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 establish an industry-wide consultative committee to promote a global-scale UK diagnostics sector.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government is working with the life sciences sector to strengthen United Kingdom resilience by developing proposals to build a long-term national diagnostics industry, and by exploring how the National Health Service market can make better use of innovative diagnostics.
We have also established the Accelerated Access Collaborative which brings together leaders from across industry, the NHS, regulators and the Government to get innovations, including the best new diagnostics, into the hands of patients and clinicians faster than ever before.
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 (1) the UK's performance in collecting data on antimicrobial resistance, and (2) how the UK's outcome indicators compare with other European countries.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The United Kingdom has one of the most comprehensive antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance systems in the world.
Published studies suggest that the UK has a lower incidence of resistant infections at 82 per 100,000 population than the European Union average of 131 per 100,000.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control annual epidemiological report for 2018 showed that total antibiotic consumption in the UK was 18.8 defined daily doses (DDD) per 1,000 population per day, which was lower than the population-weighted average consumption of 20.1 DDD per 1,000 population per day across the EU and European Economic Area.
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 UK's future relationship with the European Centre for Disease Control after the transition period of the UK's departure from the EU.
Answered by Lord Bethell
As set out in the United Kingdom’s approach to negotiations with the European Union published on 27 February, the UK is ready to discuss how our citizens can be kept safe and benefit from continued international cooperation on health security following the end of the transition period, where it is in our mutual interest. The detail of the UK’s future relationship with the EU on health security is subject to the outcome of the ongoing negotiations. We welcome the discussions we have had so far on the scope of cooperation in this area and welcome continued talks going forwards.
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 capacity in the UK to manufacture personal protection equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Bethell
As of 5 May, over 9,000 businesses have contacted the Government with offers of help on supplying personal protective equipment (PPE) which we are now taking forward, with 267 of these relating to the manufacture of PPE for National Health Service and care sectors. These are predominantly United Kingdom-based companies but include a strong representation from multinational companies.
The Department triages all offers to assess their potential to proceed, based upon whether the offer is from a high potential manufacturer who have existing domestic manufacturing capability that can rapidly be re-purposed to support the national effort.
As of 5 May, the Department has entered into contract and placed orders with seven manufacturers to provide PPE products to the NHS and carers, to all regions of the UK. Their volumes will increase in the coming weeks and in addition other suppliers will come on line to supply products.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - 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 26 February (HL1925), (1) whether they will provide a breakdown of how the £360 million invested in antimicrobial resistance research since 2014 was spent, (2) what assessment they have made of the outcomes from the investment in antimicrobial resistance to date, and (3) what is their strategy for incentivising the pharmaceutical industry to develop antibiotics.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The breakdown of the United Kingdom’s investment into antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research and development since 2014 is set out in the following table:
Investment amount | Item |
UK domestic investment | |
£46 million | UK Research and Innovation (UKRI): Cross-Research Council AMR initiative |
£10 million | Nesta: The Longitude Prize |
£20 million | National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) AMR-themed call |
Approximately £8 million | NIHR-funded Health Protection Research Units: Healthcare-Associated Infections and AMR |
£55 million | Department of Health and Social Care: AMR capital funding |
£4 million | Medical Research Council (MRC): Antimicrobial Target Discovery and Validation |
UK international investment/ official development assistance | |
£41 million | UKRI: Research Councils |
£8.8 million | NIHR: Global Health Research programme |
£12 million | Joint MRC/NIHR: 3-4 research consortia to identify the primary drivers of AMR in a global context. |
£60.5 million (initial investment £50 million)* | Department of Health and Social Care: Global AMR Innovation Fund (GAMRIF) |
Other investment | |
£107 million | Interdisciplinary AMR research (investments announced at United Nations General Assembly) |
Note:
*Through GAMRIF, push funding into AMR research in development for low-and-middle income countries has also been used to leverage approximately £41 million from other funders.
Independent research, commissioned and funded by the NIHR Policy Research Programme, has been conducted on the implementation of the UK five-year AMR Strategy 2013-18, including an assessment of research activity. This evaluation will become publicly available following independent peer review.
The UK is undertaking world-leading work on potential solutions that address pharmaceutical market failure by testing an innovative model for the evaluation and purchase of antimicrobials. For our work to have the full effect, we need other countries to offer similar incentives in their own domestic markets, alongside regional or global market incentives solutions. The UK has taken the lead in lobbying for tangible commitments on market incentives in the 2019 G20 Leaders’ declaration and is working with a number of like-minded countries to advocate for clear, next steps from all G20 members.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how the UK compares with the 27 EU Member States in efforts made to address antimicrobial resistance.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Published studies suggest that the United Kingdom has a lower incidence of resistant infections at 82 per 100,000 population while the European Union average is 131 per 100,000.
The UK aims to achieve antimicrobial usage levels as good as the best countries in the world. Modelling best practice at home, sharing our experiences and learning from the successes of other countries is key to our approach to tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
On reviewing the UK’s approach to AMR, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control noted in 2019 that it is an example for other EU/European Economic Area countries to follow.
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 principal lessons that the UK could learn from the 27 EU Member States on how to improve performance in tackling antimicrobial resistance.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Published studies suggest that the United Kingdom has a lower incidence of resistant infections at 82 per 100,000 population while the European Union average is 131 per 100,000.
The UK aims to achieve antimicrobial usage levels as good as the best countries in the world. Modelling best practice at home, sharing our experiences and learning from the successes of other countries is key to our approach to tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
On reviewing the UK’s approach to AMR, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control noted in 2019 that it is an example for other EU/European Economic Area countries to follow.
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 funds they have made available for research into, and trials of, new antibiotics.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Research into new antibiotics falls within a wider portfolio of research and development to address the problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Since 2014, the United Kingdom Government has invested more than £360 million in AMR research. The United Kingdom Research and Innovation councils support basic science relevant to AMR, including research into new antibiotics. In addition, through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the Department invests in applied health research to evaluate public health measures, healthcare interventions and health services addressing the use of antimicrobial drugs. This includes research to evaluate strategies to incentivise industry to develop new antibiotics. The NIHR also supports AMR research for the primary benefit of people in low- and middle-income countries, using Official Development Assistance funding.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
The Senior Deputy Speaker when the members' attendance feature will be restored to the parliamentary intranet site.
Answered by Lord McFall of Alcluith
The Parliamentary Digital Service has completed work to build a new Lords Attendance Page which will allow Members of the House to access their attendance data while connected on the Estate. The Page is currently being tested by a small group of members and if the test proves successful the Digital Service will roll out the facility to all members of the House in due course.
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 variable health waiting times across the UK.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Health is a devolved matter within the United Kingdom and consequently the access standards in each country reflect the specific health requirements of the devolved administrations. Despite the differences between the nations of the UK, compared to the rest of the world, the UK has amongst the most stretching healthcare access standards and the greatest levels of public visibility of performance against these measures.