Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of employees in their Department are paid at the rate of the National Minimum Wage.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has no employees paid at the rate of the National Minimum Wage. The minimum salary for our national pay range is £21,250. This equates to £11.05 per hour which is above the 2023 national living wage of £10.42 per hour.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
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 ensure his Department complies with section 2.1.6 of the Civil Service Management Code; and whether that monitoring data gathered is shared with union representative.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department collects data to enable monitoring of our policies and action plans in compliance with 2.1.6 of the Civil Service Management Code.
The Departments HR hold regular meetings with the trade unions on a monthly basis where routine information is shared. In addition, trade unions can access a range of HR information published on the department's intranet.
The Department also publishes detailed workforce data covering age, gender, ethnic origin, disability, and other protected characteristics as part of the departments Public Sector Equality Duty Report that is publicly available on the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has notified staff to (a) tell or (b) remind them that they can sell annual leave in the last four months.
Answered by Will Quince
No. The Department has not had an annual leave selling scheme in the last four months.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what human resources information their Department shares with trade unions on a regular basis.
Answered by Will Quince
Human Resources (HR) hold meetings with the Department’s recognised trade unions on at least a monthly basis. As part of this engagement, routine human resources information is shared with the trade unions. In addition to this, trade unions have access to HR information published on the Department’s internal intranet as well as a range of HR information, including transparency publications, which is published and publicly available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent representations he has received on the adequacy of the levels of drug and medical supplies in the UK.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department receives a number of representations from a wide range of individuals and organisations regarding the supply of medicines and other medical supplies that UK patients rely on. The Department has well-established processes to prevent, manage and mitigate shortages of medicines and other medical products, and actively monitors and mitigates supply threats and disruptions to help ensure continuity of supply to UK patients.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to mandate individual risk assessments for all employees in his Department before they return to the workplace following the easing of covid-19 restrictions; and how many individual risk assessments for people returning to work have been conducted by his Department as of 21 February 2022.
Answered by Edward Argar
We are not mandating individual risk assessments for employees before they return to the office but are encouraging managers and staff to have a conversation about risks and potential mitigations and support that can be put in place using the COVID-19 Individual Risk Indicator toolkit. This is linked to the latest guidance on those whose immune system means they are at higher risk of infection. We do not centrally monitor the number of discussions and have no plans to collect this data.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
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 effect of deferring checks for the early warning signs of strokes, cancers, diabetes and other illnesses for people aged over 75 on the level of long-term demand on hospitals in the NHS in England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Following the emergence of the Omicron variant, measures were announced to increase general practice capacity and financial support to deliver an expanded vaccine programme. This includes allowing general practices to defer routine annual health checks for patients aged 75 years old and over until April 2022, where clinically appropriate. However, we continue to encourage people to come forward if they feel unwell and have any symptoms associated with cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other conditions.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to amend the five-year time limit in the General Dental Council’s Overseas Registration Exam to take account of the impact of the covid-19 pandemic and to support candidates who have reached or are approaching that five year limit.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Dentists Act 1984 requires overseas applicants to the General Dental Council’s (GDC) register to undertake its Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) to confirm they have the requisite skills and knowledge to practise dentistry in the United Kingdom.
In April 2020, the GDC suspended Parts 1 and 2 of the ORE due to the restrictions in place to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 2 December 2021, the GDC announced a planned sitting of the Part 2 exam in January 2022.
The legislation restricts the GDC from offering Part 2 ORE places to candidates where five or more years have passed since they first attempted Part 1 of the exam. Therefore, the GDC has not been able to offer places on the January 2022 exam sitting to any candidates whose five-year period has expired. Officials have worked with the GDC to develop proposals which will provide these candidates with additional time to take the Part 2 assessment in the future. We plan to consult on this proposed legislative change in early 2022.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to increase research funding for mental health.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is the largest funder of mental health research in the United Kingdom. In 2019-20, the NIHR spent £93.4 million on mental health research, which is a significant year on year increase in investment. While it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions, the NIHR’s funding is available through open competition and we encourage researchers to submit applications in this area.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on whether additional funding is needed to avoid job losses at the agency.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Department currently has no plans to do so.
The Department meets regularly with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to discuss a range of issues.