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Written Question
NHS: Mental Health Services
Monday 26th June 2023

Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of NHS Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hubs remaining open.

Answered by Will Quince

The staff mental health hubs were established in October 2020 with funding subsequently extended to March 2023. They were funded on a non-recurrent basis using additional funding from Government as a short-term response to the pressure on the workforce from COVID-19.

To ensure that specialist support for staff remains available, we have worked with NHS England to ensure a regional roll out with one or more mental health hub per region during 2023/24. This will ensure access to a clinical psychologist, assistant psychologists and support line staff, and ensure suitable administrative support for managing caseloads and supporting outreach to identify staff in need of support. Regions and integrated care boards will have the ability to target funding where it is most needed and to invest additional monies in the hubs where they feel this is needed.

NHS England has developed a range of health and wellbeing support for staff, and earlier this year published a strategy to grow and strengthen occupational health and wellbeing services across the National Health Service. NHS staff can continue to access NHS Practitioner Health, a national support service for staff with more complex mental health needs brough about by serious issues such as trauma or addiction.


Written Question
Department of Health and Social Care: Vodafone Group
Friday 23rd June 2023

Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications of the Three-Vodafone merger on his Department’s contracts with Vodafone.

Answered by Will Quince

As an open economy, this Government welcomes and encourages investment where it supports the Prime Minister’s goal of boosting UK growth and jobs, meets our stringent legal and regulatory requirements, and does not compromise our national security. The Government has robust powers under the National Security & Investment Act, which it introduced to block or impose remedies on transactions that pose a national security risk.

We cannot comment on specific acquisitions nor the applicability of the National Security and Investment regime.

It is the responsibility of Competition and Markets Authority to assess the impact on consumers and competition in the market, with input from sectoral regulators.

The Investment Security Unit works closely with the Competition and Markets Authority on cases that are being considered for both national security and competition reasons. A memorandum of understanding has been agreed between the Investment Security Unit and the Competition and Markets Authority to assist joint working. The notice is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/operation-of-the-national-security-and-investment-act-2021-memorandum-of-understanding/mou-between-beis-and-the-cma-on-the-operation-of-the-national-security-and-investment-act-2021


Written Question
Breast Cancer: Screening
Monday 24th April 2023

Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)

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 potential merits of increasing opportunities for breast cancer screening using risk-based analysis of UK breast cancer outcomes.

Answered by Neil O'Brien

No assessment has been made.


Written Question
Breast Cancer: Screening
Monday 24th April 2023

Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)

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 potential merits of conducting NHS breast cancer screening every two years for women aged over 50.

Answered by Neil O'Brien

No assessment has been made.


Written Question
Gender Recognition: Health
Thursday 1st December 2022

Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the impact of the decision not to include transgender people in the ban conversion therapy practices on the health and wellbeing of transgender people.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The Department is working with the Government Equalities Office, which continues to engage with stakeholders on conversion therapy practices to assess the impact of the ban on the health and wellbeing of individuals.


Written Question
Domestic Abuse
Tuesday 29th November 2022

Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of (a) domestic abuse and (b) coercive control on the health of people affected.

Answered by Neil O'Brien

No recent assessment has made. However, the Department is working with the Office for National Statistics to explore how insights from health data can improve the understanding of violence against women and girls. The information generated will be used to improve services and women and girls’ experiences and inform interventions on violence against women and girls.


Written Question
Eating Disorders: Children and Young People
Tuesday 19th April 2022

Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)

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 children and young people requiring (a) admission and (b) re-admission to inpatient units for treatment of eating disorders in each year from 2017 to 2022.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education

The following table shows the number of finished admission episodes (FAE), re-admission episodes and number of admitted and re-admitted patients aged 0 to 17 years old with a primary diagnosis of eating disorders in each calendar year from 2017 to 2020. Data for 2021 is not yet available.

Year of admission

Total admission episodes

Total patients admitted

Re-admission episodes

Re-admitted patients

2017

1,642

1,142

720

469

2018

1,879

1,307

825

542

2019

1,934

1,346

825

501

2020

2,723

1,934

1,020

655

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital

  1. A FAE is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. For the purposes of this analysis FAEs have been counted against the calendar year in which the admission episode commenced. Admission episodes do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.
  2. Re-admission episodes show where the same patient has been readmitted to hospital with a primary diagnosis of an eating disorder where there has been a previous admission with a primary diagnosis of an eating disorder since April 2012. The same patient may have had more than one re-admission during a period.
  3. Number of re-admitted patients is a count of the number of distinct patients re-admitted each year. It is possible that the same person will be re-admitted in more than one year.
  4. The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (14 from 2002/03 to 2006/07 and seven prior to 2002/03) diagnosis fields in the HES data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital. For the purpose of this response the following ICD-10 code has been used: F50 - Eating Disorders

Written Question
Eating Disorders: Children and Young People
Tuesday 19th April 2022

Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)

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 reasons for the increasing number of acute or urgent cases of children and young people with eating disorders presenting to primary and secondary care.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education

No formal assessment has been made. However, we are working with the National Health Service to develop an understanding of the impact of the pandemic on eating disorders in children and young people.

Through UK Research and Innovation, the Government has funded a £3.8 million study to develop an interdisciplinary, evidence-based model of how eating disorders develop and on recovery in young people. The research aims to improve the detection of eating disorders, treatment and services and assist clinicians to tailor treatments to a young person’s individual circumstances.


Written Question
Eating Disorders: Children and Young People
Tuesday 19th April 2022

Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)

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 children and young people being treated on general paediatric wards where the primary illness is that of an eating disorder, in each year from 2017 to 2022.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education

No specific estimate has been made. The information is not collected in the format requested as it is not possible to determine the ward where a patient is treated from secondary care data.


Written Question
Accident and Emergency Departments: Eating Disorders
Tuesday 19th April 2022

Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)

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 presentations of children and young people at accident and emergency departments where the presentation is primarily due to or related to an eating disorder in each year from 2017 to 2022.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education

No specific estimate has been made. NHS Digital has advised that between April 2017 to March 2021, presentations related to an eating disorder are not separately identifiable within Hospital Episode Statistics for accident and emergency departments. Data for 2021/22 is collected within the Emergency Care Dataset. However, NHS Digital has advised that the information requested on diagnoses is not currently available due to issues related to data quality.