Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish a table setting out, since rollout of COVID-19 tests, (1) how many COVID-19 postal tests have been dispatched each day, (2) how many COVID-19 tests have been returned each day, and (3) how many COVID-19 tests have been returned with a testable sample each day.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 15 June (HL3889), (1) how many, and (2) what percentage, of postal COVID-19 tests up to 8 May were returned with a valid sample.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average length of time it takes (1) for COVID-19 test samples to be processed, (2) for the results to be sent to the person sampled, and (3) for the results to be forwarded to NHS Test and Trace personnel.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what their current target is for testing people in the UK for COVID-19; and how long they intend to maintain this capacity to address possible resurgences of the pandemic.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many COVID-19 tests have been dispatched for each day since postal distribution began.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many postal COVID-19 tests have been returned to laboratories for each day since the scheme began; and (1) how many, and (2) what percentage of, the tests administered by post have been discounted because swabbed material was not effectively collected.
Answered by Lord Bethell
As of 16 June, 3% of home test kits have been returned void. We continue to work with our partners to ensure home testing kits are of the highest standard, user friendly and easy to return back for processing.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the advice by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies that delays over 72 hours in contacting individuals who have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 will have a detrimental effect on the 'R' value for COVID-19, what steps they are taking to ensure that all such individuals are traced within 72 hours.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government launched its NHS Test and Trace service on 28 May 2020 to control the rate of reproduction (R), reduce the spread of the virus and save lives.
The contact tracing process starts as soon as NHS Test and Trace receive notification that someone has tested positive for COVID-19. We are reaching the close contacts of thousands of positive cases and we are encouraged by the progress so far and user feedback.
NHS Test and Trace statistics published on 9 July show that since 28 May 90.3% (17,322) of people who tested positive for COVID-19 were successfully reached and asked to provide details about close contacts within 48 hours (for non-complex cases only). Additionally, 83.4% (22,574) of people identified as recent close contacts were reached and advised to self-isolate within 24 hours of being identified (for non-complex cases only).
Currently we only have timings for each part of the process rather than the end to end journey, so we can say how many people received test results within 24 hours, how many people who tested positive were reached within 24 hours (for non-complex cases only) and how many people who were identified as contacts were reached within 24 hours (for non-complex cases only).
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why there have been no new full extract cannabis oil prescriptions by the NHS since the medicinal use of the drug was legalised 18 months ago; and whether they will review current prescribing guidelines to enable its wider use for children with rare forms of treatment resistant epilepsy.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government changed the law. Specialist doctors can prescribe medicinal cannabis where clinically appropriate and in the best interests of patients.
The clinical guidelines, developed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, demonstrate a clear need for more evidence to support routine prescribing and funding decisions of unlicensed cannabis-based medicines for rare forms of treatment-resistant epilepsy.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have been clear that guidance is just that and decisions on the treatment of individual patients are for the treating clinicians. The Chief Medical Officer and NHS England and NHS Improvement have written to clinicians to clarify the procedure for prescribing and supplying these products and signposted further support material.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies' advice that there is a lack of information on the modes of COVID-19 transmission in the UK, what steps they are taking to close that knowledge gap.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and is the largest public funder of health research in the United Kingdom.
As part of the NIHR-UK Research and Innovation rolling call for rapid research proposals, two highlight notices were issued in May inviting COVID-19 research proposals on transmission, and priority groups – transmission, risk factors and seroprevalence.
These highlight notices have been issued following advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies and to help address gaps in knowledge about transmission of the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Applications are being considered for funding, including on the quality of the science proposed and its relevance to the highlight notices. Successful proposals will be announced as soon as possible.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that those contacted by the NHS COVID-19 test, track and trace scheme fully cooperate with it, following the pilot tracing scheme in Sheffield where two-thirds of COVID-19 contacts failed to comply.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government launched the NHS Test and Trace service on 28 May 2020.
Since its introduction, NHS Test and Trace have traced the contacts of thousands of positive cases, using both online services and over the phone, and we are encouraged by the progress so far and user feedback.
We are asking anyone who has been told to self-isolate to follow the advice given and we are confident that the vast majority will do so in order to play their part in reducing the spread of the virus to keep themselves, their families and communities safe and to protect the National Health Service. However, if we find that people are not complying with isolation instructions, we will not hesitate to introduce tougher measures.