between the start of July 2024 and the end of June 2025, the waiting list decreased by over 250,000 (252,128) despite over 21 million (21,004,977) new referrals. This comes against the backdrop of 2024/25 Planning Guidance which signalled a reduction in elective activity compared to the 2023/24 financial year.Thanks to an additional £2.1 billion invested, the Government not only avoided a reduction, but delivered a significant increase in elective activity, as part of the first step commitment to ensuring patients can expect to be treated within 18 weeks. Further information is available at the following link:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67ea4faf085277e9961b207b/dhsc-revised-financial-directions-to-NHS-England-2024-to-2025-print-ready.pdf Jul-22 to Jun-23Jul-23 to Jun-24Jul-24 to Jun-25Working Days251252253Total Appointments63,175,22369,945,97275,435,185Standardised baseline (253 Days)163,678,61170,223,53575,435,185Additional Appointments (compared to previous 12 months)-6,544,9245,211,650Data standardised to 253 working days to ensure comparability

If he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the number of additional NHS appointments delivered between (a) July 2024 and June 2025 and (b) July 2023 and June 2024.

Between July 2024 and June 2025, we delivered over 5.2 million additional appointments compared to the previous year, more than double our pledge of two million. Further information is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/recovery-of-elective_activity-mi/Consequently, between the start of July 2024 and the end of June 2025, the waiting list decreased by over 250,000 (252,128) despite over 21 million (21,004,977) new referrals. This comes against the backdrop of 2024/25 Planning Guidance which signalled a reduction in elective activity compared to the 2023/24 financial year.Thanks to an additional £2.1 billion invested, the Government not only avoided a reduction, but delivered a significant increase in elective activity, as part of the first step commitment to ensuring patients can expect to be treated within 18 weeks. Further information is available at the following link:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67ea4faf085277e9961b207b/dhsc-revised-financial-directions-to-NHS-England-2024-to-2025-print-ready.pdf Jul-22 to Jun-23Jul-23 to Jun-24Jul-24 to Jun-25Working Days251252253Total Appointments63,175,22369,945,97275,435,185Standardised baseline (253 Days)163,678,61170,223,53575,435,185Additional Appointments (compared to previous 12 months)-6,544,9245,211,650Data standardised to 253 working days to ensure comparability

Whether he plans to continue the Mental Health Investment Standard.

Despite the challenging fiscal environment, the Department expects all integrated care boards to continue to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard in 2025/26. Spending on mental health support in 2025/26 is forecast to increase compared with 2024/25, reaching £15.6 billion. This represents an increase of £688 million in cash terms. The Government recognises the need for a new approach to mental health in order to reduce waiting times, improve the quality of care, and increase the productivity of mental health services. Funding is a key component of this. The NHS Medium Term Planning Framework therefore sets out that integrated care boards will be required to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard over the next three years by protecting mental health spending in real terms, ensuring that spending increases in line with inflation.

What steps he is taking to ensure that the patterns of social engagement by young men about issues concerning (a) anabolic steroids and (b) image and performance enhancing drugs are captured as part of improving men's health literacy.

On 19 November 2025, to coincide with International Men’s Health Day, we published the first ever Men’s Health Strategy for England. The strategy includes tangible actions to improve access to healthcare, provide the right support to enable men to make healthier choices, develop healthy living and working conditions, foster strong social, community, and family networks, and address societal norms. It also considers how to prevent and tackle the biggest health problems affecting men of all ages, which include mental health and suicide prevention, respiratory illness, prostate cancer, and heart disease.We are taking a range of actions to improve men’s health literacy. For example, our landmark partnership with the Premier League will bring together football clubs and the Government to improve health literacy, particularly around mental health and suicide prevention. We are also ensuring health literacy improvements are embedded at the community level, building the evidence base on heath literacy in men, and identifying ways to build media literacy skills in men to help them critically assess health information and protect against misinformation that harms health.We will consider the impacts on young men in the implementation of the strategy. The strategy sets up a strong foundation for improving how we think and act on men's health and we will learn, iterate, and adapt as new challenges emerge. As a first step, we will work with the Men's Health Academic Network and the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector to develop and publish a one-year-on report, highlighting the improvements made and where future efforts will need to be targeted.

With reference to his Department’s press release entitled Billions to be redirected back into patient care with NHS reform, published on 11 November, if he will publish the upfront costs of these reforms.

The reforms announced on 11 November will involve some upfront costs associated with organisational change, including the reintegration of NHS England and the restructuring of integrated care boards.The Government is committed to ensuring that Parliament and the public are appropriately informed of these costs. Information will be published at the appropriate time, in line with established reporting mechanisms, to ensure transparency and accountability. The Department will continue to provide updates as the reforms progress.

Further to his Department’s press release entitled Billions to be redirected back into patient care with NHS reform, published on 11 November, if he will publish the calculations for the stated £1bn a year saving.

The reintegration of NHS England and the restructuring of integrated care boards will deliver efficiencies that are expected to save £1 billion a year by the end of this Parliament. These savings will be achieved through streamlining functions, reducing duplication, and redirecting resources towards frontline patient care.The Government is committed to transparency in how these figures are calculated. The methodology underpinning the £1 billion saving estimate will be set out through established mechanisms, including publication of supporting documentation where appropriate. This will ensure that both Parliament and the public are able to scrutinise the basis of the savings. Further detail will be brought forward in due course, in line with our commitment to provide clear and timely information.

If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing a new (a) strategy and (b) framework to replace the UK Rare Diseases Framework.

The UK Rare Diseases Framework was published following the National Conversation on Rare Diseases, which received nearly 6,300 responses. This helped identify the four priorities of the framework in tackling rare diseases, which are: helping patients get a final diagnosis faster; increasing awareness of rare diseases among healthcare professionals; better coordination of care; and improving access to specialist care, treatment, and drugs. The Government remains committed to improving the lives of those living with rare conditions and will be publishing the next England Rare Diseases Action Plan for rare disease day in 2026, as in previous years. We recognise that despite the progress that has been made there remains considerable unmet need for people living with rare conditions. We are carefully considering the future of the UK Rare Disease Framework and will be announcing our intentions at a later date.

What representations his Department has received from Integrated Care Boards on (a) the abolition of NHS England and (b) subsequent planned redundancies.

The Department has not received any formal representations from the integrated care boards regarding the abolition of NHS England or any subsequent planned redundancies. This includes anything in relation to NHS England’s announced voluntary redundancy scheme, which will be open to applications from Monday 1 December until 11:59pm on Sunday 14 December.Communications between the Department and the integrated care boards regarding workforce planning are managed within existing operational processes.

What discussions his Department has had with Integrated Care Boards on the source of funding for redundancy packages resulting from the abolition of NHS England.

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we are clear about the need for a smaller centre, as well as scaling back integrated care board running costs and National Health Service provider corporate costs in order to reduce waste and bureaucracy in the NHS.Funding arrangements have been agreed with His Majesty’s Treasury to enable redundancies to be funded within the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC’s) Spending Review settlement. £860 million of planned resource funding has been re-profiled from later to earlier years of DHSC’s Spending Review settlement. This will enable DHSC to continue making progress towards halving headcount across DHSC and NHS England. This will unlock savings of £1 billion a year by the end of the Parliament, equivalent to the cost of over 115,000 extra hip and knee operations.

Pursuant to the Answer of 8 August 2025 to Question 67474 on NHS England: Redundancy, when his Department will provide an update on the cost impact of integrating NHS England with the DHSC.

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we are clear on the need for a smaller centre. Reducing the size of the Department and NHS England will ultimately deliver hundreds of millions of pounds of savings that can be recycled into front line care. There will be no direct reduction in frontline staff as a result of these changes.As part of the transition to the new structure, on Tuesday 11 November, NHS England announced a voluntary redundancy scheme, to allow staff to leave before the merger takes place. The scheme will run from Monday 1 December until 11:59pm on Sunday 14 December.In making these reductions, we will not be cutting any investment into the NHS or frontline services; the savings made will more than offset the cost of redundancy payments.We have recently announced the Spending Review settlement which provides an additional £29 billion of annual day-to-day spending in real terms by 2028/29 compared to 2023/24. We are now carefully reviewing how the settlement is prioritised, including making provision for redundancy costs.The Government is committed to transparency and will consider how best to ensure that the public and parliamentarians are appropriately informed of the relevant information, at the appropriate time. Any publication requirements that become applicable will be complied with as a minimum.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of his Department's requirement to keep online consultation tools open from 8am to 6:30pm from Monday to Friday on (a) patient safety and (b) GP surgeries' workload.

The change regarding online access means parity for walk-in, phone and online access. Implementation was deferred by six months to 1 October 2025 so practices could prepare and get support for this transition if needed. The requirement builds on policies that have been in place for several years to encourage the shift to modern general practice. Practices that consistently use online access report improvements in services for both patients and staff. We agreed that safeguards would be in place for patient safety. Practices are permitted to display guidance on their websites and premises advising patients not to submit an online consultation request if their issue is urgent, and to instead call the practice directly or attend in person.Further, in 2024/25, 85% of primary care networks said all of their practices already had online consultations available for patients to make administrative and clinical requests at least for the duration of core hours, with no patient safety issues raised, and claimed incentive funding for this. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are working to identify practices who are struggling with the requirements, so that they can offer more focussed support.Last summer, we took action to address general practitioner (GP) unemployment. By investing £160 million in the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme in the last year, we have recruited over 2,500 GPs into general practice since October 2024. This will help patients access appointments.

What guidance his Department issues to general practice staff on triaging (a) online consultation submissions and (b) reports of life-threatening symptoms shortly before the online tool closes each day.

The Department updates the General Medical Services and Personal Medical Services regulations that govern general practice. NHS England issues contractual variations and provides supplementary resources to support practices in implementing these changes.The change to online access requirements was deferred by six months to 1 October 2025 so practices could prepare and get support for this transition if needed. Practices were encouraged to consider what changes they have needed to implement to ensure they were ready to meet this requirement from 1 October 2025. This approach was intended to facilitate a smooth transition and minimise any disruption to patient care. Practices are permitted to display guidance on their websites and premises that states patient should not submit an online consultation request if their issue is urgent and should instead call the practice or attend in person.There is a range of support on offer for practices including guidance, joint webinars from NHS Confederation and NHS England to showcase best practice and case studies where this is working well.

How many (a) GP practices and (b) Primary Care Networks providing NHS care are currently registered as Limited Liability Partnerships.

The Department does not hold comprehensive data on the types of organisations delivering general practice services.However, we expect that a large majority of GP practices operate as traditional GP partnerships, rather than Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs). Approximately 95 percent of practices hold General Medical Services or Personal Medical Services contracts, which cannot be held by LLPs.Alternative Provider Medical Service (APMS) contracts, which offer greater flexibility, can be held by LLPs. However, only around 5 percent of GP practices hold APMS contracts, and not all of these operate as LLPs.Primary Care Networks do not hold GP contracts in their own right and are not required to form legal entities. Therefore, we expect very few operate as LLPs.

Whether funding from local budgets will be used to pay redundancy packages, in the context of the abolition of NHS England.

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we are clear on the need for a smaller centre, as well as scaling back integrated care board running costs and NHS provider corporate cost reductions in order to reduce waste and bureaucracy.£860 million of planned resource funding has been re-profiled from later to earlier years of the Department’s Spending Review settlement. This will enable the Department to continue making progress towards halving headcount across the Department and NHS England. This will unlock savings of £1 billion a year by the end of the Parliament, equivalent to the cost of over 115,000 extra hip and knee operations.