Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Prime Minister, what direction he has given and to which Departments on the UK's future relationship with the EU after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Boris Johnson
The Government is undertaking extensive preparations in advance of the next phase of negotiations with the EU. The Political Declaration sets out firm commitments to achieve a comprehensive free trade agreement and take back control of our laws, borders, money and trade.
The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union is leading preparations for our Future Relationship negotiations across Government, on my behalf. The Department for Exiting the European Union works closely with colleagues in No10, my Europe Adviser, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, UKRep in Brussels and key Whitehall Departments such as the Department for International Trade, HM Treasury and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in that work. This includes working closely with all departments to put in place appropriate governance structures and to build further our capacity and capability, in order to start negotiating the future relationship as soon as possible after we leave.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of current staffing levels in the NHS.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
It is the responsibility of individual National Health Service health and care employers to have staffing arrangements in place that deliver safe and effective care. This includes recruiting the staff needed to support these levels and meet local needs.
The NHS employs more staff now than at any other time in its 70-year history, with an increase of 78,000 full time equivalent staff since May 20101.
The interim People Plan puts the workforce at the heart of the NHS and will ensure we have the staff needed to deliver high quality care. The Plan sets out how the NHS will increase the number of nurses, doctors and other staff working in the health service. The NHS will publish a final People Plan soon after the conclusion of the Spending Review.
Note:
1NHS Digital Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics for England: latest data as at March 2019
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government will recognise July as International Group B Strep Awareness Month; and what progress has been made on improving (a) prevention and (b) awareness of group B streptococcus .
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The Department continues to support awareness of Group B streptococcus, alongside the wider international community.
Group B streptococcus is the leading cause of bacterial infection in newborn babies. The Government has recognised there are gaps in the evidence relating to this issue and the National Institute for Health Research has commissioned a trial to compare the clinical and cost effectiveness of universal screening compared with usual risk-based care, which will help to understand more about the potential benefits and harms of this approach.
This is a large-scale and ambitious trial, the results of which will be of interest to the United Kingdom National Screening Committee and will form one piece of the developing evidence picture to inform its future recommendations for screening for Group B streptococcus.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the vacancy rate is for nurses in (a) the NHS and (b) social care.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
Since April 2017, NHS Improvement collects vacancy rates of medical staff from individual National Health Service providers and publish them as part of its ‘Quarterly performance of the NHS provider sector’ report. The vacancy data is published for three staff groups; doctors, nurses and ‘other staff’. The report can be found in the following link:
The latest available data as at March 2019, shows there are over 39,500 nursing and midwifery vacancies across the NHS. This is a vacancy rate of 11.1%. There are 40,300 nursing and midwifery temporary staff (bank and agency) who are used to fill in these vacancies as well as short and long-term sickness absence and maternity leave.
Skills for Care estimates that in 2017/18, there are over 4,400 vacant registered nursing jobs in social care. This is a vacancy rate of 12.3%.
The interim people Plan, which was published on 3 June 2019, sets out a shared vision and plan of action to put NHS people at the heart of NHS policy and delivery and ensure the NHS has the staff it needs.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what effect the UK leaving the EU without a deal will have on funding of clinical drug trials; if he will make a statement.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The United Kingdom and the European Union have a long record of jointly tackling global challenges, with strong existing links already in place between our research and innovation communities, and we want to continue this important collaboration in science, research and innovation.
The UK and the EU have agreed a flexible extension of the Article 50 period to 31 October 2019. During this extension period the UK will remain a member of the EU, with all the relevant rights and obligations. This means that the UK will continue to participate in Horizon 2020, the EU’s flagship research and innovation programme, on a Member State basis. Further, this extension period provides time for the Government to seek a deal which will ensure the smooth and orderly withdrawal from the EU. If ratified, the proposed Withdrawal Agreement would ensure that following exit the UK could continue to participate in EU programmes such as Horizon 2020 for the lifetime of projects. Further updates on Horizon 2020 planning will be provided in due course.
As a responsible Government, we are continuing to prepare for all scenarios. In the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal at the end of this extension period, the Government has confirmed that the funding commitments made under the guarantee and the extension still stand. Through these commitments, the Government will underwrite funding for all successful competitive eligible UK bids to Horizon 2020 that are submitted before the end of the Programme. This guarantee will apply for the lifetime of projects and will provide funding for UK participation in pioneering Horizon 2020 medical research projects can continue.
Aside from our preparations for leaving the EU, the Government has demonstrated its commitment to research and innovation, including clinical drug trials, by putting it at the heart of its Industrial Strategy, setting an ambition to increase UK total research and development expenditure to 2.4% of gross domestic product by 2027. As a first step towards that we have invested an extra £7 billion in research and development up to 2021/2022. The Government invests over £1 billion in health research through the National Institute for Health Research. This provides direct funding for clinical trials and also the skills, facilities and infrastructure to undertake clinical trials in the health and care service funded by public, charity and industry funders.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment of the effect on the UK's future participation in future EU Research Programmes in (a) medical research and (b) drugs of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Leaving the European Union with a deal remains the Government’s priority. However, as a responsible Government, we must plan for every eventuality, including ‘no deal’.
The United Kingdom and the EU have a long record of jointly tackling global challenges, with strong existing links already in place between our research and innovation communities, and we want to continue this important collaboration in science, research and innovation, including in medical research.
The Government is committed to continuing to back UK researchers and innovators by supporting measures to enable world-class collaborative research, including support for small businesses. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is working with the National Academies, the devolved administrations and UK Research and Innovation to develop ambitious and credible alternatives to association, through which we will enable world class collaborative research.
In addition, earlier in the year, the Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation (Chris Skidmore MP) commissioned Sir Adrian Smith to provide independent advice on international collaboration – specifically on potential future UK funding schemes in the context of the UK’s future ambitions for European and international collaboration on research and innovation. His advice will help set the direction for the implementation of the Government’s ambition to ensure the UK continues to be a global leader in science, research and innovation, and an attractive country for individuals to study and work.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has issued to businesses in the healthcare sector on preparing their workforce for the effect of the introduction of Artificial Intelligence.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Department is leading on the Prime Minister’s Mission to ‘Use data, Artificial Intelligence and innovation to transform the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases by 2030.’ We hope that as we work towards this overall goal, we can ensure that patients experience better care, clinicians deliver better care, commissioners are better able to commission data-driven technologies and the United Kingdom is a great place to do business in artificial intelligence for health and care.
We are working in partnership with organisations across the National Health Service, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Office for Life Sciences, Office for Artificial Intelligence and Better Regulation Executive to engage with businesses in the sector so that we benefit from the potential for artificial intelligence to improve care, deliver better outcomes, contribute to efficiency in the health and care system and contribute to the wider economy. In September 2018, we published the Code of Conduct for Data-Driven Health and Care Technology, which clearly sets out the behaviours we expect from those developing artificial intelligence and related technologies. The Code was updated in February 2019 based on feedback, including from industry partners, and we are working with them to develop case studies showing good practice in complying with the Code. We are also developing tools to help businesses comply the Code of Conduct.
We are also working closely with Health Education England as they follow through on the recommendations made by the Topol Review ‘Preparing the healthcare workforce to deliver the digital future.’
In March 2019, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published its Evidence Standards Framework for Digital Health Technologies, outlining the evidence required by businesses to demonstrate the effectiveness and economic impact of digital health technologies.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the effect has been on levels of nurse recruitment of the removal of the nursing bursary.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The following table shows the number of nurses and midwives recruited since September 2016 - the year before the removal of the National Health Service bursary.
| September 2016 | September 2017 | September 2018 | December 2018 |
Nurses | 274,767 | 275,356 | 277,790 | 280,412 |
Source: NHS Digital Published Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics
The education funding reforms unlocked the cap which constrained the number of pre-registration nursing, midwifery and allied health profession training places allowing more students to gain access to nurse degree training courses.
On 7 February, the University and College Admissions Service published full-time undergraduate nursing and midwifery applications made by the 15 January deadline. This data showed a 4.5% increase in applicants to undergraduate nursing and midwifery courses at English providers. We are working with Health Education England and the university sector to ensure students continue to apply for these courses this year and in future years.