To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme: Coronavirus
Friday 18th November 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the speed of processing covid-19 vaccine damage payments; and if his Department will publish its target timeframes for the processing these claims.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The Department continues to work with the NHS Business Services Authority to increase the speed of processing all claims to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS). We have increased administrative and medical assessment capacity and the NHS Business Services Authority has also implemented Subject Access Requests to encourage the timely return of medical records required to carry out medical assessments.

The average claim takes approximately six months to investigate and process from the date a claimant’s medical records are requested. There are no target timeframes as this can vary from case to case, depending on how quickly medical records are received.


Written Question
Chemicals: Health Hazards
Wednesday 2nd November 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in context of the UK Health Security Agency participation in the Partnership for the Risk Assessment of Chemicals, what planned activities the agency has as a participating organisation; and whether the agency plans to conduct human biomonitoring to monitor exposure within the UK population to harmful chemicals, including hormone disrupting chemicals.

Answered by Neil O'Brien

The UK Health Security Agency and United Kingdom participants are involved in all aspects of the Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals, including the assessment of human exposures to environmental pollutants and environmental monitoring of chemicals of concern. The Partnership is currently determining its priorities which will be published online in due course.


Written Question
Ambulance Services: Standards
Tuesday 27th September 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to reduce ambulance waiting times.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

NHS England has allocated an £150 million for ambulance service pressures in 2022/23, supporting improvements to response times through additional call handler recruitment, retention and other funding requirements. The National Health Service is also investing £20 million in the ambulance fleet in each year to 2024/25. This will increase ambulance capacity by reducing the age profile of the fleet, increasing productivity and capacity while decreasing emissions through 30 zero emission ambulances.

The number of NHS ambulance staff and support staff has increased by almost 40% since April 2010. Health Education England has a mandated target to train 3,000 paramedic graduates nationally per annum from 2021 to 2024. St John Ambulance has been contracted to deliver auxiliary ambulance services, providing national surge capacity of at least 5,000 hours per month as needed to support the ambulance response during periods of increased pressure, allowing NHS ambulance crews to respond to emergency calls.


Written Question
Addenbrookes Hospital: Cancer
Tuesday 27th September 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to support the construction of new (a) children’s and (b) specialist cancer hospitals at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust were allocated Wave 4 Sustainability and Transformation Partnership funding of £100 million in 2018 for Cambridge Children’s Hospital. The Department and NHS England are working with the Trust on the plans for the scheme.

A cancer research hospital at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge forms part of the Government’s commitment to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030. The New Hospital Programme is working with Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on the development of the plans for the specialist cancer hospital and progressing enabling works ahead of the main scheme development. The Trust has received £2.6 million for the scheme and it is on schedule to commence construction before 2024.


Written Question
Hospitals: Hertfordshire
Tuesday 27th September 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his timescale is for delivery of a new hospital in West Hertfordshire.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

A new hospital for West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust forms part of the Government’s commitment to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030. The programme to deliver the new hospitals involves schemes being grouped into ‘cohorts’. This is based on an assessment of existing readiness to progress and the extent to which new hospitals can benefit from advantages of delivery through a national programme.

The new hospital for West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is in the third cohort of ‘Pathfinder’ schemes. The Pathfinder cohort is the first group of larger and more complex schemes within the programme being progressed. The timing of the larger and more complex cohorts is still to be finalised, with delivery by 2030.


Written Question
Mount Vernon Cancer Centre
Thursday 22nd September 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the future sustainability of the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre.

Answered by Will Quince

An independent clinical review of services at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre was conducted in 2019. A programme board, including local partners, NHS England and local integrated care systems, has been developing, reviewing and testing options for a sustainable future service. Further actions will be confirmed in due course.


Written Question
NHS: Hertfordshire
Thursday 22nd September 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to increase the number of NHS staff in Hertfordshire.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The 2020 NHS People Plan focuses on improving the retention of National Health Service staff through a programme to support return to practice, invest in and diversify the training pipeline and ethically recruit internationally. There are currently over 9,600 more nurses and almost 4,100 additional doctors working in NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups since last year. We are on schedule to meet the commitment to recruit an additional 50,000 nurses.

Local National Health Service trusts are responsible for managing own staffing levels and for recruiting the appropriate number of health professionals required to meet local service need. In the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust the number of full time equivalent (FTE) staff has increased by 1,065 or 23.1% since May 2010. This is due to an increase of approximately 200 staff at the Trust following changes in the hosting of pathology laboratory services in the East of England in July 2017. In the West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, the number of FTE staff has increased by 1,410 or 42.9% since May 2010.


Written Question
Dental Services: Hertfordshire
Thursday 22nd September 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help improve access to NHS dental services for new patients in Hertfordshire.

Answered by Will Quince

NHS England asked dental and orthodontic practices to return to full delivery of contracted activity from July 2022, including in Hertfordshire. Many contractors are already delivering at 100% of contracted activity.

National Health Service commissioners in the East of England will shortly publish an expression of interest exercise to understand the current capacity of providers in the region, including Hertfordshire. Where there is capacity, NHS England plans to offer additional non-recurrent activity to support patients to access NHS dental services.


Written Question
General Practitioners: Hitchin and Harpenden
Wednesday 21st September 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time was for a GP appointment in Hitchin and Harpenden constituency in the latest period for which data is available; and what steps his Department is taking to help reduce these waiting times.

Answered by Will Quince

The information requested is not held centrally. However, we are investing least £1.5 billion to create an additional 50 million general practice appointments by 2024 by increasing and diversifying the workforce to improve access to general practice appointments and reduce waiting times.

Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) has made tailored support visits to local practices to identify solutions to specific challenges and devise action plans where improvement is needed. More than 70 practices in Hertfordshire and West Essex have been approved for additional funds to upgrade telephone lines to a ‘cloud-based’ system, which has the capability to offer call backs, queue management and to increase the number of lines available if needed. These new systems also enable call volumes and waiting times to be monitored to allow practices to adjust the number of staff taking calls according to the demand.


Written Question
General Practitioners: Hitchin and Harpenden
Wednesday 21st September 2022

Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to help support GPs to offer face-to-face appointments in Hitchin and Harpenden constituency.

Answered by Will Quince

In July 2022. 66.4% of general practice appointments were conducted face-to-face in the Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care System area, compared to 54.7% in 2021. Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) has confirmed that all practices in this area have been providing appointments face-to-face, by phone and video, as clinically necessary. The ICB provide a flexible ‘pool’ of locums to relieve some of the immediate pressure on individual general practitioners (GPs) who may be covering for temporary or long-term absence in their practices.

The Government made £520 million available during the pandemic to increase general practice capacity, including for providing face-to-face appointments. NHS England’s guidance states that GP practices must provide face-to-face appointments, alongside remote consultations. Patients’ input into consultation type should be sought and practices should respect preferences for face-to-face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary.