The Government accounted for a wide range of pressures, including demographic changes through the 2025 Spending Review. The resulting settlement allows for an increase of over £4 billion of funding available for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26, to support the sector in making improvements.

The Department also works closely with the sector to deliver a programme of universal and targeted support. For example, through the Partners in Care and Health contract, support is provided to local authorities and partners to develop commissioning and market sustainability strategies, helping them respond to increasing service demand, including that linked to demographic ageing.

Adult social care is part of our vision for a Neighbourhood Health Service that shifts care from hospitals to communities, with more personalised, proactive and joined-up health and care services that help people stay independent for as long as possible. The 10-Year Health Plan sets out how we will work towards a Neighbourhood Health Service, with more care delivered locally to create healthier communities, spot problems earlier, and integrate health into the social fabric of places.

In addition, we have also launched an independent commission into adult social care as part of our first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The commission will make clear recommendations to define and build an adult social care system that will meet the current and future needs of our population.

DWP offers employment support for eligible older people through the network of Jobcentres across the UK.

The White Paper published on 26 November focuses on support for people who are
economically inactive, people who are looking for work or want to progress, and people who are at risk of economic inactivity despite having a desire to stay in work. This includes and goes beyond people who are claiming benefits. The new national jobs and careers service will be instrumental in achieving this objective. This service will be available for anyone, including older people, who wants to look for work, wants help to increase their earnings, or who wants help to change their career or re-train. The service will be tailored to local needs.

We are committing to the establishment of ‘collaboration committees’ to further develop the reforms set out in our Pathways to Work Green Paper. These we will bring together groups of people for specific work areas, collaborating with civil servants to provide discussion,
challenge, and recommendations. Each group will have a different mix of people including older people.

The department also engages with employers to ensure their recruitment practises attract and support the retention of older people and encouraging employers to sign the Age-Friendly
employer pledge.

The Office for Equality and Opportunity maintains the legal framework for discrimination law. This includes the Equality Act 2010 and its protections for older people (through the protected characteristic of age) in a variety of settings, including work and the provision of services.

The Equality Act 2010, including its provisions relating to age, is enforced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. In addition, the Equality Advisory and Support Service advises and assists individuals on issues relating to equality, including where they believe they may have been discriminated against on the basis of their age. We are committed to supporting these institutions to carry out their important functions. The Office for Equality and Opportunity is not considering establishing a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing at this time.

An independent evaluation of the Healthy Ageing Challenge has been published on UKRI’s website. The evaluation found that the Challenge has:

• Contributed to firm-level growth, as evidenced by increased turnover, R&D expenditure, and staff numbers among participating companies.
• Largely achieved its short- to medium-term outcomes. Even against a backdrop of a global pandemic and cost of living crisis
• Supported research and innovation across the entire innovation pipeline from early-stage research to adoption and scaling research, and commercialisation.

The medium- to long-term outcomes are likely to be achieved over the next 3 to 5 years.

The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and research into Multiple Long-Term Conditions (MLTC) is a strategic priority for the NIHR. The NIHR funds significant research into disease progression and the intersection of comorbidities in older adults through its ongoing artificial intelligence for MLTC programme, that was established in 2021.

The UK’s changing demographic profile, of which our ageing population is a part, is a significant long-term challenge facing the UK.

Work to protect our older population is cross-cutting and stretches across the whole of Government. Individual departments take responsibility for the delivery of relevant policies in their jurisdiction. For example, policies that relate to the physical and mental health of older generations are delivered through the Department of Health and Social Care. In the Cabinet Office, the Equalities Hub leads on the Equality Act 2010 which provides strong protection from age discrimination across a variety of settings.

I also refer the Hon lady to PQ HL8000, which discusses the work occurring across the government, and my response to PQ 181258 that refers to the ‘The Future of an Ageing Population’ report from 2016.

While the work required to protect our older generation stretches across the whole of Government, individual departments take responsibility for the delivery of relevant policies within their jurisdictions. The Department of Health and Social Care has jurisdiction over policy levers that relate to the physical and mental health of the older generation. The Department of Work and Pensions also has a strong role to play in its allocation of pensions and benefits. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has a taskforce that aims to improve the housing options for older people. Furthermore, the Cabinet Office’s Equality Hub leads on the Equality Act 2010, which provides strong protection from age discrimination in a variety of settings.

We have no current plans to make a specific assessment.

We have no current plans to develop an ageing population strategy.

We have no current plans to make a specific assessment.

We have no current plans to make a specific assessment.

We have no current plans to make a specific assessment.

The Government Office for Science produced a report in 2016, entitled ‘The Future of an Ageing Population’, which gathered the best available evidence to understand what the ageing of the UK population means both now and in the future.

Work to protect our older generations goes across the whole of Government. Individual departments take responsibility for the delivery of relevant policies within their jurisdictions. For example, the policies to promote the maintenance of the physical and mental wellbeing of our older generations are delivered through the Department for Health and Social Care.

We have no current plans to make a specific assessment.

The Department has no current plans to assess the potential merits of appointing a commissioner for older people and ageing, as the needs of older people and healthy ageing are covered by the NHS Health Check and an ambitious prevention agenda to reduce individuals’ risk of ill health later in life.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities is taking targeted actions to tackle the most common preventable diseases, improving access and uptake of prevention services, and embedding prevention across health and care. For example, encouraging people in mid-life to stop smoking, reduce their alcohol consumption and improve their diet to help reduce the risk of developing dementia, disability and frailty in later life.

Finally, the Government recently announced that it will publish a Major Conditions Strategy which will set out a strong and coherent policy agenda that sets out a shift to integrated, whole-person care. The Strategy will tackle conditions that contribute most to morbidity and mortality across the population in England, including cancers, cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, dementia, mental ill-health and musculoskeletal conditions. An interim report will be published in the summer.

NHS England’s Shared Care Records programme is developing a birth-to-death record.

Shared Care Records aggregate information on an individual’s care records and care plans from a range of providers of health and care services. This will be available to authorised professionals for direct care to that individual and to patients and their approved carers. We will enable patients and their approved carers to contribute specific information on what matters to them to reduce the need to repeat personal histories.

The programme is discussing opportunities to adopt a common approach with the devolved administrations using the International Patient Summary.

The NHS Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is addressing aging in a multi-disciplinary, cross-sector approach. The Laboratory is contributing to a range of projects, including identifying whether artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to detect the earlier onset of Parkinson's disease to enable a proactive approach to care; funding a range of ethics focused research projects to identify how all demographic groups can benefit from AI; and deploying imaging technologies which can detect the prevalence of conditions such as osteoporosis.

Through its Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award, the NHS Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is funding research into testing of leading AI imaging and diagnostic technologies, which could provide faster cancer and stroke diagnoses. Other technologies funded through the Award can assist with managing health conditions such as heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at home and reduce regular hospital visits.

The NHS Artificial Intelligence Laboratory has invested more than £100 million to support testing and evaluation of 77 technologies through its Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award. The Award was established in 2020 and the funding is available for four years.