Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken with the Welsh Government to secure increased supplies of pethidine.
Answered by Will Quince
We are aware of supply issues with pethidine 50 milligram tablets until October 2023. However, alternative oral opioid analgesics remain available and clinicians who wish to continue to prescribe pethidine 50 milligram tablets can access these from specialist importers. Advice has been communicated to National Health Service healthcare professionals via the Specialist Pharmacy Service website. Pethidine injection remains available also.
While health is a devolved matter, we work closely with devolved Governments, suppliers, NHS England, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and other stakeholders to ensure patients continue to have access to the medicines they need.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Office for National Statistics on the pause to the Covid-19 Infection Survey; what assessment he has made of the potential impact on his Department’s ability to ensure that policy across the Government on Covid-19 is driven by the latest data; how Covid-19 infection levels will now be monitored; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the decision on immunosuppressed people who rely on the survey to take decisions on which safeguards to use.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) are reviewing their approach to COVID-19 surveillance, which includes discussions between UKHSA and the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The UKHSA will continue to publish the latest data on COVID-19 through the weekly surveillance reports providing data on infection rates, hospitalisation numbers and vaccination uptake. We will maintain the ability to track the latest variants through our genomics capabilities, which assess the risks posed by different strains of the virus. These reports help inform current and future Government policy decisions.
UKHSA will confirm details of any new surveillance surveys that continue beyond 31 March 2023 in due course.
We will continue to communicate to people most vulnerable to COVID-19 about available clinical interventions, including vaccination and treatments, as well as testing and public health advice.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with relevant stakeholders on the potential merits of expanding reciprocal healthcare arrangements with the EU to include elective treatment.
Answered by Will Quince
As a result of the EU-UK Trade Cooperation Agreement, the United Kingdom benefits from a comprehensive reciprocal healthcare agreement with the European Union.
The arrangements includes the “S2” planned treatment funding route which entitles UK residents to National Health Service funding for planned state healthcare treatment in an EU country if certain criteria, set out in the Agreement, are met. This covers elective treatment.
Treatment must normally be provided on the NHS, be available on the treating country’s state healthcare scheme, and the same treatment cannot be provided to the patient on the NHS within a time period that is medically justifiable.
There are currently no plans to further expand reciprocal healthcare arrangements with the EU.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a fund for research into the potential impact of plastic on human health.
Answered by Will Quince
No further assessment has been made. The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds research for the protection of public health from environmental hazards and to understand the complex role of the environment on disease development.
The NIHR is funding research on microplastic toxicity in humans through the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Exposures and Health, which is a partnership between Imperial College London and the UK Health Security Agency. This work will be reported in peer reviewed academic journals in due course.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Mental Health Bill, whether he plans to include a statutory duty to provide early intervention strategies to detect and address mental health issues for children and young people within primary and secondary schools; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The draft Mental Health Bill, published in June 2022, is intended to modernise the Mental Health Act and work better for people with serious mental illness. The draft Bill has completed its pre-legislative scrutiny and the Joint Committee published its report on 19 January 2023 on the Draft Mental Health Bill. The Department will consider the Committee’s recommendations carefully and we will introduce the Bill when parliamentary time allows.
Separate to the provisions in the draft Bill, there are currently 287 mental health support teams in place in around 4,700 schools and colleges across the country, offering support to children experiencing anxiety, depression and other common mental health issue. These
teams now cover 26% of pupils, a year earlier than originally planned and this will increase to 399 teams, covering around 35% of pupils by April 2023 with over 500 planned to be deployed by 2024.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
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 ensure that people are able to (a) access and (b) receive responses from the Healthy Start scheme via (i) phone and (ii) email in a timely manner.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) delivers the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. People can contact NHS Healthy Start by phone, email and via the NHS Healthy Start social media channels on Twitter and Facebook. The telephone helpline is open between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday, except for public holidays. A translation service is also available.
In addition to this, an automated telephone line is available to support customers with certain queries, for example to report a lost or stolen card or to check the balance on their prepaid card. This phone line is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Additional resource was added to the NHSBSA’s customer contact centre in June 2022. Between July and December 2022, the average waiting time to speak to an advisor was 33 seconds. Customers can expect a response to their email within two working days.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
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 6 December 2022 to Question 98767, when he plans to publish the most recent data on uptake of the Healthy Start scheme.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We continue to work with the NHS Business Services Authority and the Department for Work and Pensions to obtain data on the uptake of the Healthy Start scheme. This will then be published as quicky as possible.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much and what proportion of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency's budget was derived from the public purse in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not collected centrally. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is an executive agency of the Department. The MHRA is primarily funded by income from fees for sales of products and regulatory services. The MHRA’s fees are set to cover full costs incurred by the Agency, in accordance with HM Treasury’s Managing Public Money guidelines. An approximate breakdown of the agency’s funding is 50% fees for services, 25% industry periodic fees and 25% Department funding.
The following table shows the Department’s funding over the previous five financial years.
Financial year | Total |
2021/22 | £29,957,000 |
2020/21 | £43,336,000 |
2019/20 | £43,450,000 |
2018/19 | £34,559,000 |
2017/18 | £28,800,000 |
A more in-depth breakdown of the MHRA’s income and expenditure is available at the following link:
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
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 an assessment of the potential merits of funding the cost of medicines regulation undertaken by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
Answered by Will Quince
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is a largely fee charging regulator with approximately three quarters of its income derived from fees levied on applicants. This is a standard form of cost recovery for regulators worldwide. The MHRA has recently concluded a public consultation on its statutory fees to ensure all costs involved in delivery are recovered, which concluded on 23 November 2022.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
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 implications for his policies of ONS data showing that excess deaths in England and Wales were higher than the five-year average in September, October and November 2022; what steps he is taking to help reduce excess deaths; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Whilst a detailed assessment is not yet available, it is likely that a combination of factors has contributed to the Office of National Statistics measure of excess mortality, including high flu prevalence, the ongoing challenges of COVID-19 and health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.
We are taking steps to help reduce excess deaths, including those which involve COVID-19. Vaccines remain the first line of defence against COVID-19. Antivirals and other treatments provide a necessary additional line of defence by playing a crucial role in protecting patients who become infected with COVID-19, particularly those who for whom the vaccine may be less effective such as the immunosuppressed. We are preparing for variants of COVID-19 and respiratory challenges, with an integrated COVID-19 booster and flu vaccination programme, minimising hospital admissions from both viruses. This winter, it is vital that eligible people get their booster jab and their flu jab to protect themselves, their loved ones and the National Health Service.
We are also taking action to reduce excess deaths due to other factors. The NHS has published a delivery plan setting out a clear vision for how the NHS will recover and expand elective services over the next three years. The plan commits the NHS to deliver nine million additional treatments and diagnostic procedures over the next three years and around 30 percent more elective activity than it was doing before the pandemic by 2024/25. Through the pathway improvement programme, we will create extra capacity for elective care and improve patient health outcomes.
We are making progress in restoring services for preventable conditions such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). Based on the current rate of recovery, we expect NHS Health Check delivery, a core part of our CVD prevention pathway, to return to pre-pandemic levels by June 2023. The Department continues to work closely with partners to consider what more can be done to improve the prevention, detection, diagnosis and management of CVD.