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 Welsh Government on changes to self-isolation requirements for individuals testing positive for covid-19.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Government is working with the Welsh Government and devolved administrations to coordinate an approach to COVID-19 in the United Kingdom. There are ongoing discussions across multiple Government departments.
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 assessment he has made of the adequacy of levels of funding available for research into (a) treatments and (b) diagnostic tests for dementia; and what steps he is taking to increase research funding for those purposes.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There has not been a recent assessment of funding available for research into dementia treatments and diagnostic tests. We are investing £375 million in neurodegenerative disease research over the next five years. This funding will support research on dementia treatments and diagnosis. Further actions to boost dementia research include a new £9 million call inviting research proposals to the National Institute for Health Research on digital approaches for the early detection and diagnosis of dementia, launched in November 2021. We are working on ways to significantly boost further research on dementia, and we will be setting out our plans on dementia for England for future years later this year.
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 information is provided by the Department and NHS England to midwives on the use of sodium valproate in pregnancy in order to help them prepare an expectant mother of the teratogenic effects.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England and NHS Improvement have commissioned the Paediatric Neurosciences Clinical Reference Group to develop care pathways and a service specification to improve for patient support and co-ordination for children affected by teratogen exposure. A multi-disciplinary group including patient representatives and expert clinicians with experience in responding to and managing teratogen exposure has been established. The group will report its recommendations to NHS England and NHS Improvement in March 2022.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology’s guidance recommends that all women with epilepsy of childbearing age are counselled on the risk of sodium valproate. In the first instance, this will take place with the woman’s neurologist and general practitioner. The Royal College recommends that such counselling is provided by a clinician competent in the management of epilepsy, usually a neurologist and or an obstetrician with a special interest in epilepsy. Midwives may take a supporting role, unless they specifically work in this context and have obtained additional training.
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 practical steps he is taking to ensure that the experiences and interests of children with fetal valproate syndrome and their families are represented as an integral part of patient involvement at every level of the NHS in England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England and NHS Improvement have commissioned the Paediatric Neurosciences Clinical Reference Group to develop care pathways and a service specification to improve for patient support and co-ordination for children affected by teratogen exposure. A multi-disciplinary group including patient representatives and expert clinicians with experience in responding to and managing teratogen exposure has been established. The group will report its recommendations to NHS England and NHS Improvement in March 2022.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology’s guidance recommends that all women with epilepsy of childbearing age are counselled on the risk of sodium valproate. In the first instance, this will take place with the woman’s neurologist and general practitioner. The Royal College recommends that such counselling is provided by a clinician competent in the management of epilepsy, usually a neurologist and or an obstetrician with a special interest in epilepsy. Midwives may take a supporting role, unless they specifically work in this context and have obtained additional training.
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 he has had recent discussions with his counterpart in the Welsh Government on the Down Syndrome Bill.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Engagement with the Welsh Government is continuing at Ministerial and official level to ensure the alignment of policy and improvements in outcomes for people with Down‘s syndrome across the United Kingdom.
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 steps his Department has taken to help ensure that specific information on Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) is available on NHS Choices and NHS Inform websites through a dedicated FND page.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The NHS Choices website has been rebranded as NHS.UK and is managed by NHS Digital. Information on functional neurological disorder is available on NHS.UK and can be found at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/medically-unexplained-symptoms/.
NHS Digital receive regular requests for new content on the NHS.UK website which are prioritised. NHS Digital are currently reviewing their process for how content is maintained and expanded.
NHS Digital are not responsible for the content on NHS Inform as this is managed by NHS Scotland.
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 received confirmation from EU counterparts that UK citizens who are fully vaccinated against covid-19 will not find their travel to EU countries affected as a result of their having received a dose of the AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine from batch numbers 4120Z001, 4120Z002 or 4120Z003.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Serum Institute of India (SII) manufactures both Vaxzevria and Covishield, branded vaccines which are the same as the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. All SII-made doses approved by the United Kingdom regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and administered in the UK were branded as the ’COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca’ which is now known commercially as ‘Vaxzevria’. The MHRA has not approved doses branded as ‘Covishield’ and none have been administered in the UK. All AstraZeneca vaccines given in the UK are the same product and appear on the NHS COVID Pass as Vaxzevria.
The European Medicines Agency has authorised the Vaxzevria vaccine and it is therefore recognised by the European Union.
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 (a) groups representing people affected by eating disorders and (b) other stakeholders on proposals to require calorie labelling on menus.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Ministers and officials in the Department have engaged with BEAT, the eating disorder charity, as well as other groups representing the views of people living with eating disorders, on several occasions since the Government published “Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives” last July. Discussions have included out-of-home calorie labelling. We have also been careful to consider the views of a wide range of experts in response to our public consultation on introducing mandatory out-of-home calorie labelling and we will continue with this engagement going forward.
The final impact assessment for introducing mandatory calorie labelling in the out-of-home sector considered the potential effect on people living with eating disorders. The impact assessment 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, what estimate he has made of the number of veterinarians available to fulfil the the duties of Official Veterinarians and Meat Hygiene Inspectors as required by the Food Standards Authority to deliver veterinary official controls in meat establishments.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) works with a Service Delivery Partner (SDP) to provide Official Veterinarian (OV) resource and some of the Meat Hygiene Inspector (MHI) resource to deliver Official Controls in 244 abattoirs in England and Wales.
Appropriate contingency arrangements have been implemented to enable the FSA to maintain service delivery throughout this period. The FSA continues to work with our SDP which recruits suitably qualified personnel from a variety of sources to ensure that appropriate numbers of OVs and MHIs continue to be available.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What recent discussions he has had with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation on the covid-19 vaccination of immuno-suppressed individuals.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
As per the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s (JCVI) advice, many immunosuppressed individuals qualify for vaccination in priority groups four or six. For those whom the vaccination is not advised, a general practitioner or relevant clinician will host a consultation. It is important that clinically extremely vulnerable people should continue following government advice on reducing risk. The United Kingdom is leading the way on vaccine research. As soon as sufficient evidence becomes available, the JCVI will provide advice on strategies to protect immunosuppressed individuals and consider if certain vaccines are preferred for particular groups.