Labour's forthcoming dementia plan has come under scrutiny after the Daily Mail revealed that a key diagnosis target had been removed to cut costs, prompting MPs to press ministers to reinstate it. The target would guarantee patients a dementia diagnosis within 18 weeks of being referred to a memory clinic, and its removal has raised fears that services could be scaled back, leaving more patients waiting months or years for a diagnosis.

Giving evidence to the Commons health and social care committee, senior civil servant Samantha Jones sought to reassure MPs that the blueprint was "not yet agreed" and could still change before publication later this year. Tory MP Joe Robertson urged health secretary James Murray, appearing before the committee for the first time, to enshrine the 18-week target in the "modern service framework" for dementia and frailty, arguing dementia patients deserve the same rights as those with heart disease or cancer. Michelle Dyson, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, warned the plan would not be "worth the paper it is written on" without a firm target.