Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the paper by the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation, entitled Advice on influenza vaccines for 2023-24, published on 30 November 2022, whether it is his policy to take steps in line with the advice of the Joint Committee that flu vaccinations for secondary school children should be routine.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation published advice on 30 November 2022 regarding the 2023/24 seasonal flu vaccination programme. The Government is considering this advice and details about which cohorts will be offered a free seasonal flu vaccine in England in 2023/24, and which vaccines they will be offered, will be set out in due course.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England plans to publish the service specification for childhood influenza vaccination as part of School Aged Immunisation Service activity for 2023-24.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Ahead of each flu season NHS England confirms the requirements for the seasonal flu programme with all relevant contracted providers. The service specification for the school aged flu immunisation programme is not published in the public domain.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the impact on (a) uptake of vaccinations among eligible cohorts and (b) number of childhood influenza cases over the 2021-22 flu season in the context of the vaccine delivery completion deadline for the Childhood Influenza Vaccination Programme for 2021-22 moving from 15 December 2021 to the end of January 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Overall low levels of influenza activity were seen in 2021 to 2022, with late season activity peaking in week 12 and week 14 of 2022, weeks beginning 20 March and 3 April, when hospital and critical care admissions peaked but at lower levels than seen in previous seasons. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) weekly surveillance reports is available at the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports-2021-to-2022-season
The UKHSA monthly influenza vaccine uptake data shows that the majority of children were vaccinated by end of December 2021 available at the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake-in-children-of-school-age-monthly-data-2021-to-2022
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
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 3 March 2023 to Question 151418 on Influenza: Vaccination, for what reason the disclosure of the quantity of flu vaccinations is considered commercially sensitive.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The volume of flu vaccines procured by UK Health Security Agency test is commercially sensitive as it could potentially be used to determine the cost per unit of vaccines. The release of this information would therefore be detrimental in future negotiations with individual suppliers.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
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 help ensure that new ambulances are manufactured in the UK.
Answered by Will Quince
No such steps are being taken by the Department. The procurement of ambulances is an operational matter for the National Health Service.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
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 12 January 2023 to Question 117444 on Medicine: Education, for what reason his Department does not monitor the number of medical students currently training in the UK.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department monitors a number of points across the medical training pipeline for England. This includes, the numbers of applicants, acceptances and entrants. The Department also monitors those entering foundation training in the National Health Service following completion of medical degrees through statistics drawn from the Electronic Staff Record and published by NHS Digital.
However, there is not a single indicator that shows how many medical students are studying in the United Kingdom across all years and all medical schools at a given point in time. To obtain such information it would require each medical school across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to take on a significant and more detailed reporting burden. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own arrangements for managing their education and training pipelines.
However, the following table shows medical courses applicants, acceptances in England and entrants in the UK from 2011 to 2022.
Academic year | Unique applicants to undergraduate medical courses in England | Acceptances to undergraduate medical courses in England | Entrants to undergraduate medical courses in the United Kingdom |
2011 | 21,825 | 6,090 | N/A |
2012 | 21,060 | 6,225 | 7,810 |
2013 | 21,430 | 5,915 | 7,560 |
2014 | 21,965 | 6,085 | 7,640 |
2015 | 19,820 | 6,095 | 7,515 |
2016 | 19,545 | 6,185 | 7,560 |
2017 | 18,520 | 6,175 | 7,765 |
2018 | 19,870 | 6,720 | 8,615 |
2019 | 21,585 | 7,660 | 9,450 |
2020 | 22,665 | 8,385 | 10,460 |
2021 | 27,460 | 8,610 | 10,540 |
2022 | N/A | N/A | 10,655 |
Source:
University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) end of cycle 2021 and Office for Students Medical Dental Students Survey (2012-2022), Office for Students
Note:
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
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 impact of firms providing agency labour to the NHS on (a) the amount of profit generated by those agencies, (b) trends in the level of health staff leaving NHS employment and joining those agencies and (c) dependence of the NHS on agency labour.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not collect data on the amount of profit generated by agencies supplying staff to the National Health Service nor the number of health staff leaving NHS employment to work for agencies. Data on agency staff is held by the employing agency and is not shared with NHS England. NHS England holds data for agency shifts in the NHS, including hours worked and cost.
The deployment of a temporary workforce is an important element of efficiently running the NHS, allowing the NHS to meet demand fluctuations without the need to increase capacity above that which would be required on a sustained basis. Staff can be drawn from internal staff banks or external agencies.
Our policy is to reduce the use of agency staff and to prioritise the use of in-house staff banks over agency use. The introduction of the Agency Rules in 2016 helped to reduce agency spend by around £1.2 billion, from a peak of £3.6 billion in 2015/16 to £2.4 billion at the end of 2020/21. Total agency spend as a percentage of total wage bill decreased from 7.9% in 2015/16 to 3.7% in 2020/21. Reducing the use of agency staff must be balanced with providing safe care to patients. Trusts are able to use temporary staffing to respond to situations where they do not have sufficient staff numbers. NHS England has re-established measures in September 2022 to control agency expenditure, including a system agency expenditure limit.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, where flu vaccines in use by the NHS during winter 2022-23 were manufactured.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The information requested is not collected centrally. Adult flu vaccines are purchased locally by individual general practitioner practices and community pharmacies.
Children’s flu vaccines are manufactured by AstraZeneca. The manufacture of the AstraZeneca UK Ltd Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine (LAIV) Fluenz Tetra, takes place across the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many prescriptions for cannabis-based medicines have been issued since those prescriptions became legal.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) is unable to provide the number of National Health Service prescription items for unlicensed cannabis-based medicines dispensed in the community in England. This information is being withheld in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), due to the number of items attributed to fewer than five patients and the elevated risk of potential patient identifiable information.
However, the following table shows NHS and private prescribing data for the number of items prescribed for licensed and unlicensed cannabis based medicines dispensed in the community in England.
Type of prescribing | Time period | Number of items |
NHS prescribing licensed medicines | November 2018 to October 2022 | 11,976 |
Private prescribing licensed medicines | November 2018 to October 2022 | 140 |
Private prescribing unlicensed medicines | November 2018 to July 2022 | 89,239 |
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
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 help reduce the cost of the charge to the NHS for antibiotics.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government relies on competition to drive down prices of generic medicines such as antibiotics. This has led to some of the lowest prices in Europe. Freedom of pricing enables supplies to put prices up quickly to ensure we maintain continuity of supply despite increasing prices within the global market. In secondary care, tendering for antibiotics on a frequent basis ensures best value and supply resilience is optimised.
No supplier should use the current situation as an opportunity to exploit the National Health Service. Where companies are found to be abusing their dominant position by charging excessive and unfair prices, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) can take action against businesses and individuals engaged in anti-competitive conduct. The CMA is working to establish the facts of what is currently happening in the antibiotic market. They stand ready to take action if there is evidence of anti-competitive behaviour that breaks the law.