Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they (1) have developed, or (2) intend to put in place, for the maintenance phase of Hepatitis C elimination once England has reached the World Health Organisation elimination metrics.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
Significant progress has been made in the effort to eliminate Hepatitis C (HCV) in England and NHS England has publicly committed to the elimination of HCV in England by financial year 2025/26.
Work to support the elimination maintenance phase is currently being developed. It will involve multiple stakeholders including NHS England Specialised Commissioning, integrated care boards (ICBs), the Department, and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). In addition, commissioning arrangements for HCV elimination are expected to be devolved to local levels, with ICBs managing funding for issues such as testing. UKHSA will continue to monitor maintenance of elimination through routine surveillance data.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the HCVAction report Taking the initiative: how England is eliminating Hepatitis C, published on 21 February, what assessment they have made of (1) the effectiveness of peer-to-peer support workers and volunteers with lived experience in combating Hepatitis C, and (2) the lessons for the other areas of healthcare from the Hepatitis C peer programme.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
Peer programmes are a well embedded and demonstrably effective part of NHS England’s Hepatitis C (HCV) Elimination Programme. Almost every elimination initiative that NHS England manages and commissions HCV Operational Delivery Networks to provide, at local and sub-regional levels, has peer involvement. NHS England consistently finds that people with lived experience are excellent advocates and are crucial in developing therapeutic alliances to support people into testing and treatment who may have felt excluded from traditional healthcare and other settings.
The Government will continue to review opportunities for using peer-to-peer support workers and volunteers with lived experience to support other areas of healthcare.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average level of subsidy per person they provide to hotels to quarantine travellers entering the UK from red list countries; and what steps they take to ensure value for money.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
From February to October 2021, the average level of subsidy per person to provide a managed quarantine service was 53%. During the period there was a decrease in number of destinations on the ‘red list’, therefore the number of hotel rooms for quarantine was reduced to reflect the lower demand from passengers and deliver better value for money.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Kamall on 15 November (HL3205), how many companies have had their application to be listed as approved providers of COVID-19 PCR tests rejected; and how many approved providers have been subject to review based on complaints.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
We do not hold data on the number of providers rejected for COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests. Accreditation is managed by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). Data on the number of providers listed on GOV.UK subject to a review specifically based upon complaints is not held. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) supports private providers by encouraging best practice and improving compliance. The UKHSA conducts regular spot checks to ensure providers have met the conditions for selling COVID-19 tests and are meeting minimum standards.
Where the UKHSA becomes aware that a provider is no longer meeting the minimum standards or that the provider’s activities may risk public safety, it will require the provider to undertake remedial action. The UKHSA may remove a provider’s listing whilst remedial action is being undertaken.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to facilitate travel for (1) school groups, and (2) families, to countries where vaccine passports for children aged 12 to 17 are a requirement.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
The NHS COVID Pass for travel is available to those aged 16 years old and over to demonstrate vaccination or recovery status. A small proportion of children over 12 years old have or will receive full vaccination following the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s advice. International standards for travel require a full course to be recognised as ‘fully vaccinated’. The Government is exploring ways to provide fully vaccinated 12 to 15 year olds with a travel NHS COVID Pass, supporting school groups and families. We will keep the position of 12 to 15 year olds who have recovered from COVID-19 and those with recovery and a single dose under review. While some countries treat under 16 year olds as fully vaccinated, others accept testing or recovery as equivalent to full vaccination.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why Immensa Health Clinics Ltd and Dante Labs have not received full UKAS accreditation to perform COVID-19 testing; whether Immensa Health Clinics Ltd and Dante Labs have received £170 million in public contracts since May last year; and if so, why public contracts were awarded to these unaccredited companies.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
Dante Labs is the sister company of Immensa Health Clinics Ltd. Dante Labs have not been awarded Government contracts, they are a private testing provider providing COVID-19 testing directly to private consumers. By law, all COVID-19 tests must meet certain minimum standards set by the Government. Private providers must also complete a declaration stating that their tests meet these standards. The providers listed on GOV.UK may be at various stages of the accreditation process. They may not have full accreditation. However, they will have shown compliance with the required minimum standards as they progress through the process.
We allow private providers to provide testing services ahead of achieving accreditation because achieving accreditation typically takes between six to nine months and requiring providers to achieve this before operating would create a gap in provision of approximately six months. Our mitigation against this being used as a loophole was the addition of an earlier assessment through stage two along with the end-to-end provider being assessed against the Government’s minimum standards.
Immensa Health Clinics Ltd have been awarded contracts worth up to £176 million by the Department. Laboratory contracts were awarded to labs, that are compliant with the requirement to either be accredited to ISO 15189 by UKAS or to be working towards completion of this process. All laboratories were required to complete a rigorous operational, quality and technical readiness process prior to providing testing capacity to NHS Test and Trace. An independent team of clinical scientists working with Test and Trace audited the Immensa Health Clinics Ltd laboratory in Wolverhampton and reviewed their documents, including the clinical sensitivity and specificity of their testing workflow by demonstrating they match with known positive and negative samples. Immensa Health Clinics Ltd demonstrated it had met all these requirements and the laboratory was asked to register with UKAS to undertake a laboratory accreditation scheme and provide evidence of this. Laboratories can continue to operate whilst going through the accreditation process.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many of the private providers of COVID-19 tests listed on the GOV.UK website are not accredited by UKAS; and what steps they have taken, if any, (1) to make clear to website users that a listed provider is unaccredited, or (2) to remove unaccredited companies from the website.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
Only providers who are providing sample collection and/or sample testing services are required to apply for accreditation. As of 21 October 2021, 189 organisations have achieved full accreditation for the testing services they provide. The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Testing Requirements and Standards) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 set out the deadlines for obtaining accreditation. Providers must not market tests if these deadlines are not met. Currently, we have no plans to differentiate between organisations based on their accreditation status but we will continue to review the situation.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure that (1) PCR, and (2) other COVID-19 test providers listed on the gov.uk website, provide accurate information regarding prices for those tests; and to whom should consumers direct any complaints about inaccurate price descriptions.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has a robust process to ensure that prices and information listed on GOV.UK are accurate. All price changes must be submitted to UKHSA which are reviewed for accuracy and providers’ listed pricing must be consistent with the final price that a customer pays. Any provider found to have inaccurate pricing on two separate occasions will be removed from GOV.UK.