Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether tests undertaken as part of plans to introduce same day mass testing for COVID-19 in England will be free at the point of delivery.
Answered by Lord Bethell
All testing carried out by National Health Service Test and Trace is free at the point of delivery.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have held discussions with private sector providers about the delivery of plans for same day mass testing for COVID-19 in England; and, if so, who these providers are.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government is committed to rapid and accessible testing. We are working with private sector and are increasing our testing capacity, both through current swab testing and new, rapid lateral flow tests to cut the spread of COVID-19 nationwide. Where contracts with commercial partners have been finalised the Department publishes contract award notices online at GOV.UK Contract Finder service.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what initial estimate they have made of the cost of plans to introduce same day mass testing for COVID-19 in England.
Answered by Lord Bethell
An evaluation of testing the whole of Liverpool will inform the potential rollout of whole town or city testing to other areas, as part of the Government’s commitment to make mass testing available. Same day testing will involve several different types of technology including lateral flow devices.
A £500 million investment will accelerate the next generation of technologies to support our existing systems and better understand how mass testing could be used.
Our top priorities for testing, as they have been throughout the pandemic, are to allocate testing where it is needed most to save lives, protect the most vulnerable, and enable vital health and care services to operate safely.
In the future, in addition to our existing priorities, we will aim to use new testing technologies to test a higher proportion of the population over time, targeted at where it will have the most impact, and use testing to support the economy and wider society to return to a normal way of life.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Leader of the House what guidance or training is given to Ministers on the requirements to answer written questions from Members of the House comprehensively.
Answered by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
As Leader of the House I take very seriously the responsibility incumbent on all Ministers to provide full, timely and comprehensive answers to Questions for Written Answers (QWAs). My office works closely with all departmental Parliamentary teams to help provide advice on what is expected of them in providing such answers.
Ministers are also reminded regularly of the importance of their obligations to the House.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to make financial resources available to assist in the growth of the UK health care testing industry.
Answered by Lord Bethell
NHS Test and Trace is currently planning to spend in the region of £75 million which will be directed towards the evaluation and adoption of new technologies to ensure that we use the fullest range of innovations to support our testing policy as it develops.
Alongside this, the Government is working with the life sciences sector on proposals to strengthen the United Kingdom diagnostics industry and how the National Health Service market can make better use of innovative diagnostics.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role played by UK-based companies in addressing COVID-19.
Answered by Lord Bethell
United Kingdom-based companies have played a major role in working with the Department on some of the most challenging healthcare areas of the response to COVID-19. These have included:
- building UK manufacturing of personal protective equipment (PPE) capacity by signing contracts to manufacture over three billion items of PPE with over 30 UK-based companies; and
- at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in March there were more than 8,000 mechanical ventilators in hospitals across the UK. As of the end of July we now have over 30,000 mechanical ventilators available to the National Health Service. 14,679 of these are from new suppliers responding to the Prime Minister’s ventilator challenge and are mostly made in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to fund research into antimicrobial resistance following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU; how such funds will be allocated; and who will allocate these funds.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The United Kingdom Government funds domestic research into antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through the UK Research and Innovation research councils and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR also supports AMR research for the primary benefit of people in low- and middle-income countries, using Official Development Assistance funding, as does the Department directly through the Global AMR Innovation Fund. These investments will continue after the end of the transition period. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including AMR. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. It is not usual practice for the NIHR to ring-fence a proportion of its budget for research into particular topics or conditions.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to extend preventative health care testing.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The UK National Screening Committee advises Ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries on all aspects of screening and routinely considers new conditions when evidence becomes available or when proposed through its annual call for topics. The annual call runs from September to December and allows members of the public and stakeholders to submit new conditions for the UK National Screening Committee to consider and assess against internationally recognised criteria.