UK Inquiry Tracker

Supporting people with frailty outside hospitals

Public Accounts Committee Open Inquiry

Opened: 12 Dec 2025 Parliament page

More than one in ten people over the age of 65 and up to half the population aged over 85 live with frailty. NHS England describes a person living with frailty, which has a strong link with ageing, as being at high risk of falls, immobility, delirium, incontinence, side effects … Read more More than one in ten people over the age of 65 and up to half the population aged over 85 live with frailty. NHS England describes a person living with frailty, which has a strong link with ageing, as being at high risk of falls, immobility, delirium, incontinence, side effects of medication, admission to hospital or the need for long-term care. The National Audit Office (NAO) have published a study in December 2025 examining how effectively government is tackling the challenges of growing numbers of people with frailty. In 2019, researchers estimated that frailty cost the UK healthcare system around £5.8 billion per year. NAO analysis from April ’17 to March ’25 shows that in total c.1m people had been diagnosed as living with moderate frailty, and a further 450,000 as living with severe frailty. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has a longstanding interest in health-related policy delivery, finding in November 2025 that billions had been spent to tackle NHS waiting lists while still missing post-COVID service recovery targets. Its May 2025 report on the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24 warned that abolishing NHS England (NHSE) with no clear plan for proposed cuts had left an uncertain future for patients and staff. Proceeding from the NAO’s December 2025 report, the PAC will hear from senior officials at the DHSC and NHSE with likely topics including how effectively government, primary care and community services are working to detect people at risk of frailty and delivering support for them. If you have evidence on these issues, please submit here by 23:59 on Thursday 15 January 2026. Please look at the requirements for written evidence submissions and note that the Committee cannot accept material as evidence that is published elsewhere. The Committee decides what information to publish and how. You can request anonymity or confidentiality when you send evidence, but it is for the Committee to say whether it will agree.It may treat submissions confidentially, even where you have not requested this. Please note that the Committee’s inquiry cannot assist with individual cases. If you need help with an individual problem you are having, you may wish to read the information on Parliament’s website about who you can contact with different issues. Show less

5 Recommendations

18 Conclusions

1 Report

Activity timeline 1 event

3 Jun
2026

Report published

79th Report - Supporting people with frailty outside hospitals

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
79th Report - Supporting people with frailty outside hospitals	HC 1706	3 Jun 2026	23	Pending

Recommendations & Conclusions

23 results

2 Recommendation Not Addressed

79th Report - Supporting people wi…

NHS England is not reducing the unacceptable variation in support for people with frailty across...

NHS England is not reducing the unacceptable variation in support for people with frailty across and within Integrated Care Boards (ICBs). There is significant and unexplained regional variation between areas – 32 out of 106 local NHS areas assessed less … Read more

Government Response

The government states it agrees with the recommendation but then provides a response entirely focused on net zero, innovation funding, and a Net Zero Innovation Board, which bears no relevance to the committee's specific recommendation about NHS England and frailty.

HM Treasury

Supporting people with frailty outside hospitals

Activity timeline 1 event

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Recommendations & Conclusions

NHS England is not reducing the unacceptable variation in support for people with frailty across...

NHS England’s existing oversight arrangements are not improving GPs’ assessment and support of people with...

NHS England has overloaded GPs, who have limited capacity, with new and expanding priorities.

The frailty policy landscape is confusing and fragmented.

We remain deeply concerned that cuts to ICBs are insufficiently thought through and will undermine...

On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence...

For all patients diagnosed with severe frailty, the GP contract requires GPs to do a...

NHSE pointed to the large proportion of people with severe frailty living in care homes...

In 2024–25, 32 of 106 local NHS areas (known as sub-ICBs) assessed less than 10%...

NHSE acknowledged the scale of variation and that tackling variation was one way it was...

NHSE also highlighted variation in terms of the range of community services across the country...

NHSE has set requirements for ICBs and GPs to provide health services that aim to...

NHSE told us that it is working to improve accountability and that, in the future,...

NHSE also told us that it was about to write to ICBs, as part of...

We were concerned that GPs might not be prioritising care for those with or at...

NHSE was clear that the “ position we are in is not acceptable”.34 The Chief...

NHSE told us that it is looking at interventions that could be done by other...

NHSE has put in place multiple initiatives that aim to help with frailty.

NHSE informed us that it was establishing a national frailty dashboard which will take into...

NHSE informed us that there are also a number of broader developments which may affect...

NHSE recognised that it needs more evidence to understand which interventions make a difference for...

In March 2025, the government announced it would abolish NHS England and change the responsibilities...

We heard of one element of an ICB that currently has 40 people in place...

Government Response AI assessment · 7 of 5 classified