Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to monitor and mitigate the impact of antimicrobial resistance on marginalised communities in the UK, including (1) people of migrant, refugee or asylum seeker status, (2) prisoners, and (3) homeless people.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency’s antimicrobial resistance (AMR) programme is committed to tackling and reducing antimicrobial health inequalities nationwide. Over the years, the AMR health inequalities workstream has taken a systematic approach to increasing our work to understand and address health inequalities in relation to AMR. This involves improving our understanding of the association between health inequalities and antimicrobial usage and resistance; developing a health inequalities and AMR engagement strategy including learning from the wider public health community; and producing recommendations for public health action.
Future projects include surveying knowledge, attitudes, and health-seeking behaviours towards antibiotics in different populations, identifying and improving surveillance reporting gaps required to understand the impact of AMR and AMR-targeted interventions on Core20PLUS populations, and publishing the health inequalities scoping review. The Core20PLUS populations include vulnerable migrants, people in contact with the justice system and people experiencing homelessness.
Furthermore, antibiotic consumption data within prisons, which is grouped with “other community settings”, are monitored and published annually within the antimicrobial consumption chapter of the English surveillance programme for antimicrobial utilisation and resistance (ESPAUR) report.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce waiting lists for initial appointments at (1) Sheffield Gender Identity Clinic, and (2) other gender identity clinics in England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Sheffield Gender Identity Clinic is reducing waiting lists for initial appointments by recruiting and training more staff. This has increased the number of initial assessments since November 2022, and the service expects to further increase capacity incrementally from April this year.
NHS England has increased investment in these services by approximately 130% over the past five years, as well as the number of Gender Dysphoria Clinics in England from seven to 12 with the rollout of five new adult gender pilot clinics since July 2020. These pilots will be evaluated over the next two years to determine how they can be expanded nationally.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to remove the Good Choice badge from ultra-processed food products, and (2) to introduce dietary guidelines addressing ultra-processed food and drink.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not currently have plans to change the way the Good Choice badge is used. The Good Choice badge helps people identify healthier options using the NHS Food Scanner application and when shopping in store and online. The application helps families to see what's in their food and drinks and suggests healthier alternatives, where these exist, that can help them cut down on sugar, saturated fat and salt. Together, the application and wider Better Health campaign support families on their journey towards having a healthier diet, as making the step to the healthiest option may be too far for many people in one move.
Government dietary guidelines are based on advice from expert groups, including the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN). SACN is currently carrying out a scoping review of the evidence on processed foods and health and aims to publish a position statement in the summer of 2023.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the link between ultra-processed food and cancer; and what steps they are taking to reduce the consumption such foods.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition is currently carrying out a scoping review of the evidence on processed foods and health, including cancer, and aims to publish a position statement in the summer of 2023.
Diets high in foods classified as processed are often also high in calories, sugar, saturated fat and salt and low in fibre, which is associated with an increased risk of chronic illnesses including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. The Government encourages everyone to have a healthy balanced diet in line with the United Kingdom’s healthy eating model, the Eatwell Guide, which shows that foods high in fat, salt or sugar should be eaten less often or in small amounts.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the rise in trauma deaths and sudden unexpected deaths in infancy and childhood (Sudic) in 2022; in particular, that four times as many deaths occurred in the most deprived fifth of the population, compared with the least deprived fifth; and what steps they plan to take, if any, in response.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to the health service learning from child deaths. In 2018, NHS England supported the establishment of the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) to record comprehensive data on the circumstances of children’s deaths and reduce preventable child mortality in England.
The Government is considering the NCMD report on Sudden and Unexpected Deaths in Infancy and Childhood published in December 2022.
Instances of sudden unexpected death in infancy often link in with wider health disparities and modifiable factors such as smoking in pregnancy and in the home. Frontline health professionals have tools and processes in place to deliver guidance to families to promote safe sleeping for babies. There is a significant amount of work taking place to tackle smoking in pregnancy, across many agencies.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research is funding a study looking at promoting safer sleeping for babies in high-risk groups in England and a research project into effective mechanisms for reducing abusive head trauma in young infants.
The Department is working with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to help tackle unsafe homes. This includes developing new guidance on damp and mould for the housing sector, extending the Decent Home Standard to the private rented sector and a number of other amendments through the Renters Reform Bill and Social Housing (Regulation) Bill.
Minister Neil O’Brien gave a speech at a Westminster Hall Debate on 17 January this year on the important issue of sudden unexpected death in childhood. The transcript is available on Hansard.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to reduce the sugar content of processed food, following the finding by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities that targets for sugar reduction since 2015 have not been met.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities is considering the next steps for the sugar reduction programme and will continue to provide expert advice to the Government on this. It is expected the Government’s policies to tackle obesity will support efforts for sugar reduction. These include regulations restricting the placement of products high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) in key selling locations in stores and online, which came into force on 1 October 2022 and are the single most impactful obesity policy at reducing children’s calorie consumption. Furthermore, the Government will introduce restrictions on the advertising of HFSS products on TV before 9pm and on paid-for advertising of these products online on 1 October 2025. A key intention of this policy is to incentivise reformulation of HFSS products, so these are no longer captured by the restrictions.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have plans to reassess the guidance to GP practices on the erasure of medical records of adopted children, given (1) the increasing understanding of the usefulness of current and future genetic screening technologies, and (2) the use of family information to inform screening and treatment.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no plans at present to reassess the guidance. Primary Care Support England’s guidance states that current adoption legislation requires all adopted patients to be given a new National Health Service number, and all previous medical information relating to the patient to be put into a newly created medical record. If possible, electronic medical records should be merged on the relevant General Practice’s system with the new post-adoptive details. If this guidance is followed, then medical records for adopted children should not be erased.
A copy of this guidance is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the medical efficacy and value to users of commercial Strep A tests, and (2) any extra costs that might result for the NHS as a result of such tests.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Rapid tests for Group A Streptococcus (Strep A) are not currently recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for individuals aged five years old and over presenting with a sore throat. However, in response to the ongoing national increased incidence of Strep A infection, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) are concurrently reviewing the literature on clinical scoring tools and rapid tests for Strep A infection in people presenting with a sore throat.
UKHSA have commissioned a desktop to bedside review of existing antigen-based lateral flow devices for Strep A infection, adopting a tried and tested process that was developed for coronavirus testing device approvals. This process will identify the tests that are most likely to perform well in the diagnosis of sore throats caused by Strep A in community settings.
No specific assessment of the extra costs to the National Health Service associated with commercial tests have been made.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of exposure to engine oil and hydraulic fluid among airline crews; and what plans they have to fund research into the issue of exposure, which can lead to the condition Organophosphorus Ester-Induced Chronic Neurotoxicity.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2013, The UK Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT) reviewed four research projects on airborne concentrations and surface deposition of chemical pollutants in the cabins of commercial aircraft, which had been commissioned by the Department for Transport. The COT concluded that contamination of cabin air by components and/or combustion products of engine oils, including triaryl phosphates, does occur and peaks of higher exposure have been recorded during episodes that lasted for seconds. No further assessments have been commissioned.
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including research into environmental exposure. However, it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications for funding are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether exposure to synthetic jet engine oil and hydraulic fluids or their decomposition products poses any risk to unborn children.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department for Transport has asked the UK Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT) to update its 2007 and 2013 reviews and statements on the potential human health effects due to fume and contamination events. This review is continuing and a statement will be published in due course. However, effects on an unborn child are not being specifically assessed.