The UK Foundation Programme Office (UKFPO) is currently finalising the timeline for its review of the Preference Informed Allocation process. The UKFPO anticipates that the review will commence in Autumn 2026 and continue throughout 2027. The abolition of NHS England and the associated timelines are subject to legislation and the will of Parliament.

Any costs associated with creating and implementing transfer schemes will form part of the overall costs of the DHSC-NHSE Transformation Programme.

Further details on expenditure related to the closure of NHS England will be reported in our Annual Accounts in the normal way.

The Government expects the wider reforms, including the integration of NHS England into the Department, to deliver savings of over £1 billion a year by the end of this Parliament.

Any costs associated with creating and implementing transfer schemes will form part of the overall costs of the DHSC-NHSE Transformation Programme.

Further details on expenditure related to the closure of NHS England will be reported in our Annual Accounts in the normal way.

The Government expects the wider reforms, including the integration of NHS England into the Department, to deliver savings of over £1 billion a year by the end of this Parliament.

An impact assessment on patient safety measures has been undertaken and published alongside the introduction of the Health Bill 2026. This document contains the following impact assessments, including sections on current estimates of transfer costs: Abolishing Healthwatch England and Local Healthwatch; transfer of the Health Services Safety Investigation Body functions into the Care Quality Commission; and Care Quality Commission: extending the statute of limitations. The impact assessment can be viewed at the following link:

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/4124/publications

An impact assessment on patient safety measures has been undertaken and published alongside the introduction of the Health Bill 2026. This document contains the following impact assessments, including sections on current estimates of transfer costs: Abolishing Healthwatch England and Local Healthwatch; transfer of the Health Services Safety Investigation Body functions into the Care Quality Commission; and Care Quality Commission: extending the statute of limitations. The impact assessment can be viewed at the following link:

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/4124/publications

An impact assessment on patient safety measures has been undertaken and published alongside the introduction of the Health Bill 2026. This document contains the following impact assessments, including sections on current estimates of transfer costs: Abolishing Healthwatch England and Local Healthwatch; transfer of the Health Services Safety Investigation Body functions into the Care Quality Commission; and Care Quality Commission: extending the statute of limitations. The impact assessment can be viewed at the following link:

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/4124/publications

Jury trials remain a cornerstone of our justice system, and will always be in place for the most serious crimes. The Government must guarantee everyone a fair trial. Timeliness is essential for fairness, and the fairness of the system is being undermined by the record backlogs in the Crown court, which we inherited from the previous Conservative Government.

Planning to deliver Project Meharist is progressing. Following publication of the Defence Investment Plan, the intention remains to deliver this critical Defence capability. The programme will continue to be kept under review to ensure it remains aligned with wider Defence investment priorities and strategic requirements.

As set out in the Defence Investment Plan (DIP), the Ministry of Defence is investing £1.4 billion in the modernisation and renewal of Single Living Accommodation (SLA) as part of its commitment to creating a defence estate that better meets the needs of our Armed Forces. This investment will support improvements across the defence estate, including at RAF Waddington, helping to ensure personnel have access to higher-quality living accommodation.

The Government recognises the important role that expanded access programmes can play in enabling patients, particularly those with serious or rare conditions, to access innovative medicines outside routine commissioning arrangements.

As with other goods, the VAT treatment of medicines in the United Kingdom is governed by long-standing principles. This means that even where medicines are supplied free of charge in certain circumstances, a taxable supply may arise. There is no specific VAT exemption for medicines provided through expanded access programmes.

The Government is committed to finding a solution to the issue of companies paying VAT on medicines donated free of charge. This will be delivered either through a VAT change, or through a reimbursement scheme. This decision is subject to further policy work, and officials are working with stakeholders to explore options.

Official statistics for the year to March 2025 show 262 recorded releases in error, and the latest figure will be published next month. In April we also released ad hoc data from April 2025 to March 2026, which was published alongside Dame Lynne Owens’s independent review into releases in error.

The information requested is not held centrally. Pharmaceutical companies can establish compassionate use or early access programmes through which medicines may be made available to National Health Service patients free of charge ahead of an NHS commissioning decision. Such schemes operate outside the established commissioning arrangements for medicines and neither the Department nor NHS England collects information on the number of patients receiving medicines through compassionate use schemes.

We have undertaken an extensive programme of engagement to support the development the 10 Year Workforce Plan. This has included meeting with trade unions, education partners, Royal Colleges, think tanks, charities and system partners. This engagement has included briefing on proposed elements of the plan, where appropriate.

Advanced sight of early versions of the plan has been provided on an individual basis to support its development.

The Health Bill, currently before Parliament, proposes abolition of Healthwatch arrangements nationally and locally. This follows the publication of the report by Penny Dash published in July 2025, which concluded that even though there are multiple organisations representing the voice of the user, including Local Healthwatch, patient experience has not been given the attention that it deserves.

We will make sure patients, service users and local people can influence the strategic planning of services, by placing responsibility for obtaining and actioning the views of all local people on health services with integrated care boards, including those that are clustering.

NHS England provided funding to support validation of waiting lists in 2025/26, as part of the Government's plans for a more productive and improved approach to elective care which is better for patients.

Effective waiting list validation means trusts have an accurate understanding of the true size of their waiting list, and helps them to reduce missed or cancelled appointments, ensure clinicians' time is focused on the patients who need it, and reduce overall waiting times.

Validation is a core part of effective waiting list management and we are still behind pre-pandemic levels. Alongside other efforts, including record levels of activity, ensuring clean waiting lists is a key part of our efforts to improve waiting list performance and build on our success in meeting the interim target of 65% referral to treatment performance by the end of March 2026.

Expenditure on external consultants will be reported in our Annual Accounts in the normal way.

The UK Health Security Agency published a national Syphilis Response Plan in March 2026, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/syphilis-public-health-england-action-plan/ukhsa-syphilis-response-plan

The plan focuses on four key areas: preventing infection; improving testing; ensuring timely treatment; and eliminating congenital syphilis, where infection is passed from mother to baby during pregnancy. Actions include raising public and professional awareness, strengthening prevention activity, expanding and optimising access to testing, improving care pathways, and supporting partner notification to reduce onward transmission.

During 2025, national provision of doxycycline post exposure prophylaxis (doxyPEP) through sexual health services was implemented as a new intervention. This followed evidence of its impact on reducing syphilis incidence in clinical trials and real-world application. United Kingdom guidelines recommend doxyPEP for gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men and transgender women at elevated risk of acquiring syphilis.

As per long-standing practice, an Advice and Guidance (A&G) request itself does not begin the formal period of waiting. If a referral is then made, the waiting time is calculated from when the provider receives notice of that referral

When providers move to an elective Single Point of Access (SPoA) model, as set out in the Medium Term Planning Framework, for patients referred for secondary care treatment following an A&G request, the waiting time will be calculated from the date the request is received by the SPoA.

Placenta Accreta Spectrum (PAS) is rare, but when it does occur it can cause bleeding that is potentially life-threatening. This is why maternity teams are trained to look for the warning signs and identify women at higher risk early in pregnancy.

In 2020, NHS England commissioned PAS networks in the United Kingdom which support local and regional screening, shared protocols and co-ordinated referral pathways to specialist PAS centres. Skilled practitioners with experience of the diagnosis have high rates of detection, which is one of the reasons we have set up specialist centres and introduced clear referral criteria.

It is incredibly worrying that 25% of 11- to 15-year-olds have tried vaping. That is why we are committed to bringing about definitive and positive change to stop future generations from becoming hooked on nicotine. Evidence shows us that vapes appeal to children for many reasons, including packaging, product appearance, flavours, and vapes being easy to access.

The Tobacco and Vapes Act includes a range of new regulation-making powers for the Government. This includes powers that will enable us to introduce new restrictions on the packaging, product appearance, and display of vapes in shops.

We will soon consult on introducing restrictions on tobacco, vaping and nicotine product packaging, flavour descriptors, vape appearance, and changing where and how vapes are displayed in shops. We will listen very carefully to the views and evidence put forward by stakeholders.