Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who is responsible for the enforcement of the wearing of face coverings in supermarkets and shops.
Answered by Maggie Throup
There is a legal requirement for in-scope businesses, including shops, to display signage to inform the public that face coverings are mandated in their premises, unless they are exempt from wearing them or have a reasonable excuse. Staff should remind people of the requirement to wear a face covering, but this should not result in anyone having to prove that they have an exemption or reasonable excuse. If necessary, police and police community support officers can issue a fixed penalty notice to anyone who does not comply without a valid exemption or reasonable excuse.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 18 November 2021 to Question 73966 on Travel: Coronavirus, what his timescale is for ensuring that a NHS COVID Pass is available for fully vaccinated 12 to 15 year olds.
Answered by Maggie Throup
We are looking at ways to provide fully vaccinated 12 to 15 year olds with a travel NHS COVID Pass. This will be available shortly, initially via a NHS COVID Pass travel letter. Further information will be made available in due course.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
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 referral pathways and diagnostic rates for people with Tourette's Syndrome in Yorkshire and the Humber.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The majority of services for people with Tourette’s syndrome are commissioned locally by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), who are best placed to plan the provision of services subject to local prioritisation and funding. Decisions on how to improve referral pathways and diagnostic rates for Tourette’s syndrome will vary across individual CCGs located in the Yorkshire and Humber region, with each CCG taking into consideration attributes of its local population to assess the level of need.
At a national level, Health Education England is increasing the number of trained clinical psychologists, supporting a 60 per cent expansion in the clinical psychology training intake over the past two years. Clinical psychologists are well placed to develop new services and undertake bespoke development to respond to the needs of patients with Tourette’s syndrome.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
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 referral pathways for children with avoidant restrictive food intake disorder.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
In 2019/20, NHS England and NHS Improvement funded seven community eating disorder teams in each region in England for children and young people in a pilot programme to improve access, assessment and treatment for children presenting with Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). The pilots included training to support the adaption of each service’s existing care pathways, assessments and treatment interventions for children and young people with ARFID. The training from these pilots is now available for local areas to commission community children and young people’s eating disorder services. In 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement also commissioned ARFID training for staff delivering treatment in inpatient children and young people’s mental health services.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
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 planning to take to help improve the diagnostic rates of children with Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID).
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
In 2019/20, NHS England and NHS Improvement funded seven community eating disorder teams in each region in England for children and young people in a pilot programme to improve access, assessment and treatment for children presenting with Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). The pilots included training to support the adaption of each service’s existing care pathways, assessments and treatment interventions for children and young people with ARFID. The training from these pilots is now available for local areas to commission community children and young people’s eating disorder services. In 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement also commissioned ARFID training for staff delivering treatment in inpatient children and young people’s mental health services.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
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 ensure that people who have received two covid-19 vaccinations, including Oxford AstraZeneca batch numbers (a) 4120Z001, (b) 4120Z002 and (c) 4120Z003, are able to travel to EU countries.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The European Union has recently published a list of vaccines it sees as equivalent to those authorised by the European Medicines Agency, for travel purposes which is at the following link:
The list includes all vaccines administered in the United Kingdom, including all batches of AstraZeneca vaccine administered in the UK known commercially as Vaxzevria. This also includes batches 4120Z001, 4120Z002 and 4120Z003. Decisions on which vaccines EU Member States will accept at their borders is for those countries to decide. We are not aware that any have decided not to accept UK vaccines.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Written Statement of 11 January 2021, HCWS692, Update on the Government’s response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, whether he plans to support a redress scheme for the families affected by sodium valproate.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government published its response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review on 21st July 2021. In this response the Government did not accept the recommendation to establish separate redress schemes for the three interventions discussed in the report, including sodium valproate. Our primary focus is on improving future medicines and medical devices safety and it is therefore crucial that we focus Government funds on initiatives that directly improve future safety (including specialist mesh centres and support for families affected by medicines in pregnancy). For this reason, redress schemes will not be established in response to the recommendation in the report.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many women under the age of 30 have received the Oxford/AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccination to date.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The information is not currently held centrally held in the format requested.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
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 access to NHS dentists in (a) Calderdale and (b) England.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Contractual arrangements for the first six months of the 2021/22 financial year have been communicated to dental practices by NHS England and NHS Improvement. National Health Service dentists have been asked to maximise safe throughput to meet as many prioritised needs as possible. A revised unit of dental activity threshold has been set at 60% for full payment of NHS contractual value, based on data that indicates practices have capacity to safely achieve more dental activity than in the final quarter of 2020/21. It is expected that this increased threshold will improve access to NHS dentistry. Arrangements will continue to be monitored and at current are expected to be in place for six months in order to provide increased stability for dental practices.
Calder Valley, received additional funding as part of the access scheme. This has been extended until the end of September 2021 and NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently considering the most effective way to support practices to improve access for patients. In circumstances where patients are unable to access an urgent dental appointment directly through a NHS dental practice, they are advised to call NHS 111 who will assist in booking an appointment at one of over 100 designated urgent care centres, which continue to stay open across Yorkshire.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the procurement process for the provision of healthcare services for the new Hassockfield Immigration Removal Centre has been completed.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The procurement process has not yet been completed.