Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the impact assessments on the UK leaving the EU that he instructed NHS trusts to carry out in October 2018.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The self-assessment exercise referred to related only to non-clinical goods and services received by National Health Service trusts from external suppliers. The Department does not intend to publish the details of this impact assessment, as it contains supplier specific information that is considered to be commercially confidential.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance he has provided to health service organisations on responding to freedom of information requests on preparations for the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 provides a right of access to a wide range of information held by public sector organisations, including Government departments, public bodies, health trusts, hospitals and doctors’ surgeries.
The Parliamentary and Public Accountability Agreements Protocols in place between the Department and its arm’s length bodies covers best practice for responding to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. This includes consulting with the Department where necessary and sets out that the Department’s FOI team will provide informal, impartial advice on relevant legislation and duties.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent research his Department has commissioned on the safety of genetically modified organisms in the food chain.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has policy responsibility for food and animal feed safety including the safety of genetically modified (GM) food and feed. The FSA has not recently commissioned any research on the safety of GM organisms in the food chain, but regularly monitors credible scientific literature to identify any relevant research for further consideration.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the effect of changes in the level of welfare benefits on demand for NHS services.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
No assessment has been made. We engage across Government to ensure that health policy and delivery needs are taken into account in and also respond to wider policy developments.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the total NHS drugs bill was in each of the last 10 years; and how much of that bill was offset by prescription charges income in each those years.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The table below shows total primary and secondary care drug spend as recorded by the Department for the last 10 years, in England only.
Total Departmental drug spend 2007-08 to 2016-17
Year | Total Primary care drugs spend | Total Secondary care drugs spend | Total Departmental drugs spend |
(£ billion) | (£ billion) | (£ billion) | |
2007/08 | 7.7 | 3.3 | 10.9 |
2008/09 | 7.7 | 3.6 | 11.4 |
2009/10 | 7.9 | 4.0 | 11.9 |
2010/11 | 8.3 | 4.3 | 12.5 |
2011/12 | 8.2 | 4.5 | 12.7 |
2012/13 | 7.9 | 5.1 | 12.9 |
2013/14 | 8.0 | 5.3 | 13.3 |
2014/15 | 8.2 | 5.9 | 14.1 |
2015/16 | 8.5 | 6.5 | 15.1 |
2016/17 | 8.5 | 6.9 | 15.4 |
The Department holds income for those prescription charges. The data held is in relation to the National Health Service in England only. The totals for each can be seen in the table below:
Financial Year | Income from Fees Charged (£ million) |
2007-08 | 451.2 |
2008-09 | 459.3 |
2009-10 | 450.4 |
2010-11 | 456.0 |
2011-12 | 426.1 |
2012-13 | 449.6 |
2013-14 | 470.7 |
2014-15 | 503.9 |
2015-16 | 523.5 |
2016-17 | 554.9 |
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much has been paid out by NHS clinical commissioning groups in compensation for deficiencies in the contract tendering procedure.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England has advised that they do not collect this information centrally.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, on how many occasions an NHS clinical commissioning group has been pursued by a care or health provider over deficiencies in the contract tendering procedure.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England has advised that they do not collect this information centrally.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in his Department with responsibility for social media are employed on an (a) full and (b) part-time basis.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Department does not have any members of staff who have social media as their sole responsibility. There is a wide range of people in the department who have some responsibility for social media, including the monitoring of social media activity, as well as posting content on official Departmental channels. Because this responsibility is spread so widely, it means we are not able to give a specific number of full-time or part-time staff who have responsibility for social media.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many public engagements for which a media calling notice was issued were attended by a departmental Minister in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department has spent on advertising on social media in each month since January 2016.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The information is not held in the format requested.
Detailed information for spend on advertising by each individual category such as ‘social media’ is not available within the Department’s Business Management System centrally and to provide an answer by specific categories would require a review of each individual contract and invoice payment, and would result in disproportionate cost.