Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding was allocated to an advertising campaign promoting the covid-19 vaccination programme for 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Campaign funding for promoting the COVID-19 vaccination programme in 2023 has not yet been confirmed.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) non-disclosure and (b) other confidentiality agreements relating to (i) employment, (ii) bullying, (iii) misconduct and (iii) harassment cases have been agreed by their Department in each year since 1 January 2010; and how much money from the public purse has been spent on (A) legal costs and (B) financial settlements for such agreements in each year since 1 January 2010.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not hold any records of non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements between 2010 and 2013. Between 2014 and 2022, there were no non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements. While the Department paid £13,013 in settlement payments during this period, we are unable to provide the information in the format requested as it relates to personal information and could identify the individuals concerned.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many radiographer vacancies there are in (a) Oxfordshire and (b) England as of 2 September 2022; what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of these vacancies on health services; and what steps his Department is taking to help (i) recruit and (ii) retain radiographers in the NHS.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The information requested on the number of radiographer vacancies is not held centrally.
Health Education England (HEE) is working with NHS England on the recovery and renewal of diagnostics services, including the development of community diagnostic centres and staffing models. This includes new roles and routes into areas such as imaging and is led by a joint HEE and NHS England diagnostic workforce board.
HEE has expanded clinical radiology training placements by 110 in 2020 and 2021, with a total of 333 entry places in 2021. This also allowed an increase in posts in interventional radiology by 20. The enhancement of skills within radiography image interpretation and reporting has seen the development of 150 reporting radiographers annually since 2018.
The NHS People Plan focuses on improving the retention of National Health Service staff through staff health and wellbeing, more support for flexible working and a commitment to tackling inequality. In addition, the NHS Retention Programme aims to understand why staff leave, resulting in targeted interventions to support staff to stay.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of (a) the number of officials in his Department involved in recording retained EU legislation for the purposes of the Retained EU Law Dashboard in the latest period for which figures are available and (b) the cost to the public purse of recording that information.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Between November 2021 and May 2022, 10 Departmental officials were involved in this activity.
There has been no additional non-pay cost to the public purse by creating the dashboard. The process was led by the Cabinet Office, which commissioned Government Departments to find Retained European Union Law (REUL) within its legislation and compile where REUL exists in the United Kingdom’s statutes.
The dashboard has been established by the Government Strategic Management Office and is hosted on Tableau Public, which is a free platform for hosting public dashboards. The dashboard will continue to be updated at no additional cost.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
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 adequacy of availability of bereavement support services in (a) Oxford West and Abingdon constituency, (b) Vale of White Horse, (c) Oxford City, (d) Cherwell and (e) Oxfordshire.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
No formal assessment has been made. Bereavement services in Oxfordshire are commissioned by the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board. These include Talking Space, delivered by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust through the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
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 potential merits of providing third sector contractors carrying out NHS contracts with free lateral flow covid-19 test kits.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Free symptomatic and asymptomatic testing is available in the health sector based on clinical risk factors. Those who regularly work with National Health Service patients are eligible for free lateral flow tests through the staff testing programme. This includes individuals not directly employed by a NHS organisation, such as volunteers in vaccination centres in patient-facing roles. The decision on whether a role is patient-facing is made locally.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the announcement from the MHRA of 17 March 2022 on Evusheld, how long Evusheld will take to manufacture; when it will be available; and how people will be prioritised to receive it.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Any public announcement on the procurement of therapeutics would be made after an agreement is reached with companies, as this information is commercially sensitive. The Department continues to examine the potential introduction of prophylaxis, which includes deployment and administration processes. Any such therapeutic treatment must provide evidence that it is clinically cost-effective, does not contribute to the generation of new variants and demonstrate sufficient efficacy against Omicron and new variants.
The Therapeutics Clinical Review Panel is providing advice on the most appropriate patient cohorts for new COVID-19 therapeutics, including preventive treatments such as Evusheld. Final clinical policies and eligibility would be determined by the National Health Service and the devolved administrations.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has instructed his Department to preserve evidence for the inquiry into the Government's handling of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Department is undertaking the appropriate preparatory work ahead of the final Terms of Reference for the Inquiry being announced.
Well-established records management processes are in place across Government and all Departments are aware of the need to keep a full and clear record of their part in events. This includes the decisions they take, the process by which those decisions were reached, the reasons for those decisions and the evidence and data used to support them.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with relevant stakeholders on the potential merits of extending the covid-19 booster vaccination programme in Spring 2022 to (a) NHS staff and (b) people over the age of 50.
Answered by Maggie Throup
We have regular discussions with stakeholders on a range of issues related to the COVID-19 vaccination programme. On 21 February 2022, the Government accepted the advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to offer a further dose to those aged 75 years old and over, residents in care homes for older adults and the immunosuppressed. The primary aim is to reduce the risk of severe disease in the population therefore the most vulnerable groups have been prioritised for vaccination in the spring programme. The JCVI continues to consider the latest available data on the timing and value of any further doses.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the funding provided by Government for research into an agreed paediatric definition of Long Covid; and what assessment he has made of the adequacy of that funding.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No specific assessment has been made. The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including post- COVID-19 syndrome. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. In all disease areas, the NIHR’s funding is dependent on the volume and quality of scientific activity.
The NIHR and UK Research and Innovation have awarded £1.36 million over three years for a study ‘Children and young people with Long Covid: CLoCK’, by University College London and Great Ormond Street’s Institute of Child Health. The NIHR awarded a further £468,661 to the study to support additional recruitment and further analyses. The study’s three-month findings were recently published in the Lancet at the following link:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(22)00022-0/fulltext
Further findings will be published shortly.