Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his policy is on compassionate use programmes that allow the use of an unauthorised medicine.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
In the United Kingdom, there are currently arrangements in place for unlicensed medicines to be provided that are either manufactured in the UK or imported into the UK under a notification scheme. The national provisions are set out in the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 (Statutory Instrument 2012/1916). Sponsor companies may set up compassionate use programmes under the direction of a prescribing physician for specific patients.
Where an unmet need has been identified, the Early Access to Medicines Scheme run by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency also provides opportunity for supply of medicines awaiting a licence. These are to be prescribed under the responsibility of the treating physician, supported by a published scientific opinion that has been considered by the Commission on Human Medicines.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions officials in her Department have had with patient groups on the right of referral to research that NHS England committed to in The Implementation Framework: support offer published in June 2019.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The right for patients to be referred to research was announced in the NHS Long Term Plan, the concept was developed during discussions with a range of stakeholders including charities. NHS England and NHS Improvement is at an early stage in developing the detailed proposal and patient and public involvement will be an integral part of this process.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
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 1 October 2019 to Question 290332 and to the Answer of 1 October 2019 to Question 290324, if he will introduce the same policy as the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and switch to an electricity provider that supplies electricity solely from renewable resources within the next 12 months; and for what reason his Department has not already ensured its electricity is supplied solely from renewable resources.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department will continue to use Crown Commercial Services energy frameworks and keep its tariffs under review. The Department will be considering switching to a green tariff in the next 12 months. The Department has previously purchased the standard Crown Commercial Services tariff that is recommended for Departments.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has undertaken of the public health threats posed to the UK by climate change driven changes to vector-borne disease.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Public Health England continually assesses the risks posed by climate change to the changing public health threats posed by vector-borne disease. This can be viewed at the following link:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(15)70091-5/fulltext
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of climate change on the adequacy of the level of national surveillance of disease-spreading vectors in the UK.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Climate change has been identified as one of the factors for changes in the distribution of arthropod disease vectors in Europe.
Specific research on climate and environmental change has been conducted through academic collaborations under the Health Protection Research Units. Summaries of the risks and ongoing work has been published in peer-reviewed journals. This research can be viewed at the following link:
http://www.hpruezi.nihr.ac.uk/
Public Health England (PHE) has established surveillance and research, working with United Kingdom academics and international partners, to prepare for current and future vector-related risks in response to climate and environmental change. PHE’s assessment of the public health threats posed by Vector-Borne Disease in the United Kingdom because of climate change can be found at the following links:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(15)70091-5/fulltext
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2145
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) the cost would be and (b) assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of extending the surveillance of invasive mosquitoes to cover the whole UK.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It is not possible to specifically attribute a cost to the potential merits of extending the surveillance of invasive mosquitoes to cover the whole United Kingdom.
Surveillance for invasive mosquitoes was initiated by the Health Protection Agency in 2010 at UK air and seaports. This can be viewed at the following links:
https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13071-015-0936-9
https://doi.org/10.1111/mve.12396
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
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 24 September 2019 to Question 290332 on Department of Health and Social Care: Energy Supply, what initiatives are included in the on-going programme to reduce emissions; and what the timeframe is for the implementation of each of those initiatives.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department undertakes a rolling programme of initiatives to reduce emissions. This includes works to lighting, heating and ventilation systems and building energy systems. We do not have a timeframe for each individual initiative. A sample of some initiatives are listed in the following table:
Heating, ventilation and air conditioning | Boiler optimisation, heating additive to improve efficiency, Smartcool (cooling optimisation) |
Lighting | Lighting upgrades including photo cell and passive infrared sensors, replacement LED lighting |
Building Energy | Monthly energy consumption dashboard |
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
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 people who for medical reasons cannot be vaccinated against certain infectious diseases remain protected in society and able to lead a normal life.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons receive protection from many infectious diseases through ‘herd immunity’, which occurs as a result of high vaccination uptake rates within the wider population.
It is therefore critical that vaccination rates for all UK programmes remain as high as possible to protect those who cannot be vaccinated, and we are working to increase uptake across all of our vaccination programmes. In order to deliver that, the Department is reviewing all potential options – including the mandation of certain vaccines. This is why we are looking at making some vaccination programmes mandatory.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
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 5 September to Question 284853 on prescription fees and charging, whether NHS England will publish its own impact assessment on the effects of the consultation on dispensing doctors.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department’s consultation on changes to the reimbursement of pharmacy contractors has now closed and responses are being analysed. The impact assessment that was published alongside the consultation document will be updated with information provided by respondents to the consultation which includes dispensing doctors and bodies representing them. No separate impact assessment will be undertaken by NHS England and NHS Improvement in relation to the consultation.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which provider supplies energy to his Department; how much CO2 was emitted through his Department’s energy consumption in the latest period for which figures are available; whether the criteria his Department uses to selecting an energy supplier includes how environmentally friendly the supplier is; and what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce CO2 emissions from its energy use.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department does not set selection criteria for its energy suppliers. Energy is provided by suppliers selected by Crown Commercial Services and the suppliers are currently EDF and Corona. In 2018/19 the Department produced 2,987.64 tonnes of CO2 through energy consumption. The Department has an ongoing programme of initiatives to reduce emissions.