Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether there are contracts for the cremation of (a) stillborns, (b) miscarriages and (c) baby deaths at a (i) national and (ii) NHS trust level; and if she will publish (A) details and (B) the start dates of those contracts.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Neither the Department nor NHS England holds information on contracts for the cremation of stillborns, miscarriages, and baby deaths.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the guidance by NICE entitled Covid-19 rapid guideline: managing symptoms (including at the end of life) in the community, NG163, published on 3 April 2020, which medical experts were consulted during the commissioning process.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline NG163, published in 2020, was commissioned in accordance with an established agreement between NHS England and NICE. The focus at that time was given to providing rapid guidance on the management of affected patients with COVID-19. The following organisations were consulted on the guideline:
- Association for Palliative Medicine;
- Palliative Care Formulary;
- Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre;
- Cicely Saunders Institute;
- NHS England;
- ICU Steps;
- Macmillan Cancer Support;
- Marie Curie;
- National Audit for Care at the End of Life;
- Palliative Care for Wales;
- Royal College of General Practitioners;
- Royal College of Physicians; and
- Sue Ryder.
The following organisations provided general practice consultation on the guidance:
- NICE GP Reference Group; and
- RCGP Network.
A number of NICE’s COVID-19 rapid guidelines were subsequently incorporated into a single guideline, NG191, for the management of COVID-19 in children and adults. The list of panel members for this guideline is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng191/documents/register-of-interests-2
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will review the safeguarding measures in place for the provision of telemedicine abortion services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Safeguarding is an essential aspect of abortion care, including in telemedicine abortion services. The Department’s Required Standard Operating Procedures for approved independent sector abortion providers in England (RSOPs) include the requirement that all abortion providers have effective arrangements in place to safeguard vulnerable women accessing home-use early medical abortion. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspects against all of the Department’s RSOPs when it inspects an independent sector provider, and safeguarding procedures are included in the CQC’s Termination of Pregnancy inspection framework as areas to be considered during an inspection.
In addition, the Department commissioned the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to develop new national safeguarding guidance for children and young people under 18 years old accessing early medical abortion services, which was published on 30 August 2022, to ensure that robust safeguarding processes are embedded across all abortion services.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
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 December 2023 to Question 3835 on Tobacco: Sales, what discussions she has had with Trading Standards on the resources required to enforce a generational smoking ban.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Smoking is responsible for around 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom and causes approximately one in four cancer deaths in the UK. It also costs our country £17 billion a year and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service.
That is why we will introduce the Tobacco and Vapes Bill in this parliamentary session to create the first smokefree generation, enable us to further crack down on youth vaping and strengthen our enforcement activity, through new powers to fine rogue retailers. To ensure the law is enforced, the Government is providing an additional £30 million a year for enforcement agencies to support work on underage and illicit sales of tobacco products and vapes.
Officials are speaking regularly with trading standards about the use of the additional enforcement funding and around enforcement action more generally.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the potential impact of the proposed generational smoking ban on police expenditure related to the implementation of that ban.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As is the case with existing age of sale legislation for tobacco products, breaches of the new law will be dealt with by local authority trading standards rather than by police forces.
To ensure the law is enforced, the Government is providing an additional £30 million a year for enforcement agencies to support work on underage and illicit sales of tobacco products and vapes.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the guidance by NICE entitled Covid-19 rapid guideline: managing symptoms including at the end of life in the community, NG163, published on 3 April 2020, by what process (a) that guidance was commissioned and (b) the NHS decided (i) to procure Midazolam for use in (A) end-of-life and (B) other patient care and (ii) the quantity of Midazolam it would procure in each of the last four years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline NG163 published in 2020 was commissioned as part of a programme to provide rapid guidance on the management of affected patients with COVID-19. Several of NICE’s COVID-19 rapid guidelines were incorporated into a single guideline for the management of COVID-19 in children and adults (NG191), which was last updated in June 2023.
Early in the pandemic, NHS England convened a National Clinical Group comprising senior specialist clinicians and relevant specialist pharmacists to develop priority medicines lists for critical care, end of life care and antibiotics and these were kept under review as the pandemic and subsequent clinical knowledge evolved. As part of this process, midazolam was identified as a priority medicine for use in both critical care as an alternative to propofol in the sedatives category, and end of life care as a first line medicine in the anxiety category.
The following table shows the quantity of midazolam procured by the National Health Service in England using NHS England procurement frameworks for use in secondary care in each of the last four years to 2023/24:
Financial year | Quantity of packs |
2020/21 | 587,003 |
2021/22 | 482,458 |
2022/23 | 415,512 |
2023/24 | 229,693 |
It is not possible to differentiate between Midazolam use in end of life and other patient care. This data excludes procurement for use in primary and community care.
In primary health care, procurement is undertaken by retail pharmacies on an individual basis, based on their perception of future demand needs or in direct response to prescriptions received from patients. There is no centralised procurement process for primary care and therefore there is no information that is relevant to the question asked.
Health is largely a devolved matter, and decisions on the procurement of medicines in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are therefore a matter for the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive respectively.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what stocks of (a) midazolam, (b) morphine and (c) fentanyl are held in (i) the essential medicines buffer stock and (ii) the UK stockpile of medicines for covid-19 preparedness.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The essential medicines buffer stock program is no longer active and there are no stocks held under this. Some medicines that were previously held for COVID-19 preparedness, including midazolam 50 milligram/10 millilitre ampoules, are in the process of being transitioned into centralised stockholdings of countermeasures for broader emerging infectious disease and pandemic preparedness. Stocks of morphine 10 milligram/millilitre and 10 milligram/2 millilitre and fentanyl 500 microgram/10 millilitre remain, but will not be retained centrally. The countermeasures programme is informed by scientific and clinical assessment of the evidence base and is kept under review, building on lessons learned from COVID-19 and other outbreaks.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure women accessing telemedicine abortion services are given sufficient time and advice on which to base a decision.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Women requesting a telemedicine abortion should have access to objective information and, if required, counselling and decision-making support about their pregnancy options.
In line with the Department’s Required Standard Operating Procedures for approved independent sector abortion providers in England (RSOPs) and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists clinical guideline on the Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion, when a woman requests an abortion, careful and sensitive enquiry as to the reasons should be made. There should be the opportunity for further discussion, especially where the woman expresses any doubts. Women who are certain of their decision to have an abortion should not be subjected to delay or compelled to have counselling.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) trials and (b) tests were conducted to ensure the (i) safety and (ii) efficiency of mixing and matching covid-19 vaccines and boosters from different manufacturers; and when those trials and tests were conducted.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government-funded, world-first studies on the safety and efficacy of interchanging different COVID-19 vaccines include the Com-COV1, Com-COV2 and Com-COV3 studies led by the University of Oxford, and the COV-Boost study led by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. Com-COV1 was launched in February 2021 and completed in June 2022. Com-COV2 was launched in April 2021 and is still ongoing. Com-COV3 was launched in January 2022 and is still ongoing. COV-Boost was launched in May 2021 and completed in April 2023. More information on these studies is available at the following links:
https://comcovstudy.web.ox.ac.uk/about-com-cov1
https://comcovstudy.web.ox.ac.uk/about-com-cov2
https://comcovstudy.web.ox.ac.uk/about-com-cov3
https://covboost.web.ox.ac.uk/about
All these studies have found interchanging vaccines to be safe and, in some cases, more likely to produce a stronger immune response. These findings have helped to inform the United Kingdom’s COVID-19 vaccination programme as well as vaccine policy around the world. Preliminary data from these studies was shared with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, Vaccine Taskforce and the Department as it became available.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding has his Department allocated to process compensation claims caused by Covid-19 vaccines; and how much of that budget has been spent as of 16 August 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has identified contingent liabilities relating to the COVID-19 vaccines and reports on these to Parliament on a confidential basis due to commercial sensitivities. Any spend incurred against these liabilities will be reported in the usual way in the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts.