I was unfortunately unable to attend the Alzheimer's Society Parliamentary Drop-In event owing to a prior diary appointment, however I was able to send a member of staff in my place to ensure I was represented.

I can assure you that dementia is a priority for the Government. In 2015, the Challenge on Dementia 2020 was launched and I know that the Government remains committed to delivering the vision for dementia care, support, awareness, and research which it sets out.

There are 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK, and 30,000 live in Greater Manchester. Within the Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area, as at May 2016, 2,687 people over the age of 65 were diagnosed with dementia, the highest number in Greater Manchester.

In March 2016, the Government published an Implementation Plan to support the 2020 Challenge which has been co-produced with key partners across the health and care sectors.  Alongside this, a joint declaration has been published setting out an ambition to improve the quality of post-diagnostic care.

Progress has been made in the care, support and treatment of people with dementia, with more people receiving a diagnosis than ever before. Over 660,000 NHS staff have received dementia training with further training opportunities rolled out to all NHS staff by the end of 2018, and over 100,000 social care workers have received some form of dementia awareness training.

Finally, I believe it is important to increase public awareness of dementia and I am encouraged that there are over 1.7 million Dementia Friends and 175 Dementia Friendly Communities in England. Research is crucial to understanding and tackling dementia and the Government has doubled research spending on dementia. This will be maintained to total over £300 million by 2020, with the UK's first ever Dementia Research Institute receiving £150 million.