Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason his Department’s Tackling obesity strategy is using primary and secondary legislation to introduce proposed restrictions on advertising of products that are high in fat, salt and sugar, and promotion and placement of those products, respectively.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have been careful to consider the views of stakeholders and experts as we developed our plans for implementing the healthy weight strategy, including restrictions on advertising and promotions. This process will continue as these measures pass through Parliament ensuring there is adequate time for scrutiny. Different legislative approaches being pursued reflect the current legislative framework and implementation routes available to the Government. For the promotions restrictions, we intend to use powers in the Food Safety Act (FSA) 1990 to lay secondary legislation before Parliament by mid-2021. The statutory instrument will be subject to the affirmative parliamentary procedure.
Subject to the outcome of the consultations on further advertising restrictions on TV and online, we intend to legislate through the Health and Care Bill. For online advertising restrictions primary legislation has to be used because there is no existing legislation on which to build. The decision was taken that the TV aspect should also be implemented through primary legislation because the two policies are closely aligned.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ensure adequate opportunity for parliamentary scrutiny of (a) proposed restrictions on promotion and placement of products that are high in fat, salt and sugar and (b) advertising restrictions on those products in the context of the differing proposed legislative vehicles for those policies.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have been careful to consider the views of stakeholders and experts as we developed our plans for implementing the healthy weight strategy, including restrictions on advertising and promotions. This process will continue as these measures pass through Parliament ensuring there is adequate time for scrutiny. Different legislative approaches being pursued reflect the current legislative framework and implementation routes available to the Government. For the promotions restrictions, we intend to use powers in the Food Safety Act (FSA) 1990 to lay secondary legislation before Parliament by mid-2021. The statutory instrument will be subject to the affirmative parliamentary procedure.
Subject to the outcome of the consultations on further advertising restrictions on TV and online, we intend to legislate through the Health and Care Bill. For online advertising restrictions primary legislation has to be used because there is no existing legislation on which to build. The decision was taken that the TV aspect should also be implemented through primary legislation because the two policies are closely aligned.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Integrated Care Systems (ICS) specifically cover prostate cancer as part of their local cancer recovery plans; and whether the (a) National Cancer Board and (b) Cancer Recovery Taskforce have plans to issue guidance to ICS on this matter.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Local systems, supported by Cancer Alliances, were asked to set recovery trajectories across all cancers and not for individual tumour types. Following NHS England’s publication of the 2021/22 Priorities and Operational Guidance in March 2021, Cancer Alliances have been asked to draw up a single delivery plan for all cancers, including prostate cancer, on behalf of their integrated care systems for April 2021 to September 2021.
The Cancer Recovery Taskforce met for the final time in March 2021 and therefore will not issue any further guidance. The National Cancer Board continues to oversee further recovery of cancer services alongside delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan for cancer.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data (a) his Department and (b) NHS trusts are collecting in order to monitor interruptions to prostate cancer treatment for existing patients during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No data on prostate cancer treatment interruptions during the COVID pandemic is collected.
The NHS Cancer Programme is currently establishing a task and finish group to review alterations and/or disruptions to care pathways, including services for those with prostate cancer, during the pandemic. The group will consider the most appropriate data sources with which to make this assessment.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of NHS Cancer Recovery Funding his Department has allocated to tackle the backlog in prostate cancer services as a result of the covid-19 outbreak; and what comparative assessment he has made of how that allocation compares with such funding allocated to other cancers.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This information is not held centrally. Funding allocation is decided at a local service level and is dependent on the needs of these services.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many of clinical nurse specialists are focused solely on (a) urology and (b) prostate cancer in England.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not hold the data requested.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 number of clinical nurse specialists working in (a) urology and (b) prostate cancer.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Specialist clinical nursing workforce working in urology and prostate cancer is a post registration qualification and it is the responsibility of individual employers to ensure they have the staff available to provide clinical services.
The Spending Review 2020 provided £260 million to continue to grow the National Health Service workforce and support commitments made in the NHS Long Term Plan, including continuing to take forward the Cancer Workforce Plan - Phase One commitment to expand education and training to increase the number of clinical nurse specialists by 250 and develop common and consistent competencies.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 on businesses of the policies proposed in the paper Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We carefully consider all views and potential impacts of our measures to reduce obesity. This includes ongoing engagement and feedback from a wide range of experts and stakeholders, including those from the food and drink manufacturing sector on specific policy proposals and in response to our public consultations. Introducing legislation across the market will ensure that a level playing field is created within the retail sector as well as across the wider food industry.
We have conducted two consultations on introducing further advertising restrictions for products that are high fat, salt or sugar (HFSS). We have considered the impact any restrictions will have on industry in terms of lost revenue and any business sectors that will see greater impacts. This has been balanced against the impact advertising of HFSS food and drink has on children’s consumption, preferences and ultimately their weight. We have kept these, along with other factors, in mind whist we develop our final policy position. More detail on any steps taken to protect industry will be outlined in our consultation response, due to be published later this year.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken steps to protect (a) businesses and (b) jobs in the food and drink manufacturing industry from the potential effect of restrictions on the advertising, promotion and placement of products that are high in fat, salt and sugar.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We carefully consider all views and potential impacts of our measures to reduce obesity. This includes ongoing engagement and feedback from a wide range of experts and stakeholders, including those from the food and drink manufacturing sector on specific policy proposals and in response to our public consultations. Introducing legislation across the market will ensure that a level playing field is created within the retail sector as well as across the wider food industry.
We have conducted two consultations on introducing further advertising restrictions for products that are high fat, salt or sugar (HFSS). We have considered the impact any restrictions will have on industry in terms of lost revenue and any business sectors that will see greater impacts. This has been balanced against the impact advertising of HFSS food and drink has on children’s consumption, preferences and ultimately their weight. We have kept these, along with other factors, in mind whist we develop our final policy position. More detail on any steps taken to protect industry will be outlined in our consultation response, due to be published later this year.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
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 26 February 2021 to Question 153180 on Food: Marketing, whether he has plans to introduce new incentives for food and drink manufacturers to continue to reformulate products that are high in fat, salt and sugar.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Incentives already exist for businesses to reformulate their products including reformulating to achieve the Nutrient Profiling Model threshold to become out of scope of the promotion restrictions, meeting Public Health England's reformulation programme guidelines, consumer demand for healthier products and the possibility of making nutrition claims.
As outlined in the ‘Restricting location promotions of high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) products: impact assessment’, there would be non-monetised health benefits from manufacturers reformulating their HFSS products providing a reduction in fat, salt and sugar in products. In addition, preventing obesity related ill health will also result in a healthier workforce, which is likely to be more productive. The final impact assessments on the proposals to restrict the promotion of foods high in fat, salt and sugar by location and by volume are available at the following link: