Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the attendees at negotiations for the contracts awarded to PPE MedPro to help deliver the Government’s covid-19 response.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All offers of personal protective equipment from suppliers received the same eight stage assurance process which selected suppliers based on the product type, clinical acceptability, price, forecasted delivery dates, volume and financial standing. Approximately 400 officials from a number of Government departments managed this process, which included negotiating with suppliers.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total value of service credits applied to personal protective equipment procurement contracts was since 1 March 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Service credits are not used in the contracts the Department has awarded to personal protective equipment suppliers.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to tackle misinformation published about keto diets.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The ketogenic diet is a form of low carbohydrate diet. The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) is undertaking a risk assessment on lower carbohydrate diets compared to current Government advice for adults with type 2 diabetes. This report is due to be published later this year.
The SACN published its report on Carbohydrates and Health in July 2015 and concluded that the United Kingdom recommendation for total carbohydrates should be maintained at approximately 50% of total dietary energy.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that trans men are able to access cervical cancer screening tests.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In England general practices are responsible for inviting eligible trans men to participate in National Health Service cervical screening at the appropriate intervals and for notifying them of their results in line with NHS Cervical Screening Programme guidance. Invitations are sent out using the current call and recall information technology system.
Health England has developed guidance for trans and non-binary individuals explaining who will be invited to participate in cervical screening as well as breast screening, bowel cancer screening and abdominal aortic aneurysm screening. It includes important information about the four screening programmes and how to access additional support and advice and can be found at the following link:
It is important therefore that individuals ensure that their general practitioner records are up to date, in order to ensure they are offered appropriate screening.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that trans men receive automatic invitations for cervical cancer screening tests.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In England general practices are responsible for inviting eligible trans men to participate in National Health Service cervical screening at the appropriate intervals and for notifying them of their results in line with NHS Cervical Screening Programme guidance. Invitations are sent out using the current call and recall information technology system.
Health England has developed guidance for trans and non-binary individuals explaining who will be invited to participate in cervical screening as well as breast screening, bowel cancer screening and abdominal aortic aneurysm screening. It includes important information about the four screening programmes and how to access additional support and advice and can be found at the following link:
It is important therefore that individuals ensure that their general practitioner records are up to date, in order to ensure they are offered appropriate screening.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how trained and recruited contact tracing staff were notified of the news that Serco was to reduce the number of contact tracers it was employing.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We keep staffing levels on the national non-National Health Service tracing service under constant review. As NHS Test and Trace became more locally targeted we reduced the number of non-NHS call handlers working for Serco and Sitel in the national service from 18,000 full time equivalents (FTEs) to 12,000 FTEs and then to 10,000 FTEs - Serco and Sitel providing 5,000 each. However, we have recently increased the numbers again to 7,000 FTEs for each supplier due to the rise in COVID-19 cases.
At each stage the Department has given the suppliers good notice of our intentions and the suppliers have acted in accordance with the terms of contractual arrangements and relevant notice period. All staff working on the service have been provided with training on handling difficult situations they may face during a call and they have also been made aware of wellbeing and support mechanisms available to them.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what compassionate support training has been provided for contact tracers recruited through the national system.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We keep staffing levels on the national non-National Health Service tracing service under constant review. As NHS Test and Trace became more locally targeted we reduced the number of non-NHS call handlers working for Serco and Sitel in the national service from 18,000 full time equivalents (FTEs) to 12,000 FTEs and then to 10,000 FTEs - Serco and Sitel providing 5,000 each. However, we have recently increased the numbers again to 7,000 FTEs for each supplier due to the rise in COVID-19 cases.
At each stage the Department has given the suppliers good notice of our intentions and the suppliers have acted in accordance with the terms of contractual arrangements and relevant notice period. All staff working on the service have been provided with training on handling difficult situations they may face during a call and they have also been made aware of wellbeing and support mechanisms available to them.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to bring forward legislation to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services for women.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has mandated local authorities in England to commission comprehensive open access sexual health services. Ensuring equal access to sexual and reproductive health services for both men and women will be a key theme of the new sexual and reproductive health strategy.
Development of the strategy was paused at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. However work is now underway and we plan to publish this in 2021.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to tackle period poverty.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government Equalities Office has responsibility for the period poverty taskforce. The Department of Health and Social Care, along with other Government departments, is committed to tackling period poverty. To support this, NHS England announced in March 2019 that it will offer period products to every hospital patient who needs them.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospital admissions were made due to a concussion as a result of a sporting (a) event or (b) practice in England in each year since 2015.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Information is not available in format requested. It is not possible to specify that a concussion took place as the result of a sporting event or practice from the data collected.