Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Health of 30 September 2019, on the Health Infrastructure Plan, what increase in capital funding will be delivered by the Health Infrastructure Plan; what the subsequent additional Barnett Consequential Funding to Scotland for that plan will be; and if he will provide the spend profile on a year by year projection for the additional funding for that plan to Scotland.
Answered by Edward Argar
The capital funding for England announced with the launch of the Health Infrastructure Plan (HIP) is £2.8 billion, with £2.7 billion for six new hospital projects that are getting the full go ahead now, and £100 million in seed funding to a further 21 schemes (34 hospitals) to develop their plans.
This announcement will mean the devolved administrations will receive indicative Barnett consequentials over eight years of around £270 million for the Scottish Government, £165 million for the Welsh Government, and £90 million for the Northern Ireland administration. Consequentials will be confirmed when Departmental budgets are set, and the Barnett formula will apply in the normal way.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
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 merits of the decision by the Belgian authorities to halt the roll out of 5G because of health concerns.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The United Kingdom supports European Council Recommendation 1999/519/EC on limiting exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs), which include radio waves. The Recommendation incorporates exposure restrictions from the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), as advised by Public Health England (PHE).
An overview of the radio wave exposure restrictions applied in a range of countries has been provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) at the following link:
http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.EMFLIMITSPUBLICRADIOFREQUENCY?lang=en
This shows that the majority of countries are following the ICNIRP guidelines (41 volts per meter at 900 MHz and 58 volts per meter at 1,800 MHz).
PHE is a collaborating body in WHO’s International EMF Project, which brings together organisations from around the world to share information on this topic. PHE is committed to keeping its advice under review and to updating its advice should new evidence dictate that is necessary.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
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 number of medical practitioners that have had applications to be on the Specialist Register of the General Medical Council (a) approved, (b) rejected and (c) where a decision pending in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Department does not hold information on, nor has made an estimate of, the number of medical practitioners that have made applications to be included on General Medical Council’s (GMC) Specialist Register.
The GMC is the independent regulator of doctors in the United Kingdom, and under the Medical Act 1983, is responsible for maintaining the Specialist Register. The GMC has provided the information in the following table:
Applications to the GMC Specialist Register 2018
Approved | 4,528 |
Rejected | 164 |
Decision Pending | 298 |
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many medical practitioners are registered to prescribe cannabis-based products for medicinal use; how many of those practitioners (a) operate private practices and (b) are NHS or NHS Scotland employees; and if he will list the (i) Trusts and (ii) Health boards at which each of those NHS and NHS Scotland employee works.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England has set up systems to monitor the prescribing of cannabis-based products for medicinal use via the NHS Business Services Authority and NHS England Controlled Drugs Accountable Officers. We expect the first data to be available by the end of March 2019. In Scotland, work is underway to establish similar systems.
There are 95,532 specialist doctors registered on the General Medical Council’s Specialist Register. The law allows any specialist doctor to prescribe cannabis-based products for medicinal use. Specialist doctors may decide to prescribe these products on a case-by-case basis, and where it is clinically appropriate. The Department does not hold information on how many of those practitioners operate private practices and are National Health Service or NHS Scotland employees or where they work.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients have been prescribed cannabis-based products for medicinal use; and how many were (a) private prescriptions and (b) prescriptions funded by NHS or NHS Scottish.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England has set up systems to monitor the prescribing of cannabis-based products for medicinal use via the NHS Business Services Authority and NHS England Controlled Drugs Accountable Officers. We expect the first data to be available by the end of March 2019. In Scotland, work is underway to establish similar systems.
There are 95,532 specialist doctors registered on the General Medical Council’s Specialist Register. The law allows any specialist doctor to prescribe cannabis-based products for medicinal use. Specialist doctors may decide to prescribe these products on a case-by-case basis, and where it is clinically appropriate. The Department does not hold information on how many of those practitioners operate private practices and are National Health Service or NHS Scotland employees or where they work.