Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the (a) increased rate of inflation and (b) consequential tax implications for GP pensions.
Answered by Edward Argar
National Health Service pensions are automatically increased in value at the end of each scheme year. The generosity of the NHS Pension Scheme and well-remunerated careers mean that some senior doctors exceed the allowances for tax-free pension saving. A higher rate of revaluation will increase the size of pensions and may therefore increase annual allowance pension tax liability in a situation where inflation is increasing. However, when inflation reduces in the subsequent tax year, this may increase the scope for more pension growth before exceeding the annual allowance in that year. The vast majority of NHS staff build their pension tax-free. We have regular discussions with HM Treasury on a range of issues related to the delivery of NHS services.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to projected increases in diagnoses of dementia, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a dementia medicines taskforce to develop new treatments for the condition.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
There have been no specific discussions with the devolved administrations. Officials have met Alzheimer’s Research UK to discuss this proposal and considered routes for accelerating access to such medicines for patients with NHS England and NHS Improvement.
The Accelerated Access Collaborative and the Department’s Commercial Medicines Directorate continually review the development of new medicines, including those for dementia. This provides early indication of such innovative treatments, engaging with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and industry to identify challenges in delivering medicines to patients. The Innovative Licencing and Access Pathway accelerates patient access to medicines. The Innovative Medicines Fund supports early access to the most clinically promising treatments where further data is needed to support NICE’s recommendations for use in the NHS. These initiatives will apply to dementia drugs.
We will set out plans for dementia in England for the next 10 years later this year, including on diagnosis, risk reduction and prevention and research. The strategy will include ambitions for research to develop new disease-modifying treatments.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps to engage with the UK Clinical Research Collaboration to help assess what percentage of funding is spent on childhood cancer research as part of wider health research spending.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
There are no plans to make a specific assessment. The Department engages with the UK Clinical Research Collaboration as a partner organisation and is represented on its board to provide strategic direction and oversight.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including childhood cancer. As with other Government funders of health research, the NIHR does not allocate funding for specific disease areas. The level of research spend in a particular area is determined by factors such as scientific potential and the number of successful funding applications.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) recent progress he has made on the development of the new dementia strategy and (b) plans he has to help increase (i) research and (ii) funding for dementia research.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
We will be setting out plans for dementia in England later this year. Task and finish groups were established in late October 2021 to develop the strategy with stakeholders. We received the output of these groups in December 2021, which have been reviewed and are being refined into proposals and testing with people living with dementia and their carers.
We have committed to invest £375 million in neurodegenerative disease research in the next five years to fund projects into a range of diseases, including dementia. The National Institute for Health Research Highlight Notice on Dementia launched in March 2021. We are reviewing ways to increase further research on dementia and we will set out plans in the forthcoming dementia strategy.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the £50 million for targeted motor neurone disease research can be accessed.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
This funding is available through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The NIHR and UKRI rely on researchers submitting high-quality applications to access funding. All applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards made on the basis of the importance to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his timeframe is for the allocation of funding to brain tumour research.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
In May 2018 the Government announced £40 million over five years for brain tumour research as part of the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission, through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR released a public announcement to the research community, making clear our desire to receive brain tumour research funding applications. We are relying on researchers to submit high-quality research proposals.
As with other Government funders of health research, the NIHR does not allocate funding for specific disease areas. The level of research spend in a particular area is determined by factors including scientific potential and the number and scale of successful funding applications. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including brain tumours.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
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 4 November 2021 to Questions 65535 and 65536 on Hormone Replacement Therapy, what the nature of the issues was affecting the supplies of some HRT drugs and products.
Answered by Edward Argar
Supply issues that have affected the availability of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) preparations include manufacturing issues, regulatory issues, problems accessing the raw pharmaceutical ingredient as well as commercial decisions made by some companies to divest these products.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
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 4 November 2021 to Questions 65535 and 65536 on Hormone Replacement Therapy, for what reason HRT drugs and products have been affected by supply issues.
Answered by Edward Argar
Supply issues that have affected the availability of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) preparations include manufacturing issues, regulatory issues, problems accessing the raw pharmaceutical ingredient as well as commercial decisions made by some companies to divest these products.