Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the (1) level, and (2) adequacy, of Vitamin D content in Healthy Start vitamins.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Healthy Start Vitamins are made available free to people on Healthy Start, as a public health intervention to support the adequate daily intake of key micronutrients. Healthy Start Vitamins tablets for women and Healthy Start Vitamins drops for children both contain a daily dose of ten microgrammes of vitamin D.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to give early years workers priority status in their UK COVID-19 vaccines delivery plan, published on 11 January.
Answered by Lord Bethell
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 has 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.
If early years workers are captured in phase one due to their age, or clinical risk factors they will be prioritised. However, the Government, as advised by the JCVI, are not considering vaccinating early years workers as a phase one priority at this stage. Prioritisation decisions for next phase delivery are subject to of the surveillance and monitoring data and information from phase one, as well as further input from independent scientific experts such as the JCVI. Phase two of the roll-out may include further reduction in hospitalisation and targeted vaccination of those at high risk of exposure and/or those delivering key public services.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to prioritise COVID-19 vaccinations for clinically extremely vulnerable groups irrespective of age.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised that all clinically extremely vulnerable individuals aged 16 years old and above should receive a COVID-19 vaccination in the first phase of the programme.
Children, including those in at risk groups, have a very low risk of mortality from COVID-19 and the advice of the JCVI is for the first phase of vaccination to involve a targeted programme to vaccinate those most at risk of mortality. Data from the first wave of the pandemic in the United Kingdom indicated that mortality in children was only seen in older children with severe neuro-disabilities. Given this, the JCVI has advised exceptional use of the vaccine outside of the authorisation in this group where these children require residential care and are as such at higher risk of exposure.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which suppliers of latex gloves they have contracts with in the coming 12 months; and what quantity they intend to purchase from each supplier.
Answered by Lord Bethell
NHS Supply Chain, the main provider of consumables and equipment into the National Health Service, have led on the procurement of gloves. They approached all suppliers awarded onto their framework contracts during October 2019 requesting confirmation as to whether any of the gloves supplied to NHS Supply Chain were sourced from Top Glove. Two suppliers initially responded at the end of 2019 that they have used Top Glove but have since advised they no longer source gloves from Top Glove for supply to the NHS. This means none of their awarded framework suppliers are now supplying NHS Supply Chain with gloves manufactured by Top Glove.
The Department has not directly procured from Top Glove but has been supplied small quantities of gloves from Top Glove through a handful of intermediary suppliers. The Department has since engaged with these suppliers to understand their modern-day slavery policies. The Department itself has no plans to award further contracts for gloves.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have procured any latex gloves from Top Glove in the last 12 months; and if so, (1) what assessment they have made of the wages paid to Top Glove workers, and (2) whether they have taken any steps to avoid further procurement from Top Glove.
Answered by Lord Bethell
NHS Supply Chain, the main provider of consumables and equipment into the National Health Service, have led on the procurement of gloves. They approached all suppliers awarded onto their framework contracts during October 2019 requesting confirmation as to whether any of the gloves supplied to NHS Supply Chain were sourced from Top Glove. Two suppliers initially responded at the end of 2019 that they have used Top Glove but have since advised they no longer source gloves from Top Glove for supply to the NHS. This means none of their awarded framework suppliers are now supplying NHS Supply Chain with gloves manufactured by Top Glove.
The Department has not directly procured from Top Glove but has been supplied small quantities of gloves from Top Glove through a handful of intermediary suppliers. The Department has since engaged with these suppliers to understand their modern-day slavery policies. The Department itself has no plans to award further contracts for gloves.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to bring forward proposals requiring all NHS trusts and foundation trusts to abolish all charges for disabled car parking at NHS hospitals in England.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The level and appropriateness of car parking charges at National Health Service sites is the responsibility of the local NHS trust. The Department have published the NHS Car Parking Principles which clearly state that concessions should be offered to groups who most need help, such as disabled people including those with blue badges and temporary disabilities.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
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 average number of health visitors per income quintile of the population in England in each of the most recent five years for which data are available.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We do not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve the (a) diagnosis, (b) treatment and (c) support provided to people with secondary breast cancer.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In September 2019 we announced funding of £200 million for new equipment to drive earlier diagnosis of cancer and improve survival. More than 300 diagnostic machines will be funded across the country, replacing outdated MRI machines, CT scans and breast screening equipment with cutting edge technology.
The NHS Long Term Plan sets a clear ambition that where appropriate ever person diagnosed with cancer should have access to personalised care by 2021. Personalised care is made up of four interventions that used to be referred to as the Support Package:
- Personalised care and support planning based on holistic needs assessments;
- End of treatment summaries;
- Health and wellbeing information and support; and
- A Cancer Care Review with their general practitioner.
The NHS Cancer Programme aims to improve access to cancer Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) for all cancer patients when they need it, including those with secondary breast cancer. The NHS Long Term Plan commitment is that all patients, including those with secondary cancers, will have access to the right expertise and support, including a CNS or other support worker by 2021.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many individual Healthy Start vouchers have been used in each of the last 10 years for which data are available.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A total of around 256 million Healthy Start vouchers have been redeemed within the last 10 complete financial years. A full breakdown of the redemption within each year can be found in the following table.
Redeemed Healthy Start Vouchers | |
Financial Year | Total |
2009/10 | 31,632,099 |
2010/11 | 31,825,262 |
2011/12 | 31,152,563 |
2012/13 | 31,322,441 |
2013/14 | 29,191,004 |
2014/15 | 26,105,893 |
2015/16 | 22,691,074 |
2016/17 | 19,927,901 |
2017/18 | 17,462,707 |
2018/19 | 14,585,372 |
Grand Total | 255,896,316 |
Source: Healthy Start Reimbursement Unit
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he will bring forward legislative proposals to codify in law accountability for workforce supply and planning throughout the health and care system.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Through the Care Act of 2014, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has delegated his powers to Health Education England (HEE) to support the delivery of excellent healthcare and health improvement for patients and the public in England, by ensuring that the current and future National Health Service workforce has the right numbers of staff with the right skills, values and behaviours at the right time and in the right place to meet patient needs.
The Care Act 2014 sets out HEE’s remit and range of roles and responsibilities in detail, including its duty to ensure an effective system for education and training for the NHS and public health.