Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports about the effectiveness of chloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19 pneumonia.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department is considering carefully all available evidence around the potential of different medicines for use in treating COVID-19.
Clinical trials are being developed to assess the benefits of a number of different medicines in treating COVID-19. Further medicines may be trialled should evidence indicate to the Department that this would be an appropriate course of action.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect to publish their vaccines strategy; and whether that strategy will include HPV vaccinations.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The forthcoming vaccine strategy will consider all vaccination programmes over the life-course and, as such, includes human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations. These HPV programmes, introduced for girls in 2008 and extended to boys in 2019, have been highly effective in reducing infections of the HPV types which cause the majority of cervical cancers (HPV16 and 18), and are expected to further reduce other cancers caused by HPV.
The vaccine strategy will be published in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - 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 drugs used by the NHS which have been developed by companies based in Israel have not been tested on Palestinian prisoners or schoolchildren.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Commercial Medicines Unit (CMU) puts in place framework agreements for the supply of medicines for use in National Health Service secondary care organisations i.e. hospitals, although it is not responsible for any aspects of medicines supply in primary care.
All relevant CMU procurements use the Cabinet Office’s standard supplier qualification questions. Suppliers are automatically excluded from bidding if they have convictions for child labour and other forms of trafficking in human beings; discretionary exclusion grounds include breach of labour law obligations.
The CMU have contract monitoring arrangements in place which follow standard Government best practice. These are designed to identify supplier underperformance and any grave misconduct.
Under the Modern Slavery Act 2015, since 1 October 2015, commercial organisations that carry on a business or part of business in the United Kingdom, supply goods or services and have an annual turnover of £36 million or more have been required under Section 54 of the Act to prepare a slavery and human trafficking statement as defined by section 54 of the Act. The CMU also typically require potential suppliers to declare whether they are compliant with this.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that clinics in London are offering surgery to "restore" women's virginity.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers, including surgery clinics, in England. Any provider of surgery, including hymenoplasty, must register with the CQC and meet its fundamental standards of safety and quality – or risk enforcement action. All medical professionals have a duty of care to their patients and must always take into account a patient’s vulnerability or psychological needs before offering treatment, according to the General Medical Council’s ethical standards.
Pressuring a female partner or family member into undergoing any surgical procedures which they do not want is unacceptable. The Government is committed to challenging cultural attitudes that underpin these behaviours, as set out in the cross-Government Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, published in 2016.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford on 8 April (HL14988), what proportion, if any, of the £3 billion ring-fenced public health funding local authorities must spend on sexual health services.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Regulation 6 of The Local Authorities (Public Health Functions and Entry to Premises by Local Healthwatch Representatives) Regulations 2013 requires local authorities to provide or make arrangements to secure the provision of open access sexual health services in their area. The precise level of spending on sexual health services is a matter for individual local authorities, reflecting local need.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford on 25 March (HL Deb, col 1618), whether the £3 billion funding a year ring-fenced around public health services in local authorities is specifically for sexual health services; and if not, what proportion of that funding is specifically for sexual health services.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The public health grant funding allocated to local authorities is ring-fenced for public health functions. It is not specifically for sexual health services.
It is for individual local authorities to decide their spending priorities based on an assessment of local need, including the need for sexual health services taking account of their statutory duties. They are required by regulations to provide services for sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment and contraception.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cytology laboratories have been operating in the UK in each of the last five years; and how many they estimate will be operating in each of the next five years.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
In each of the four years leading up to 2018/19, there were 48 providers of cytology laboratory services operating across England. By the end of the year 2018/19, this number had reduced to 46 as two providers did not wish to continue providing cytology services.
NHS England is currently undertaking a national procurement to secure service providers to deliver human papillomavirus (HPV) primary screening, and as part of this process NHS England will consolidate the 46 laboratories who currently support the programme to a maximum of nine laboratories. The HPV pilot evaluation suggested that the need for cytology could reduce by as much as 85% when HPV testing is used as the primary screen.
The successful providers are expected to be announced in April 2019 and five year contracts will commence from July 2019. Providers are expected to convert to HPV primary screening by December 2019, and operate from a single site by 31 March 2020.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cases of urinary or faecal incontinence as a result of childbirth were recorded in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The data requested are not held centrally.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to monitor and record contraceptive use in the UK once the NHS goes paperless in 2020; and if so, whether they will record types of contraceptives being used according to age group.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Contraception supplied in sexual and reproductive health services in England is monitored and recorded nationally through the Sexual and Reproductive Health Activity Data Set, which includes data on age, consultation medium and contraception main method. The data is collected from all sexual and reproductive health services, including some general practitioner (GP) services, and will continue after the National Health Service goes paperless. Data by age is not collected where contraception is supplied by general practice under the GP Contract.