Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 29 April 2024 to Question 23368 on Armed Forces: Mefloquine, how many of the common law claims have been resolved; and how many unresolved common law claims are the subject of continuing legal action.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
To date, 60 claims have been partially settled and three claims have been fully settled. Partially settled claims are those where damages have been agreed and paid to a Claimant, but where the Claimant's solicitor's costs remain in dispute.
A total of 457 claims are the subject of continuing legal action, in that they have not yet been resolved.
A trial has been listed for March 2025 to establish generic issues. At this trial 10 lead cases from the largest Claimant cohort will be heard. The trial means that all other claims are stayed until the outcome of the lead cases is decided.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care during the debate on Covid-19: Response and Excess Deaths on Thursday 18 April 2024, Official Report, column 537, whether she has had recent discussions with (a) NICE and (b) the MHRA on their progress on reaching a decision on whether to recommend the use of Evusheld 2 to prevent covid-19.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department meets with the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) regularly to discuss a range of issues, including access to medicines. The NICE has formally started its appraisal of AZD-3152, also known as sipavibart and referred to as Evusheld 2, ahead of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) decision on whether it should be given a United Kingdom marketing authorisation, and expects to invite stakeholder submissions in April 2024. Timelines for both the NICE’s guidance and licensing depend on data from the SUPERNOVA trial being available. AstraZeneca intends to submit clinical data to the NICE and the MHRA at the same time, with the aim that both organisations are able to reach decisions as close together as possible. If AZD-3152 is recommended as clinically and cost effective by the NICE, the National Health Service in England will be under a statutory requirement to fund AZD-3152 for eligible patients, in line with the NICE’s recommendations.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the administration of the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme cost the NHS Business Services Authority in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) administers the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, on behalf of the Department. Administration costs for the scheme were £600,000, £8.8 million, and £16.1 million for April 2021 to March 2022, April 2022 to March 2023, and April 2023 to March 2024, respectively. Payments made by the NHSBSA for the provision of medical records totalled £1,200, £72,000, and £73,100, for the same periods. The figures are provided to the nearest decimal place.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the total value was of (a) cigars, (b) snuff and (c) other tobacco products exported from the UK in (i) 2022 and (ii) 2023; and what were the principal countries of destination for those exports.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC releases this information monthly, as a National Statistic called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS), which is available via their dedicated website (www.uktradeinfo.com). From this website, it is possible to build your own data tables based upon bespoke search criteria.
Classification codes (according to the Harmonised System) are available to assist you in accessing published trade statistics data in the UK Global Tariff. Goods moving to and from the UK are identified by an eight-digit commodity code. These are publicly available from the UK Trade Tariff at https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff.
The data on these exports and for other tobacco products can be obtained from www.uktradeinfo.com.
If you need help or support in constructing a table from the data on uktradeinfo, please contact uktradeinfo@hmrc.gov.uk.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the value of imports of (a) vapes and (b) vaping equipment was in (i) 2022 and (ii) 2023; and what proportion of the total value of those imports came from China.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC releases this information monthly, as a National Statistic called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS), which is available via their dedicated website (www.uktradeinfo.com). From this website, it is possible to build your own data tables based upon bespoke search criteria.
Classification codes (according to the Harmonised System) are available to assist you in accessing published trade statistics data in the UK Global Tariff. Goods moving to and from the UK are identified by an eight-digit commodity code. These are publicly available from the UK Trade Tariff at https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff.
The data on the import for these items, including country of export can be obtained from www.uktradeinfo.com.
If you need help or support in constructing a table from the data on uktradeinfo, please contact uktradeinfo@hmrc.gov.uk.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to NHS England has been of reimbursing GP practices for providing services to (a) non-UK and (b) non-registered UK citizens in each of the last three years for which information is available.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
General practices (GPs) are paid for providing essential services to all their patients via global sum payments, which are weighted to take patient needs into account. Therefore, there are no dedicated GP payments for providing services to non-United Kingdom or non-registered UK citizens, and the Department does not hold data on GP patient lists by nationality.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many claims have been made by current or former service personnel in respect of adverse effects caused by being prescribed the drug mefloquine, larium, in each of the last three years for which information is available; and of those, how many have been resolved.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Department has been notified of a total of 686 common law claims relating to the alleged adverse effects of Lariam. A breakdown of claims in each of the last three years is not readily available, however, most the claims were notified prior to April 2021. The Ministry of Defence continues to resolve claims wherever possible.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what evidence of (a) identity and (b) immigration status GPs require from patients seeking to access their services; and whether her Department provides guidance to GPs on ensuring that identification provided by those people is genuine.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients have the legal right to choose a general practice (GP) that best suits their needs. An individual should not be refused registration or appointments because they do not have proof of address or personal identification. Patients do not need to provide proof of address or immigration status, identification, or a National Health Service number to register with a GP. The vast majority of migrants are required to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge when applying for a visa to stay in the United Kingdom for longer than six months.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure equal treatment of (a) internal and (b) external A Level candidates sitting exams at further education colleges (i) in general and (ii) in the marking of coursework.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
All exam centres, including further education colleges, are required to treat all candidates equally, including private candidates, throughout the examination process. This includes offering all aspects of non-exam assessment (NEA) for that qualification, if required. The marking of NEA would also be the same for all students.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2024 to Question 17274 on Offences against Children, on what evidential basis the National Crime Agency has stated that the number of child sex offenders in the UK is between 550,000 and 800,000.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The National Crime Agency publishes an overview of the Child Sexual Abuse threat annually as part of the National Strategic Assessment. This includes an estimate of the number of UK based adult offenders who pose varying degrees of risk to children. An explanation of the CSA Scale Methodology has been published as an Annex to the National Strategic Assessment.