Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to assess the implications of the judgment in R (TT) v Registrar General for England and Wales & Ors ((2019) EWHC 2384 (Fam)) on members of the trans community who wish to access fertility treatment at a licensed clinic.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Court found that the scheme of birth registration for the children of transmen is lawful and proportionate. The Government welcomes the Court’s decision.
The Government’s view is that the judgment has no effect on the availability of regulated fertility treatment and will now consider whether there should be further guidance to clarify this position. The Government considers that regulated fertility treatment is currently, and will remain, equally available to all (trans) women and (trans) men under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Acts.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the EHIC system will be continued or replaced after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Edward Argar
The United Kingdom Government has proposed to all Member States that we should maintain existing reciprocal healthcare arrangements, including the European Healthcare Insurance Card scheme, until 31 December 2020 if the UK leaves the European Union without a deal.
I laid a Written Ministerial Statement (HCWS1832) on 26 September 2019, setting out the Department’s position on ‘no deal’ reciprocal healthcare arrangements, and updated information has been published on GOV.UK and NHS.UK on the situation for each Member State, including what arrangements have been put in place. These pages will be kept updated as further assurances from Member States are received.
The UK will consider the long-term arrangements for reciprocal healthcare once we have left the EU.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
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 potential merits of using medicinal cannabis for pain relief.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
An initial impact assessment Rescheduling of cannabis-based products for medicinal use under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 was published alongside The Misuse of Drugs (Amendments) (Cannabis and Licence Fees) (England, Wales and Scotland) Regulations 2018. A copy of this impact assessment is available at the following link:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/1055/impacts
This set out the approach that the Government proposed to take in assessing the costs and benefits of the change in the law at a population level, with regard to the rescheduling of CBPM. The analysis is limited to the five medical conditions where there is most evidence. These five conditions are multiple sclerosis – pain or muscle spasticity; chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting; severe treatment-resistant epilepsy in children - specifically Dravet Syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome only; chronic pain in adults and appetite and weight loss associated with HIV/AIDS.
To further the evidence-base, the National Institute for Health Research has issued two calls for research in this area and is working with the industry and researchers to ensure that the evidence is developed in a way that will inform decisions on public funding. This research will be open to all good quality proposals covering any indication, including pain and other disorders unresponsive to existing treatments.