Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
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 availability of medicines in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department is doing everything appropriate to prepare for leaving the European Union. We want to reassure patients that our plans should ensure the uninterrupted supply of medicines and medical products once we have left the EU.
The Department, as part of our EU exit preparations, is implementing a multi-layered approach to mitigate potential disruption to supply, which consists of stockpiling where possible, securing freight capacity, changing or clarifying regulatory requirements, procuring additional warehousing, working closely with industry to improve trader readiness and putting in place the National Supply Disruption Response to manage potential shortages. Further details can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to introduce safety tests on the proposed 5G pilot projects.
Answered by Matt Warman
Safety must always be paramount in technological developments and there is no credible evidence 5G is harmful to human health. All proposed 5G Testbeds and Trials (5GTT) projects have to comply with the guidelines published by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection. ICNIRP is formally recognised by the World Health Organization. Public Health England’s Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards takes the lead on public health matters associated with radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, or radio waves.
The 5GTT has strict expectations that all grant funded projects will adhere to ICNIRP guidelines. A considerable amount of research has been carried out on radio waves and per PHE’s advice we anticipate no negative effects on public health.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to amend section 14 of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 to give legal recognition to humanist marriages before waiting for the outcome of the Law Commission’s review.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The Law Commission review that the Government announced this June is a fundamental review of the law on how and where people can legally marry in England and Wales. As part of that review, the Government invited the Law Commission to make recommendations about how marriage by humanist and other non-religious belief organisations could be incorporated into a revised or new scheme for all marriages that is simple, fair and consistent.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reasons the Law Commission is undertaking a review into humanist marriages.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The Law Commission review that the Government announced this June is a fundamental review of the law on how and where people can legally marry in England and Wales. The law has been added to over several centuries without any systematic reform.
As part of that review, the Government invited the Law Commission to make recommendations about how marriage by humanist and other non-religious belief organisations could be incorporated into a revised or new scheme for all marriages that is simple, fair and consistent.
The Law Commission has published the terms of reference for the review at https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/weddings/.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what funding has been allocated to the Law Commission review of the law on marriage.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The Law Commission will review the law on how and where people can marry in England and Wales, and will provide recommendations for a simple, fair and consistent system which gives couples choice in to marry in a way that is meaningful to them. The cost of this project will be approximately £400,000.
This cost is for the resource for two years of a project team made up of one full-time lawyer, one full-time research assistant, a proportion of the time of a team manager and some travel, publication and translation costs (totalling approximately £150,000 per year) plus the cost of engaging a specialist academic (£50,000 per year).
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
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 level of risk to health posed by 5G connectivity.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Public Health England (PHE) has published a webpage about exposure to the radio waves from mobile phone base stations, including those for 5G networks, at the following link:
This explains the health-related reviews and assessments have been performed, as well as the practical measures that are in place to protect public health.
PHE continues to monitor the health-related evidence applicable to radio waves, including in relation to base stations, and is committed to updating its advice as required.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the Israeli Government on the alleged shooting by the Israeli Defence Force of a 9 year old Palestinian boy, Abd a-Rahman a-Shteiwi on 12 July 2019; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Our Embassy in Tel Aviv has raised the death of Abd a-Rahman with the Israeli authorities, stressing the importance of protecting civilians, especially children. The Government is very concerned at the high numbers of Palestinian children killed and injured by Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank and Gaza. We have raised the issue of excessive use of force, including use of live ammunition with both the Office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much capital funding has been (a) allocated to and (b) spent by (i) NHS foundation trusts and (ii) NHS trusts per capita in each of the last five years.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
National Health Service capital expenditure by NHS providers is funded in large part through their ability to generate income via trading activity with Commissioners. This internally generated financing is supplemented by Departmental financing in the form of repayable capital loans and Public Dividend Capital (PDC) for specific strategic initiatives, for example sustainability and transformation partnerships funding; for investment to address pressures on urgent and emergency care over the winter period or for investment in strategic technology fields.
Details of these investments can be found in the annual report ‘Financial Assistance under Section 40 of the National Health Service Act 2006’, which is published alongside the Department’s Annual Report. This can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dhsc-annual-report-and-accounts-2018-to-2019
The following table provides detail of the outturn Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit (CDEL) for foundation trusts and NHS trusts over the past five years.
It is not possible to provide this information ‘per capita’ as there is no fixed population or geographical boundary for any given hospital trust.
| 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 |
Foundation Trust CDEL Outturn Expenditure (£,000s) | 1,925,555 | 1,795,693 | 1,815,837 | 2,061,023 | 2,380,091 |
NHS Trust CDEL Outturn Expenditure (£,000s) | 1,381,276 | 1,146,203 | 1,049,501 | 1,002,017 | 1,551,799 |
Total NHS Provider CDEL Outturn Expenditure (£,000s) | 3,306,831 | 2,941,896 | 2,865,338 | 3,063,040 | 3,931,890 |
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) NHS trusts and (b) NHS foundation trusts have implemented an Electronic Patient Record system; and how many patients’ records are recorded on those systems.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS Digital has advised that currently there are 71 National Health Service trusts and 108 NHS foundation trusts who have implemented an Electronic Patient Record System. NHS Digital does not routinely collect data on the overall number of patients’ records and therefore the number of patient’s records is not held on the Electronic Patient Record System.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many bids for capital spending (a) his Department, (b) NHS England and (c) NHS Improvement have (i) accepted and (ii) fully funded in each of the last five years; and what the total value was of those bids in each of those years.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The number of bids received by the Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement for capital spending are not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.