Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will set out the competitive process used to award contracts at the Joint Biosecurity Centre; and if he will confirm how many companies put in bids for these contracts.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The United Kingdom is facing the biggest public health challenge in a generation. The Joint Biosecurity Centre has been set up at pace to ensure decision makers at local and national levels have access to the best available information. This involved awarding contracts for a range of goods and services. Contracts were awarded in accordance with the Public Contract Regulations 2015.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to recruit additional consultants to work in the Joint Biosecurity Centre.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Joint Biosecurity Centre is likely to have an ongoing requirement for consultancy support, for example to fill very specialised epidemiology, data science and data engineering roles.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which strain of covid-19 is most prevalent in the UK at the present time.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There is currently no concept of different strains. There are very few differences and a low genetic diversity in the COVID19 from across the world and the viruses recovered from the United Kingdom are typical of this.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the seed funding announced on 30 September 2019 will be allocated to (a) Charing Cross Hospital, (b) Hammersmith Hospital and (c) St Mary's Hospital, Paddington.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
As announced on 30 September £100 million of seed funding has been made available to support 21 major projects to commence their development of schemes to be delivered in a second phase of major hospital rebuilds (HIP2).
This £100 million of seed funding will be provided as capital and will enable project teams, specialist advisers and site surveys. The funding will be drawn by providers in line with need up to 1% of the estimated capital value of each HIP2 scheme. The budget has been received for 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years but funding this year could be available if there is an immediate and strong case. NHS England and NHS Improvement will be visiting the schemes to discuss their proposals and how they can be helped to develop.
Trusts will be required to provide a breakdown of what seed funding will be spent on and how that will accelerate the project development. The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement will then ascertain how much seed funding will be provided for each scheme.
Seed funding will not constitute approval of the scheme as a whole as that will be subject to further development and subject to the usual business case approvals process, including demonstrating affordability and value for money.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the seed funding announced on 30 September 2019 will be allocated to Hospital Trusts; and what conditions will be attached to the use of that funding.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
As announced on 30 September £100 million of seed funding has been made available to support 21 major projects to commence their development of schemes to be delivered in a second phase of major hospital rebuilds (HIP2).
This £100 million of seed funding will be provided as capital and will enable project teams, specialist advisers and site surveys. The funding will be drawn by providers in line with need up to 1% of the estimated capital value of each HIP2 scheme. The budget has been received for 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years but funding this year could be available if there is an immediate and strong case. NHS England and NHS Improvement will be visiting the schemes to discuss their proposals and how they can be helped to develop.
Trusts will be required to provide a breakdown of what seed funding will be spent on and how that will accelerate the project development. The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement will then ascertain how much seed funding will be provided for each scheme.
Seed funding will not constitute approval of the scheme as a whole as that will be subject to further development and subject to the usual business case approvals process, including demonstrating affordability and value for money.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many deaths caused by stroke there were in affected areas in England during the pollution episode in April 2019; and what comparative assessment he has made of the number of deaths attributed to stroke in that period with the (a) expected average and (b) average over the last five years.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
According to the Daily Air Quality Index there were ‘moderate’ to ‘very high’ levels of air pollution in some areas of the United Kingdom between 7 and 8 April and between 15 to 25 April 2019. The figures for deaths caused by stroke in this period are not available in the requested format and a comparative assessment has not been made.
In January 2019, the Government launched the Clean Air Strategy, which sets out plans for dealing with all sources of air pollution to save lives, protect nature and boost the economy.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many deaths were caused by coronary heart disease in affected areas in England during the pollution episode in April 2019; and what comparative assessment he has made of the number of deaths attributed to heart disease in that period with the (a) expected average and (b) average over the last five years.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
According to the Daily Air Quality Index, there were ‘moderate’ to ‘very high’ levels of air pollution in some areas of the United Kingdom between 7 and 8 April 2019 and between 15 and 25 April 2019. The figures for deaths caused by coronary heart disease in this period are not available in the requested format and a comparative assessment has not been made.
In January 2019, the Government launched the Clean Air Strategy, which sets out plans for dealing with all sources of air pollution to save lives, protect nature and boost the economy.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many deaths were caused by Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in affected areas in England during the air pollution episode in April 2019; and what comparative assessment he has made of the figures for that period with (a) expected average and (b) average over the last five years.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
According to the Daily Air Quality Index (DAQI) there were ‘moderate’ to ‘very high’ levels of air pollution in some areas of the United Kingdom between 7 and 8 April and between 15 to 25 April 2019. The figures for deaths caused by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in this period are not available in the requested format and a comparative assessment has not been made.
In January 2019 the Government launched the Clean Air Strategy, which sets out plans for dealing with all sources of air pollution to save lives, protect nature and boost the economy.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
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 help ensure the approval of the use of Pembrolizumab for the treatment of cervical cancer given in line with its usage in the Republic of Ireland and the USA; and when that drug will be made available to people with cervical cancer.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was licensed on 12 June 2018 by the United States Food and Drug Administration for use in patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer with disease progression on or after chemotherapy.
However, pembrolizumab is not licensed for the treatment of cervical cancer in the United Kingdom or in the European Union. To obtain a licence for this indication, the Marketing Authorisation Holder of Keytruda (Merck Sharp & Dohme B.V.) would need to submit an ‘extension of indication’ application to the European Medicines Agency including evidence of safety and efficacy.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report, Leak reveals worst case scenario for nursing after Brexit, published by the Health Service Journal on 6 April 2017, what modelling his Department has conducted on the effect of the UK leaving the EU on NHS staffing levels.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
It has been the policy of successive Governments not to comment on specific leaks and the Government takes such incidents very seriously. Leaks are investigated thoroughly and effectively, with established policies and procedures in place.
Notwithstanding this, the Department continues to monitor and analyse overall staffing levels across the National Health Service, and we are working across Government to ensure there will continue to be sufficient staff to deliver the high quality services on which patients rely following the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. Our overall programme of work is comprehensive, thorough and continuously updated.
Our plans include working with NHS and social care employers to ensure that the 167,000 EU nationals working across health and care are aware of the straightforward and user friendly EU settlement scheme which will allow them to secure long-term status in the UK and enjoy broadly the same rights and benefits as they do now.
From the NHS Digital monthly Hospital and Community Health Service workforce statistics, as at June 2018, there are over 4,300 more EU27 nationals working in the NHS and clinical commissioning group’s since the referendum.