Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish daily totals of positive covid-19 tests for passengers arriving from Portugal in the last 30 days.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have no current plans to publish the information requested on a weekly basis. However, the Joint Biosecurity Centre will be publishing data tables on a three weekly basis to align with their reviews of countries’ risk assessments. These tables are available at the following link:
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What recent progress has been made on vaccinating people against covid-19.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We have administered over 60 million vaccine jabs in the United Kingdom, with 75% of the adult population already having received their first dose. Over 25 million people have now received their second dose and
53% of people aged 30 to 39 years have received at least one dose since the programme began opening up to the age group on 13 May. This week, we will open the vaccination programme to ages 25 to 29 years old.
We are on track to meet our vaccination target to offer all adults a vaccine by the end of July.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when recipients of the Janssen covid-19 vaccination will be able to see the record of their vaccination on the NHS app.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Those participating in United Kingdom vaccination trials can request a letter from the trial they are participating in to confirm their vaccination status, which will include vaccine type and dose information. The Government is exploring how vaccine information for those on clinical trials can be linked to the NHS App, as well as to a non-digital solution.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to enable the NHS App to access information relating to patients' (a) physical and mental health, (b) families, (c) lifestyle and social circumstances, (d) ethnicity, (e) biometric details and (f) criminal convictions or alleged criminal behaviour.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The NHS App does not capture or access any information which is not strictly necessary to deliver services to help people manage their health and access essential health services. The NHS App is independently tested against standards set by the National Cyber Security Centre, with extensive assurance work undertaken at each release to ensure it meets those standards.
The COVID-19 Status Certification programme initially issued a Privacy Notice copied from a template which included a standard list of data, many items of which are not collected. That Privacy Notice has since been updated to only include data fields which are collected. Fields such as those relating to ‘criminal convictions or alleged criminal behaviour’ are not relevant and have been deleted.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
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 merits of Ivermectin as a treatment for covid-19.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Currently, ivermectin for oral use is not a licensed human medicine in the United Kingdom. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is aware that ivermectin, administered orally, is being studied for safety and efficacy in numerous clinical trials worldwide, including in the UK. While some studies have reported findings, other large studies are still on-going.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish statistics on the (a) number of infections, (b) deaths and (c) hospital admissions by each covid-19 variant of concern.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Public Health England’s statistics for infections for each variant of concern are available at the following link:
Data for hospitalisations and deaths is not currently available in the format requested.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether personal protective equipment freely distributed to care homes has included items from consignments that were rejected for use in the NHS for failing to meet required standards.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Personal protective equipment (PPE) sent to care homes has passed the essential safety specifications in line with European Union standards and Health and Safety England regulations. No PPE products that have been rejected for use in the National Health Service on the basis of safety standards have then been sent on for use in care homes.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
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 GPs offer patients face-to-face appointments.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
General practice is open and has been throughout the pandemic. Practices must ensure they offer face to face appointments and respect patient preferences for face to face care where clinically appropriate in line with the NHS England and NHS Improvement’s letter to general practice on 13 May 2021. The letter set out planned updates to the Standard Operating Procedure to support the restoration of services ahead of Government rules on social distancing changing on 17 May. NHS England and NHS Improvement also advised practices to ensure that their receptions are clearly open to the public and that they review communications so that patients understand how to access general practitioner services.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
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 release private hospitals from their obligations as contracted by the NHS during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
On 31 March 2021 the national contracts used during the height of the pandemic came to an end as they were no longer needed. From 1 April 2021 NHS England and NHS Improvement have returned to local commissioning arrangements.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to make covid-19 vaccines available to UK expatriates who are having difficulty acquiring those vaccines overseas.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
There are currently no plans to do so. As a residence-based system, the National Health Service does not provide healthcare, including vaccinations, outside the United Kingdom. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office are providing information through Travel Advice pages and 'Living In' guides on GOV.UK to inform British nationals of healthcare options available to them and how they can receive a vaccine locally.