Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will create a long-term strategy to help prevent misdiagnosis of ADHD amongst women and young girls.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has no current plans to create a long-term strategy specifically for access to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication, nor for raising awareness of ADHD or preventing misdiagnosis of ADHD in women and young girls.
It is the responsibility of local commissioners to make appropriate provisions available to meet the health and care needs of their local population. With respect to assessment, diagnosis and treatment for ADHD, integrated care boards, NHS trusts and health professionals should have due regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline, NG87: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management.
This guideline aims to improve recognition and diagnosis of ADHD, specifically highlighting the importance of recognising ADHD in women and girls, and to improve the quality of care and support that people of all ages who are diagnosed with ADHD receive.
The Women’s Health Strategy for England sets out our plans for boosting health outcomes for women and girls and improving how the health and care system listens to women. Improving information provision for women and girls is a priority. In July 2023, we launched a women’s health area on the National Health Service website. This brings together over 100 topics, including ADHD, and our ambition is for the NHS website to be the first port of call for women and girls seeking information.
The NICE guideline also covers considerations on pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments for ADHD. The guideline states that for children aged five years old and over and for adults, medication should be offered if ADHD symptoms are still causing a significant impairment in at least one domain, after environmental modifications have been implemented and reviewed. Overall, the decision and timescale for initiating medication should be a clinical decision based on the individual patient.
We are aware of current disruptions to the supply of medicines used for the management of ADHD. The Department has been working closely with the respective manufacturers and some issues have now been resolved. However, we know that there continue to be disruptions to some other medicines which should be largely resolved by April 2024.
Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will create a long-term strategy to ensure supply of key medication for ADHD.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Disruptions to the supply of medicines used for the management of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been primarily driven by issues which have resulted in capacity constraints at key manufacturing sites. The Department has been working closely with the respective manufacturers, and some issues have now been resolved. However, we know that there continue to be disruptions to the supply of some other medicines, which should be largely resolved by April 2024. We have also added ADHD products to the list of medicines that cannot be exported from, or hoarded in, the United Kingdom, to protect supplies for UK patients. We understand how frustrating and distressing medicine supply issues can be and want to assure you that we are working with the respective manufacturers to resolve the issues with ADHD medicine supply in the UK as soon as possible, and to help ensure patients are able to access these medicines in the short and long term.
While we cannot always prevent supply issues from occurring, the Department has a range of well-established processes and tools to manage them when they arise and help mitigate risks to patients. There is a team within the Department that deals specifically with medicine supply problems and which works closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England, devolved administrations, and others operating in the supply chain to help prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when shortages do arise.
Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the press release entitled PM meeting with the Prime Minister of Belgium, published by the Prime Minister's office on 23 January 2024, when he expects to finalise the UK-Belgium Law Enforcement Cooperation Agreement; and if he will publish that agreement as soon as it is finalised.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Negotiations on the draft UK-Belgium Law Enforcement Cooperation Agreement are nearing completion. Once finalised and signed by both parties, the agreement will be published as a Command Paper and laid before Parliament with an Explanatory Memorandum in accordance with normal parliamentary procedures.
Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to paragraph 56(d) of the judgement of 28 November 2023 of Mr. Justice Chamberlain, in the case of R (on the application of Kent County Council) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023], whether he plans to commence the provisions of the 2023 Act.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Illegal Migration Act received Royal Assent on 20 July 2023. The Act seeks to ensure the only way to come to the UK for protection will be through safe and legal routes and will take power out of the hands of the criminal gangs and protect vulnerable people, including children.
Following the High Court ECPAT judgment and Supreme Court judgment on Rwanda, the Government is carefully reflecting on commencement of the powers in the Act, including those relating to the accommodation and transfer of unaccompanied children.
These powers have not yet been commenced and a decision will be made in due course. The Act does not change a local authority’s statutory obligations to children from the date of arrival and that the best place for an unaccompanied child is in the care of a local authority. This is something the Government was consistently clear about during the Illegal Migration Act’s passage through Parliament.
We are working at pace with Kent County Council, other government departments and local authorities across the UK to ensure suitable local authority placements are provided for unaccompanied asylum seeking children urgently and sustainably.
Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions he has had with the Department for Education on using migrant labour to fill teaching vacancies.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Government regularly discusses workforce planning in the education sectors, and how to use the immigration system appropriately – in conjunction with resident labour.
A range of teaching professions can use the Points Based System, provided they meet the requirements of the visa route they apply for.
Teaching professions on the national pay scales (see table 2 at - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-skilled-occupations) will be exempt from the forthcoming changes to salary requirements in the Skilled Worker route.
Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent discussions he has had with his Rwandan counterpart on potential threats to the personal safety of Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
We regularly discuss the importance of open political space with the Rwandan government. I did so during my visit to Kigali in August 2023, and we continue to engage with Rwandan officials on this issue via our High Commission.
Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has had discussions with commercial airlines on the potential provision of flights between the UK and Rwanda for the purposes of relocating asylum seekers in line with (a) the Migration and Economic Development Partnership and (b) the UK-Rwanda treaty on provision of an asylum partnership.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
We have robust plans in place for future flights and have carried out discussions with a range of companies. These discussions are commercially sensitive and therefore we will not be providing a running commentary on them.
Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have had their asylum claims (a) removed and (b) withdrawn from the legacy asylum backlog and then gone on to submit new asylum claims.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The number of people who have had their asylum claims removed and withdrawn from the legacy asylum backlog can be found in the quarterly immigration statistics at Asy_10b: asylum-summary-sep-2023-tables, however we are not able to provide the numbers of those who have gone on to have either a new fresh asylum claim accepted and/or have raised a further submission as this information is not published.
Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans she has to implement the recommendations of the Law Commission's report Building families through surrogacy: a new law, HC1236, on (a) establishing a new pathway for surrogacy in which intended parents can be recognised as legal parents from birth, when supported by Regulated Surrogacy Organisations, (b) establishing a surrogacy register to enable people born through surrogacy to find out about their origins, (c) removing the need for surrogates’ partners to consent to parental orders and (d) introducing up to date guidance on what counts as a reasonable expense within a surrogacy agreement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government is giving consideration to all the recommendations in the Law Commission report, Building families through surrogacy: a new law, and will publish a full response in due course.
Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions he has had with his counterpart in Rwanda on the number of Home Office officials that will be sent to help Rwanda upgrade its asylum processing capabilities.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We have been working at pace with the Government of Rwanda to help strengthen the operation of their asylum system. We will continue to progress this, in light of the Supreme Court judgment, and a range of options for further support are being considered. Conversations between governments remain confidential.