Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning ear wax removal and audiology services that meet the needs of their local populations, taking account of relevant national guidance and local service arrangements.

NHS England is supporting ICBs and provider organisations to improve performance and reduce waiting lists for appointments and assessments for hearing services. This includes capital investment to upgrade audiology facilities in National Health Service trusts, expanding audiology testing capacity via community diagnostic centres, and direct support through a national audiology improvement collaborative.

Further, through the Medium Term Planning Framework, we have set a clear target for systems to reduce long waits for community health services. By 2028/29 at least 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks, including community audiology activity.

The Government is committed to transforming diagnostic services in England and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity, including for audiology services for those 18 years old and under.

The National Diagnostic Waiting Times and Activity dataset includes data on the percentage of patients waiting more than six weeks for an audiology assessment, and can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/diagnostics-waiting-times-and-activity/

However, this data cannot be split by adult/child, therefore the Department has not made a formal assessment of the accessibility of hearing tests for those 18 years old and under. As of January 2026, the dataset showed that 45% of patients were waiting more than six weeks for an audiology assessment.

Audiology services are not required to be registered with Care Quality Commission where the services provided do not fall under the regulated activities, as set out in the regulations. Audiology activities, such as hearing tests, hearing aid fittings, and tympanometry/routine assessments are not regulated activities. More information is available at the following link:

https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-regulation/providers/registration/scope-registration/regulated-activities/diagnostic-and-screening-procedures

When an audiologist is a practicing clinical scientist or a hearing aid dispenser, they must be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.hcpc-uk.org/

In December 2021, a report was published into service issues in children’s hearing services in NHS Lothian. The report focused on whether children’s hearing tests were being conducted properly and were effectively followed up. Further problems with the diagnosis of hearing issues in newborns and children were identified in other Scottish NHS trusts in 2023.

Subsequent assessment of NHS hearing services in children’s departments across England in 2023 and 2024 identified similar problems. In 2023, NHS England established the Paediatric Hearing Services Improvement Programme to address the issues and oversee remedial action.

In April 2025, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, appointed Dr Camilla Kingdon to chair an independent review into children’s hearing services. The review has considered:

• NHS England’s response to the service failures in children’s hearing services;
• how the relevant governance arrangements between the Department and NHS England could be improved, and identify lessons learned; and
• how NHS England’s handling of any future service failures in similar services could be improved, and identify lessons learned.

The Department is currently considering next steps and how to ensure lessons learned can be acted upon promptly, including whether steps need to be taken to improve both the consistency and reliability of children’s hearing tests.

NHS England is supporting provider organisations and integrated care boards who are the commissioners of audiology services to improve performance and reduce waiting lists for appointments and assessments for hearing services. This includes capital investment to upgrade audiology facilities in NHS trusts, expanding audiology testing capacity via community diagnostic centres, and directing support through a national audiology improvement collaborative.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is an independent scientific advisory committee advising Ministers and the National Health Service about all aspects of population and targeted screening. It reviewed screening children for hearing problems in 2019 and did not recommend school age screening unless already implemented in an area. A summary of the recommendations conclusions is available at the following link:

https://view-health-screening-recommendations.service.gov.uk/hearing-child/

We would encourage anyone with concerns about their child’s hearing to speak with their general practitioner.

The NHS does, however, run a national newborn hearing screening programme offering screening to all babies in England ideally within the first four to five weeks after they are born. The test can be done for babies up to the age of three months old. Newborn hearing screening aims to identify permanent moderate, severe and profound deafness and hearing impairment in newborn babies.

We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services, including for audiology services such as hearing tests. Our Elective Reform Plan commits to transforming and expanding diagnostic services and speeding up waiting times for tests.

NHS England is supporting provider organisations and integrated care boards, who are the commissioners of audiology services, to improve performance and reduce waiting lists. This includes capital investment to upgrade audiology facilities in NHS trusts, expanding audiology testing capacity via community diagnostic centres, and direct support through a national audiology improvement collaborative.

The 2025 Spending Review confirmed over £6 billion of additional capital investment over five years across new diagnostic, elective, and urgent care capacity. Further details and allocations will be set out in due course.

The Government is taking a number of steps to improve the testing and diagnosis of hearing impairment conditions in National Health Service hospitals. NHS England is working to improve diagnostic services, including audiology, through its National Diagnostic Transformation Programme. Under the programme, a national data collection for audiology services is being coordinated from June 2023. The data collected will capture activity related to waiting times, equipment, workforce, facilities, and digital. The results from this will inform service improvement and future workforce planning at local, regional, and national level.

There is currently a small number of audiology services across England that are commissioned to accept self-referrals. NHS England is aiming to expand direct access and self-referral where general practitioner involvement is not clinically necessary, including for hearing aid services, through the Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care and the 2023/24 Priorities and Operating Planning guidance.

During 2023/34 NHS England will also be reinforcing the improvement guide ‘Approaches to Addressing Audiology Waiting Times’, which was developed for local integrated care systems in December 2022, through shared learning webinars.

All Army personnel, regardless of role, are directed to have their hearing tested at least every 24 months, increasing to every 12 months for those in high risk roles. Personnel working on armoured vehicles fall into this high-risk category.

In response to concerns over the performance of some AFV headsets, the Army will assure compliance with the 12 monthly audiograms for all armoured vehicle users and will establish additional targeted sample surveillance (by vehicle type) to monitor the effectiveness of the safety constraints under the safety cases.

All Army personnel, regardless of role, are directed to have their hearing tested at least every 24 months, increasing to every 12 months for those in high risk roles. Personnel working on armoured vehicles fall into this high-risk category.

In response to concerns over the performance of some AFV headsets, the Army will assure compliance with the 12 monthly audiograms for all armoured vehicle users and will establish additional targeted sample surveillance (by vehicle type) to monitor the effectiveness of the safety constraints under the safety cases.

There are no specific plans to do so. However, the National Institution for Health Research is currently funding a number of related studies, including a £1,586,456 study of neo-vascular age related macular degeneration and glaucoma and a £656,052 project on risk prediction.

Free hearing tests are available through general practitioners. Larger pharmacies and opticians can also carry out hearing tests. As set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with partners to ensure that appropriate hearing checks are carried out for children and young people with a learning disability, or who are autistic, in special residential schools.

NHS England and NHS Improvement’s guidance ‘5 ways to prevent hearing loss’ is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/-5-ways-to-prevent-hearing-loss-/

Health education became a statutory requirement for state-maintained schools in September 2020. The aim of teaching pupils about physical health and mental wellbeing is to give them the information they need to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing, recognise issues in themselves and others and, when issues arise, seek support as early as possible from appropriate sources.

It is for schools to decide what to teach as part of health education based on the needs of their pupils. The Department’s guidance does not stipulate that they should cover the risks of hearing loss, but that they may do so where it is relevant to their pupils.

Pupils are taught about sound as part of the science National Curriculum which is mandatory for all state-maintained schools in England. As part of the programme of study, pupils are taught to understand how sounds are made, how the vibrations that form sound pass through a medium to the ear, and the effect that distance from source has on volume. They also learn about absorption of sound, the auditory range of humans and animals, detection of sound by the eardrum and to understand sound as waves of differing frequencies.

Health education became a statutory requirement for state-maintained schools in September 2020. The aim of teaching pupils about physical health and mental wellbeing is to give them the information they need to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing, recognise issues in themselves and others and, when issues arise, seek support as early as possible from appropriate sources.

It is for schools to decide what to teach as part of health education based on the needs of their pupils. The Department’s guidance does not stipulate that they should cover the risks of hearing loss, but that they may do so where it is relevant to their pupils.

Pupils are taught about sound as part of the science National Curriculum which is mandatory for all state-maintained schools in England. As part of the programme of study, pupils are taught to understand how sounds are made, how the vibrations that form sound pass through a medium to the ear, and the effect that distance from source has on volume. They also learn about absorption of sound, the auditory range of humans and animals, detection of sound by the eardrum and to understand sound as waves of differing frequencies.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The FCDO is not aware of such a phenomenon affecting any of its staff worldwide.

The Government’s prevention Green Paper ‘Advancing our Health: Prevention in the 2020s’ recognised that while the NHS Health Check programme has achieved a lot and continues to support key aims of the NHS Long Term Plan, the time is right to undertake an evidence-based review of how it could be improved in light of advances in medical and behavioural science; digital technology, and opportunities for more innovative implementation. This will include consideration of extending the range of health and care advice checks can offer. The review will take into account the responses to the Green Paper consultation. Further information on arrangements for the review will be published in due course.