Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
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 potential merits of (a) extending access for 12 to 17 year olds to a second dose of the covid-19 vaccine and (b) making it possible for 12 to 17 year olds to be able to prove that they have had the virus on the covid-19 travel passport to enable those people to travel to countries that require proof of double vaccination.
Answered by Maggie Throup
On 15 November 2021, the Government accepted advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to offer a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccination to all 16 and 17-year-olds. On 29 November 2021, the Government accepted further advice from the JCVI to offer all 12-17-year-olds a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with the second dose being offered at a minimum of 12 weeks from their first dose, or 12 weeks after testing positive for COVID-19 infection.
The NHS COVID Pass has been available for people aged 16 or over to demonstrate their COVID-19 status for travel purposes since 17 May 2021. Since 13 December 2021, children in England aged 12-15-years-old who have had a full course of COVID-19 vaccination are eligible for an NHS COVID Pass letter for travel with an internationally recognised 2D barcode, following the decision to offer two doses of vaccine to all 12-15-year-olds in the United Kingdom. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nhs-covid-pass-for-12-15-year-olds-for-international-travel
Since 3 February 2021, children in England have been able to prove their vaccination or proof of prior infection via a digital NHS COVID Pass for outbound travel. The COVID Pass is available via the NHS.UK website for those aged 12 and over and via the NHS App for those aged 13 and over. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/get-digital-covid-pass/
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department takes to help ensure that Government funding allocated to local authorities for children's and young people's mental health services is used effectively to meet their needs; and what oversight there is for the effective use of those funds.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Local authority commissioned public health services in England are funded through a ring-fenced Public Health Grant, which has been maintained in the Chancellor’s Financial Statement.
Local authorities are best placed to make individual funding decisions based on local need. We will continue to work with the Local Government Association and professional bodies to share evidence and guidance that allows councils to make the best decisions to meet local need.
Each local authority must submit a return to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, setting out how the Grant has been spent at the end of each financial year.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of research on abortion at home that has not been co-authored by people representing abortion providers; and what approach his Department takes in respect of research that is undertaken by people and organisations that have a financial and reputational interest in its results.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made. The Government committed to undertake a public consultation on whether to make permanent the temporary measure allowing for home use of both pills for early medical abortion up to 10 weeks gestation for all eligible women. The consultation has now closed and we will be considering all evidence submitted and plan to publish our response later this year. Any evidence or research submitted as part of this consultation will be reviewed and considered alongside any potential conflicts of interest.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 30 March 2021 to Question 164679 on Abortions: Drugs, what her Departments's timeframe is for examining the collection of abortion complications data with partner organisations; and what the (a) form and (b) content of that examination will be.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Scoping of the Department’s project to review the system of recording abortion complications data is currently underway. Abortion complications data is collected via the HSA4 abortion notification form. However, it is recognised that the data is limited as not all complications will be known to the practitioner at the time the form is submitted.
To improve the accuracy of data collected, the Department will work closely with a range of statutory bodies, professional organisations and abortion providers to identify additional sources of information that could be used to compliment complications data collected via HSA4 abortion notification forms and improve the flow of data on abortion complications between different organisations, such as independent and National Health Service abortion providers and wider NHS health and care services.
We anticipate this work will be completed later this year.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 30 March 2021 to Question 164679 on Abortion: Drugs, what limitations have been identified in respect of the collection of abortion complications data.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Scoping of the Department’s project to review the system of recording abortion complications data is currently underway. Abortion complications data is collected via the HSA4 abortion notification form. However, it is recognised that the data is limited as not all complications will be known to the practitioner at the time the form is submitted.
To improve the accuracy of data collected, the Department will work closely with a range of statutory bodies, professional organisations and abortion providers to identify additional sources of information that could be used to compliment complications data collected via HSA4 abortion notification forms and improve the flow of data on abortion complications between different organisations, such as independent and National Health Service abortion providers and wider NHS health and care services.
We anticipate this work will be completed later this year.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 30 March 2021 to Question 164679 on Abortion: Drugs, with which partner organisations his Department is planning to examine the system of reporting abortion complications; how many of those partner organisations are abortion providers or providers that support abortion; and what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that that examination is objective.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Scoping of the Department’s project to review the system of recording abortion complications data is currently underway. Abortion complications data is collected via the HSA4 abortion notification form. However, it is recognised that the data is limited as not all complications will be known to the practitioner at the time the form is submitted.
To improve the accuracy of data collected, the Department will work closely with a range of statutory bodies, professional organisations and abortion providers to identify additional sources of information that could be used to compliment complications data collected via HSA4 abortion notification forms and improve the flow of data on abortion complications between different organisations, such as independent and National Health Service abortion providers and wider NHS health and care services.
We anticipate this work will be completed later this year.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What recent progress he has made on implementing the recommendations of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
All recommendations of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review are being considered carefully. The Government will respond in full to the report later this year.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his policy that local authorities should be facilitating social contact visits in adult social care settings in the same way as those visits are being facilitated in care homes.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Maintaining opportunities for visiting and spending time together is critical for the health and wellbeing of people in care homes and wider adult social care settings. It is important to recognise the diversity of these environments and the different needs of the people who live there. For these reasons, the care homes guidance is not directly transferable to other settings.
On 30 March, we published an update to our visiting guidance for supported living and extra care. Many of the principles are also relevant to other types of supported housing. This guidance sets out the default position that visits should be supported and enabled wherever it is safe to do so and explains how providers can work with the people they support to develop arrangements for visiting that mitigates these risks.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that the Addictions Strategy will help reduce alcohol harm.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The scope of the United Kingdom cross-Government addiction strategy is still being developed but will consider a range of issues including drugs, alcohol and problem gambling. The Department will consider the emerging evidence around increased alcohol harms during the COVID-19 pandemic and what further action is needed as we develop the strategy.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to protect funding for alcohol treatment in the Addictions Strategy.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The scope of the United Kingdom cross-Government addiction strategy is still being developed but will consider a range of issues including drugs, alcohol and problem gambling. The Department will consider the emerging evidence around increased alcohol harms during the COVID-19 pandemic and what further action is needed as we develop the strategy.