Asked by: Heidi Alexander (Labour - Swindon South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether there is a requirement for online sellers of testing kits for sexually transmitted infections to be registered with the Care Quality Commission.
Answered by Steve Brine
There is no requirement for online sellers of testing kits for sexually transmitted infections to be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) unless the provider is registered with the CQC as a primary care service.
Asked by: Heidi Alexander (Labour - Swindon South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what duties online sexually transmitted infection testing services have to follow best practice in respect of safeguarding and child protection issues.
Answered by Steve Brine
Online sexually transmitted infection services are not offered to under 16s who would be advised to attend their local clinic where a proper safeguarding assessment can be undertaken in person.
Asked by: Heidi Alexander (Labour - Swindon South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the UK hospitals participating in the European Reference Networks on rare diseases will continue to participate in those Networks in the event of the UK withdrawing from the EU.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Government's policy paper, Collaboration on Science and Innovation: A Future Partnership Paper, stresses the importance of continued collaboration with European partners to ensure that the United Kingdom remains one of the best places in the world for science and innovation. European Reference Networks were cited in the paper as an example of a partnership that the UK believes should continue.
The diagnosis, treatment and management of rare diseases benefit from national and international collaboration because of the limited number of patients and scarcity of clinical and research expertise within a single country. The UK is recognised internationally for its expertise and excellence in the field of rare diseases.
Asked by: Heidi Alexander (Labour - Swindon South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the National Audit Office Report, Implementing the UK’s exit from the European Union, HC 593, published on 17 November 2017, if he will (a) list the 31 work streams in his Department identified by the National Audit Office in that report, (b) provide summaries of the issues covered and (c) detail the number of Officials of his Department contributing to those work streams.
Answered by Philip Dunne
As indicated in the National Audit Office report, the Department for Exiting the European Union had identified 313 Exit work streams across Government departments, including 31 from this Department. The development of work streams is part of ongoing cross-Government work to develop and assess potential policy options, and to understand the implications of EU Exit.
The report represents a snapshot of the number and type of work stream at the time of publication. Many of these will vary as time goes by, including the Department ones but these will be kept under regular review by all departments. We will not be listing any detail about the Department’s work streams.
We can confirm that we are equipping ourselves with the right people and the right skills across government to make a success of Brexit. This Department has identified the workforce it requires for operational and policy requirements and constantly reviews its capabilities in order to deliver the Government’s commitment to leave the EU and get the very best deal for the United Kingdom.