Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government has taken in response to Resolution 1815 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on measures to reduce exposure, particularly of children, to electromagnetic fields, agreed on 27 May 2011.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Pre-existing precautionary advice remains available to the United Kingdom public and internationally recommended (ICNIRP) guidelines on limiting exposures to electromagnetic fields are in place. The Government has not responded specifically to this Resolution.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government took in response to the report of the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones, chaired by Sir William Stewart, published in 2000; what steps the Government has taken in response to that report's recommendations on limiting children's use of mobile phones; what research the Government has commissioned or undertaken since that report on that issue; and whether any such research supported or contradicted the findings of that report.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Government published a detailed response to the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones (IEGMP) report’s recommendations and set in place a range of measures to address concerns about mobile phones and health. International guidelines for limiting exposures to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields were adopted, and precautionary advice to mobile phone users was published. The Mobile Telecommunications Health Research Programme ran for 11 years after the IEGMP report and government continues to support research on this topic.
IEGMP concluded the balance of evidence at the time of its report did not suggest mobile phone technologies put the health of the population at risk; that remains the case after a considerable volume of more recent national and international research.
Precautionary advice to mobile phone users has been maintained and is available here:
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Mobile-phone-safety/Pages/Introduction.aspx
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the combined effect of the (a) increase in national insurance contributions and (b) one per cent 2015-16 pay increase for NHS staff which both took effect from 1 April 2016 on the take-home pay of NHS nurses.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The impact on take-home pay for National Health Service nurses, of the combined effect of these measures will depend on individual circumstances, in particular how much they are paid, whether they are members of the NHS Pension Scheme, whether they also received an annual increment and their personal tax allowance.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of what constitutes a safe level of exposure of electromagnetic fields from mobile telephone use for (a) the population as a whole and (b) young people.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Government policy is that exposures to electromagnetic fields from mobile phones should comply with the guidelines on limiting exposures from the International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). Public Health England keeps the evidence relevant to this policy under review and published a comprehensive review of the evidence prepared by its independent Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation in 2012. Acute and long-term effects of high frequency exposure from the use of mobile phones have been studied extensively without showing any conclusive evidence of adverse health effects. The ICNIRP website can be found at:
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps NHS England is taking to ensure that patients have accelerated access to healthcare technologies.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government is actively supporting a number of initiatives to accelerate access to innovative treatments. These include the Early Access to Medicines Schemes which supports access in the United Kingdom to unlicensed or off-label medicines and represents a significant advance in treatment in areas of unmet medical need and the Accelerated Access Review, which aims to speed up access to innovative drugs, devices, diagnostics and digital products for National Health Service patients, and to make the UK the best place to develop these innovations.
NHS England supports the invention and adoption of transformative healthcare technologies. This includes existing technologies, where the benefits are already proven but wider adoption is critical to benefit all patients, and new technologies, which require larger scale trials to test out their impact individually and in combination. Current initiatives include the sponsorship of 15 Academic Health Science Networks (£48 million core funding in 2015-16), the Small Business Research Initiative (£20 million in 2015-16), and the Test Bed programme which is providing funding for frontline health and care workers to evaluate the use of novel combinations of interconnected devices such as wearable monitors, data analysis and new ways of working.
NHS England has been tasked under section 7.1 of the NHS Mandate to “Implement the agreed recommendations of the Accelerated Access Review including developing ambition and trajectory on NHS uptake of affordable and cost-effective new innovations”.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to increase the availability and uptake of innovative technology available to patients on the NHS; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government is actively supporting a number of initiatives to accelerate access to innovative treatments. These include the Early Access to Medicines Schemes which supports access in the United Kingdom to unlicensed or off-label medicines and represents a significant advance in treatment in areas of unmet medical need and the Accelerated Access Review, which aims to speed up access to innovative drugs, devices, diagnostics and digital products for National Health Service patients, and to make the UK the best place to develop these innovations.
NHS England supports the invention and adoption of transformative healthcare technologies. This includes existing technologies, where the benefits are already proven but wider adoption is critical to benefit all patients, and new technologies, which require larger scale trials to test out their impact individually and in combination. Current initiatives include the sponsorship of 15 Academic Health Science Networks (£48 million core funding in 2015-16), the Small Business Research Initiative (£20 million in 2015-16), and the Test Bed programme which is providing funding for frontline health and care workers to evaluate the use of novel combinations of interconnected devices such as wearable monitors, data analysis and new ways of working.
NHS England has been tasked under section 7.1 of the NHS Mandate to “Implement the agreed recommendations of the Accelerated Access Review including developing ambition and trajectory on NHS uptake of affordable and cost-effective new innovations”.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that individuals with muscle-wasting conditions who require a cough assist machine have access to one commissioned in the community by their clinical commissioning group.
Answered by Ben Gummer
NHS England has been working with Muscular Dystrophy UK through the Bridging the Gap project to address areas of concern raised by patients and their representatives, one of which is the provision of cough assist machines for people with neuromuscular conditions.
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for commissioning and funding cough assist machines, where appropriate. A number of CGGs have now developed commissioning policies for these devices based on one developed by Walsall CCG, which has been shared nationally as an example of good practice by Muscular Dystrophy UK.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the Prime Minister's policy is on moving to an insurance or user-funded NHS; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The pressures faced by the National Health Service are common to most developed health systems, regardless of how the system is funded. The Government believes that the answer to these challenges lies in changing the way services are delivered and keeping people well and independent for longer, not in altering the fundamental principles that underpin the NHS.