Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
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 15 February 2021 to Question 149773 on Honey: Sales, how many checks were made on imports of honey to ensure their equivalence with UK food production standards in each of the last five years; and on how many occasions imported honey products were found to not meet UK standards.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In the five years from 2016-2020 there were 6,720 consignments of honey imported into the United Kingdom from non-European Union countries totalling 212,043,339 kilograms in weight. The following table provides a summary of the number of checks undertaken on consignments of imported honey between 2016-2020 and the number found to be unsatisfactory.
| 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
Total number of documentary checks | 1,270 | 1,420 | 1,382 | 1,371 | 1,277 |
Number of documentary checks found to be unsatisfactory | 26 | 41 | 31 | 44 | 43 |
Total number of identity checks | 1,264 | 1,419 | 1,379 | 1,366 | 1,275 |
Number of identity checks found to be unsatisfactory | 8 | 13 | 18 | 21 | 24 |
Total number of physical checks | 636 | 659 | 680 | 644 | 272 |
Number of physical checks found to be unsatisfactory | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
Total number of samples taken | 89 | 118 | 105 | 99 | 49 |
Number of samples found to be unsatisfactory | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 1 |
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
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 that students registered at a term-time GP practice and residing in that location during the covid-19 outbreak will not be encouraged to travel to a different part of the country to receive a covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
General practitioners (GPs) will invite their registered patients, including students, for vaccination at the appropriate moment, depending on which cohort the patient is part of. Students can register as a temporary resident at another GP practice, in cases where they intend to be in an area for more than 24 hours but less than three months.
If a student has not moved their GP practice registration to their place of study and has a national invitation letter sent to their home address, they will still be able to book a vaccination at a site local to their place of study. They can enter any postcode on the National Booking System to identify a vaccination centre or community pharmacy providing vaccinations locally.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether healthcare students on placements will receive priority access to the covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who advise the Government on which vaccines the United Kingdom should use and provide advice on prioritisation at a population level. For the first phase, the JCVI have advised that the vaccine be given to care home residents and staff, as well as frontline health and social care workers, then to the rest of the population in order of age and clinical risk factors.
Frontline healthcare workers are staff who have frequent face-to-face clinical contact with patients and who are directly involved in patient care in either secondary or primary care/community settings. Temporary staff, including those working in the COVID-19 vaccination programme, students, trainees and volunteers who are working with patients must also be included.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
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 help ensure that community testing for covid-19 is accessible for autistic people; and whether he is taking steps to ensure (a) provision of accessible information and b) the training of staff on autism in those testing centres.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Everyone with symptoms of COVID-19 is eligible for a test, but we are aware that certain groups or individuals may find accessing a test more difficult than others for a range of reasons. In booking a test it is possible for friends, relatives and carers to book a test on behalf of another person online or via 119, should they require assistance with the test booking process.
We have also introduced specific training for call centre staff and on-site testing staff so that they are able to support those who find it difficult to administer the test themselves
Home testing has improved convenience for many people, including for those who may struggle to get to a test site. Since NHS Test and Trace began, we have been working with charities and organisations to understand accessibility issues and practical actions we can take to make testing more accessible and inclusive, including those which represent neurodiverse people.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether costs incurred by local authorities for private laboratory fees for (a) covid-19 tests (b) courier fees and (c) swabbing fees will be reimbursed by the Government.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Test and Trace was established to provide testing and contact tracing in England.
It does not hold responsibility for all testing conducted in England. Where local authorities or other Government bodies have procured private testing services outside of the Department or NHS Test and Trace, these costs will not be reimbursed unless they were contractually agreed prior to undertaking.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether informal carers are eligible to receive a flu vaccine in winter 2020-21.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Annual Flu Letter 2020/21 Update letter published on 5 August sets out the eligibility criteria for the flu vaccination programme. The letter is available at the following link:
Under the flu vaccination programme individuals who are the main carer of an older or disabled person whose welfare may be at risk if the carer falls ill are eligible to receive flu vaccination.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the funding allocated to councils for the Test and Trace Support Payment has been spent in (a) Cambridge, (b) Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and (c) England.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We continue to work closely with the 314 local authorities in England administering the Test and Trace Support Payment scheme. This includes collating information on the number of successful applications, which we will publish in due course.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the inquest into the deaths of Averil Hart, Emma Brown, Maria Jakes, Amanda Bowles, and Madeline Wallace, if he will take steps to improve the quality of NHS care for those with eating disorders.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
This Government is committed to learning lessons from those tragic events and ensuring everyone with an eating disorder has access to timely treatment based on clinical need. We welcomed the recommendations of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's ‘Ignoring the Alarms: How NHS eating disorder services are failing patients’ report relating to the death of Averil Hart and two other individuals and we are working closely with our arm’s length bodies and stakeholders to implement the recommendations.
In October, NHS England announced additional early intervention services for young people with eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia. This service, being rolled out in 18 sites across the country, means teens or young adults coming forward could be contacted within 48 hours and begin treatment within two weeks.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many food factories in England have been required by the Food Standards Agency or Health and Safety Executive to close or suspend operations as a result of a covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Foods Standards Agency and the Health and Safety Executive do not have the powers to close food factories in response to COVID-19 outbreaks. As with any localised outbreaks, the Joint Biosecurity Centre works with local leaders and public health officials to bring them under control. Where outbreaks are traced to workplaces, the relevant business leaders are also brought into these conversations to develop a plan to suppress the spread of the virus. By working in this collaborative way, it has not been necessary to use regulations to close any food factories in response to COVID-19 outbreaks.
Asked by: Daniel Zeichner (Labour - Cambridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether a person residing in a tier one covid-19 area may continue to provide informal social care to relatives that reside in a tier two area.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Until 3 December, tiers requirements will not apply because of the new national restrictions. However, as part of the national restrictions, we continue to recognise providing informal social care to relatives and vulnerable people is of the highest importance.
As was the case in March, a specific set of exemptions to the requirement to stay at home. This includes providing care or assistance to a vulnerable person.