Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord Bethell on 24 February (HL Deb, cols 2–3), what the expected increase in the preventative health budget will be; how much of that will directly benefit sexual health services; what steps they are taking to put innovation at the centre of the sexual health strategy; and what assessment they have made of the pressures on the sexual health workforce arising from the increasing prevalence of sexual transmitted infections.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The 2019 Spending Round provided a real terms increase in the public health grant to local authorities. This is in addition to the funding the National Health Service provides for preventative services. Local authorities in England are mandated to provide comprehensive open access 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.
Work on the development of a new national sexual and reproductive health strategy is underway. Initial engagement has already taken place and we are considering suggestions for priority areas for the new strategy we received through the Green Paper Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s. Details of the strategy’s scope and objectives will be announced in due course.
The Department has not made a specific assessment of the pressures on the sexual health workforce arising from increasing prevalence of sexually transmitted infections.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to combat the growth of drug-resistant sexually transmitted infections.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Of all bacterial sexually transmitted infections, antimicrobial resistance is primarily a concern for gonorrhoea and Mycoplasma genitalium.
Public Health England (PHE) undertakes comprehensive surveillance through the Gonococcal Resistance to Antimicrobials Surveillance Programme. This surveillance programme enables early detection and management of antibiotic resistance in gonorrhoea. This intelligence is used to advise on national gonorrhoea treatment guidelines to ensure they remain effective.
PHE offers a service to detect antibiotic resistance in Mycoplasma genitalium which can help clinicians give the most appropriate treatment to patients. PHE is conducting a pilot of surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in Mycoplasma genitalium in collaboration with several sexual health clinics across England.
PHE also investigates both outbreaks and individual cases of extensively drug resistant gonorrhoea and potential treatment failures for gonorrhoea to ensure effective management and control spread.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what cross-departmental discussions have taken place about drawing up a comprehensive sexual health strategy to tackle the rise in sexually transmitted infections.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The development of a national sexual health strategy is a key recommendation in the Health and Social Care Committee’s report on sexual health, which was published on 2 June 2019. The Government is currently considering the report’s recommendations and will publish a formal response shortly.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the one per cent increase in the local authority Public Health Grant, announced in the Spending Round 2019, published on 4 September, on sexual health services.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Local authority public health grant allocations for 2020/21 will be published in due course. It will be for local authorities themselves to determine how best to use these resources based on their assessment of local need and with regard to their statutory duties.
Local authorities are required by regulations to provide comprehensive open access sexual health services, including provision for sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment and contraception.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had, and intend to have, with local authorities about ensuring PrEP is routinely commissioned as part of HIV prevention services.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they are giving to the needs of people living with HIV as part of their development of a long-term plan for the NHS.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Following the announcement in June 2018, the Prime Minister has asked the National Health Service to develop a long term plan for the service. The plan will set out how the NHS will develop over the coming years, underpinned by a five-year funding offer which will see the NHS budget grow by over £20.5 billion a year in real terms by 2023-24. It provides an excellent opportunity to look at how HIV and other services can be further improved over the next decade. The plan is currently in development and will be published later in the year.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people have been diagnosed with amyloidosis in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Amyloidosis is the name for a group of rare, serious conditions caused by a build-up of an abnormal protein called amyloid in organs and tissues throughout the body.
The information is not held in the format requested. Hospital Episode Statistics data show that in the financial year of 2012-13 there were 1,716 finished admission episodes that had a primary diagnosis of amyloidosis. In the following years there were 2,111 (2013-14), 2,589 (2014-15), 2,668 (2015-16) and 2,703 (2016-17) admissions, respectively, that had a primary diagnosis of amyloidosis. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to publish the recommendations from A systematic overview of reviews on the effective, safe and appropriate use of anticoagulation medicines: protocol undertaken by the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre; and if so, when.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Department commissioned the EPPI-Centre, part of the Institute of Education at University College London, to carry out a systematic overview of reviews on the effective, safe and appropriate use of anticoagulation medicines. The study has completed and the report will be published online very shortly by the EPPI-Centre.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to increase access to HIV prevention interventions for women in England.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
In order to reduce late diagnosis of HIV in women, NHS England is currently considering how it can address stigma, implementation of peer support and mental health in its HIV services and will take these recommendations for women into account.
Public Health England’s report HIV Testing in England: 2017 report highlights public health interventions that conduct and promote HIV testing in women, including the offer and uptake of antenatal testing for HIV to all pregnant women and to women attending sexual health clinics as well as through community and on-line testing services. A copy of HIV Testing in England: 2017 report is attached.
Women are included as a target audience in both national and local HIV prevention campaigns and media campaigns that promote a variety of HIV prevention options that target most at-risk populations which include men who have sex with men, black African women and men as well as women and men from other black and minority ethnic communities with a high or increasing burden of HIV.
The HIV Prevention Innovation Fund, organised by Public Health England, is open to voluntary sector organisations offering novel HIV prevention activities. Of the 12 projects funded in 2017/18, nine were inclusive of women.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to tackle the late diagnosis of women infected with HIV in England.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
In order to reduce late diagnosis of HIV in women, NHS England is currently considering how it can address stigma, implementation of peer support and mental health in its HIV services and will take these recommendations for women into account.
Public Health England’s report HIV Testing in England: 2017 report highlights public health interventions that conduct and promote HIV testing in women, including the offer and uptake of antenatal testing for HIV to all pregnant women and to women attending sexual health clinics as well as through community and on-line testing services. A copy of HIV Testing in England: 2017 report is attached.
Women are included as a target audience in both national and local HIV prevention campaigns and media campaigns that promote a variety of HIV prevention options that target most at-risk populations which include men who have sex with men, black African women and men as well as women and men from other black and minority ethnic communities with a high or increasing burden of HIV.
The HIV Prevention Innovation Fund, organised by Public Health England, is open to voluntary sector organisations offering novel HIV prevention activities. Of the 12 projects funded in 2017/18, nine were inclusive of women.