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Written Question
Sexually Transmitted Infections: Notifiable Diseases
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to consult key sector stakeholders before final decisions are taken on proposed sexual health reporting amendments included in her Department's consultation entitled Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010: proposed amendments which closed on 15 November 2023.

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

Patient confidentiality is of vital importance in sexual health to retain patients’ trust in services, and to encourage access to advice, testing, diagnosis, and treatment of sexually transmitted infections. A public consultation seeking views on proposals to amend the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations (HPNR) 2010 was held between 12 July and 15 November 2023. This included a commitment that any decision on adding specific sexually transmitted infections to schedule 2 of the regulations would be shaped by consultation responses and engagement with stakeholders.

The Department and the UK Health Security Agency are considering the responses to the consultation and are grateful for stakeholders’ continued engagement on this topic.


Written Question
Sexually Transmitted Infections: Notifiable Diseases
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to her Department's consultation entitled Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010: proposed amendments which closed on 15 November 2023, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the inclusion of (a) gonorrhoea and (b) syphilis in the list of notifiable diseases on the (i) principle of confidentiality for sexual health service users and (ii) willingness of individuals to access sexual health services.

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

Patient confidentiality is of vital importance to retain patients’ trust in sexual health services, and to encourage access to advice, testing, diagnosis, and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

A public consultation seeking views on proposals to amend the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010 was held between 12 July and 15 November 2023. This included the proposal to add specific STIs to schedule 2 of the regulations to strengthen surveillance. The consultation asked for views on the consequences of this change, including whether it could negatively impact public trust in the confidentiality of sexual health services and data and risk creating a barrier to accessing sexual services.

The Department and the UK Health Security Agency are considering the responses to the consultation and are grateful for stakeholders’ continued engagement on this topic.


Written Question
Breast Cancer: Health Education
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to deliver a national awareness campaign on breast cancer screening to help improve uptake.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is currently exploring opportunities for national campaigns to support positive outcomes on women’s health.

Work is underway to scope the feasibility of running a national campaign to support breast screening uptake, and this will be informed by pilot activity due to run in London in 2024/25.


Written Question
Breast Cancer: Screening
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reasons the NHS missed its target of 70% of invited women to be screened for breast cancer in 2022-23.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is committed to improving uptake in the NHS Breast Screening Programme. NHS England has commissioned evaluative projects to understand why women are not coming forward for screenings, and ways to improve uptake, these include:

- actively following up with women who have missed an appointment or not engaged with the service;

- looking at the reasons why women do not attend screenings, to address any barriers; and

- assessing the impact on screening uptake using different invitation methodologies with reference to factors such as age, previous screening history including attendance at first invitation and subsequent invites, and deprivation.

These projects are expected to report by April 2024.


Written Question
Breast Cancer: Screening
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to increase breast cancer screening uptake (a) in general and (b) in (i) areas and (ii) communities where uptake is lowest.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England has developed a national plan to improve uptake within the breast screening programme, part of which involves interventions to address inequalities and screening barriers. This includes working to ensure that breast screening appointments are as convenient to people as possible and focusing its efforts on low uptake areas and groups. NHS England is also working to ensure they have data, including on protected characteristics, to support services to deliver more targeted initiatives.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Mothers
Monday 23rd October 2023

Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the uptake of perinatal mental health services among ethnic minority communities.

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

The National Health Service is committed to addressing unwarranted variation and health inequalities and promoting equality, including for Perinatal Mental Health services. This includes supporting services to ensure appropriate access for Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, to ensure that women from all backgrounds who need specialist Perinatal Mental Health support receive it.

NHS England’s Perinatal Mental Health programme is taking steps to ensure: training and development are available to ensure the workforce is culturally competent, diverse and representative of communities; equalities ambitions are embedded into strategic plans and governance arrangements; coproduction is embedded in service design, development and governance structures; regions and local health systems are supported to develop and achieve equality ambitions for their populations; data is available to understand trends in inequality in access, experience and outcomes to specialist Perinatal Mental Health services; third sector groups and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors are included to support groups at risk of health inequalities.

In addition, NHS England published its first Advancing Mental Health Equalities Strategy in October 2020, laying out plans for addressing inequalities in access, experience and outcomes in mental health care.


Written Question
Personal Care Services: Sports
Thursday 20th July 2023

Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether there are restrictions in place preventing sports massage therapists from treating people aged under 18.

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

There are no legal restrictions in place preventing sports massage therapists from treating people aged under 18.

We urge anyone seeking sports massage therapy to take the time to find a reputable, insured and appropriately qualified practitioner who is on a voluntary register accredited by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care.


Written Question
Personal Care Services: Sports
Thursday 20th July 2023

Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to ensure that adequate safeguarding checks are made on sports massage therapists.

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

The Government is committed to a proportionate system of oversight for health and care professions and the types of assurance in place will vary by profession based on the specific risk profile.

Anyone undertaking or seeking employment as a sports massage therapist will be subject to employer checks, which may include a Disclosure and Barring Service check. Self-employed sports massage therapists can also obtain a basic criminal record certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service, which will show any unspent convictions or cautions they have.

Sports massage therapists can also join voluntary registers, including the Complementary and Natural Council register, which is accredited under the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care’s Accredited Registers Programme. The Programme provides assurance to the public when choosing and using health and care services by independently assessing organisations who register practitioners who are not regulated by law.

We urge anyone seeking sports massage therapy to take the time to find a reputable, insured and appropriately qualified practitioner who is on a voluntary register accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.


Written Question
Personal Care Services: Sports
Thursday 20th July 2023

Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)

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 requiring that all sports massage therapists undergo enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks.

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

Anyone undertaking or seeking employment within a health or care role will be subject to employer checks, which may include a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. Whatever their employment status, any individual can get a basic criminal record certificate from the DBS, which will show any unspent convictions or cautions they have.

On 18 April 2023, the Independent Review of the disclosure and barring regime published its report on the effectiveness of the scheme in safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. The report concluded that the regime is delivering its mission of helping employers and organisations to make safer employment decisions but identifies several areas where the regime could be strengthened. The review recommended that self-employed individuals seeking to work with children or vulnerable adults are made eligible to apply for an enhanced DBS certificate with the relevant barred lists check.

The Government is carefully considering the Review’s recommendations.


Written Question
Department of Health and Social Care: Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education
Monday 17th July 2023

Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department produced a ministerial response under the write round process to the Department for Education's review of the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum.

Answered by Will Quince

The Secretary of State for Education has been clear she is very concerned about reports of inappropriate materials being used to teach relationships and sex education (RSHE). The Government has brought forward the review of the RSHE statutory guidance as a result, including conducting a public consultation as soon as possible.

The statutory guidance clearly states that the guidance will be reviewed every three years from first teaching (September 2020) and so the decision to review the guidance does not require collective agreement. The Secretary of State for Education will seek collective agreement to the consultation documents through a write-round process, before publishing the consultation in the autumn. This process is not yet underway.