wrans/answers2025-11-18 conversation_552
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-11-18)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-11-18 conversation_552

David Chadwick:To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, how many meetings of (a) officials and (b) ministers have taken place to progress the health partnership between Wales and England announced on 23 September 2024 by the Secretary of State. \p Jo Stevens: Both the UK and Welsh Governments know how important it is to strengthen our NHS and bring down waiting lists. That is why our two governments are working together in the spirit of genuine collaboration and partnership to do everything possible to cut waiting lists, collaborate and learn from each other.

That partnership begins with how the NHS is funded. At the Spending Review, we announced a record £22.4 billion per year on average for the Welsh Government between 2026-27 and 2028-29, to invest in public services and drive down waiting lists. This is the largest budget settlement in the history of devolution. This builds on what was announced at Autumn Budget which provided the Welsh Government with an additional £1.7 billion to invest in public services like the NHS. An extra £600 million in funding was invested by the Welsh Government for health and social care in their Budget for 2025/26. The record settlement we provided to the Welsh Government has helped to reduce NHS waiting lists and I was pleased to see that in the most recent health statistics that the over two years waiting lists are more than three quarters (87.6%) lower than the peak in March 2022.

Our governments are learning from each other by sharing best practice on health. The UK Government has learned from the Welsh Government’s reform to dentistry and GP practices, as the UK Government has shared its approach to rolling out extra elective capacity, including through new surgical hubs – an approach the Welsh Government is also taking.

A good example of our two Governments working together on health is the Interministerial Group (IMG) for Health and Social Care, which met on 25 September, chaired by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC). The IMG brought together Ministers from DHSC and the Devolved Governments to discuss shared priorities across health in the UK, including innovation and elective recovery. There are also regular meetings between officials in UK Government and the Devolved Governments on a range health and social care matters.

Our two Governments are working together on ‘Exercise PEGASUS’ – a national exercise on the United Kingdom’s preparedness for a pandemic. This was the first of its kind in nearly a decade and the biggest in UK history.

There are long-standing arrangements for cancer care, renal services and mental health support that cross the border seamlessly. Furthermore, NHS England is working with NHS Wales to improve digital interoperability, especially through the shared care record and technical collaboration on the fast healthcare interoperability resources which allows systems from different manufacturers to exchange messages and data, regardless of the setting that care is delivered in.

In October, the chief information officers across governments agreed to begin working together on digital architecture and standards. This is intended to improve how the NHS across the border can share systems, standards and communicate more effectively. This partnership aims to improve the sharing of digital records in the short term and eventually to achieve a single patient record.

Around 30,000 people who live in England have a GP in Wales, and vice versa. That is why NHS Wales and NHS England have a Statement of Values and Principles that underpins the arrangements for treatment for patients living on the Wales England border. This supports better patient outcomes and avoids fragmentation of care for those people living either side of the border. Further detail on the statement is in the link below.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/cross-border-statement-of-values-and-principles.pdf