Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on whether Public Health England was informed by Nike that it was (a) closing and (b) disinfecting its stores in Edinburgh as a result of a suspected outbreak of covid-19 at the Nike international conference on 26 and 27 February 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Public Health England (PHE) was alerted to a case associated with the Nike Conference in Edinburgh on 2 March 2020. Around 50 individuals who attended this conference lived in England and were identified. PHE followed up these individuals. They were sent text messages informing them of the exposure and asking them to self-isolate for 14 days and contact 111 if they develop symptoms.
PHE did not have direct contact with conference organisers in Edinburgh or Nike in Edinburgh. Health Protection Scotland had direct contact with the conference organisers as the lead organisation in the incident response.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's criteria are for deciding when to inform the public of the outbreak of an infections disease in a specific (a) local and (b) regional location.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Local outbreaks are usually managed by a multi-agency Outbreak Control Team (OCT). Member organisations will be appropriate to each situation but an OCT will usually be chaired by either a Public Health Consultant from Public Health England (PHE) or the Local Authority Director of Public Health and will include experts from PHE, the local authority, the local National Health Service, the setting concerned and other wider partners. Each OCT considers the response required to each outbreak on its own merits. Informing the public about the outbreak is a key decision which is discussed and agreed by all the members of an OCT when an outbreak is considered to pose an ongoing risk to the wider public who need to be alerted to measures they need to take in order to protect their health.
Use of communication through the media may be a valuable part of the control strategy of an outbreak and the OCT will consider the risks and benefits of proactive versus reactive media engagement in any outbreak.
Further information is available in the PHE Communicable Disease Outbreak Operational Guidance at the following link:
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
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 full eligibility criteria for the death in service benefit for NHS and social care staff who have died from covid-19.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Government is in the process of setting up a life assurance scheme for frontline health and social care staff in England who contract COVID-19 during the course of their work.
The scheme is non-contributory and pays a £60,000 lump sum where staff die as a result of COVID-19 and had been recently working in frontline roles and locations where personal care is provided to individuals who have recently contracted COVID-19.
The Department will publish the legal rules for the scheme, which will cover eligibility, as soon as possible. The NHS Business Services Authority will administer the scheme and will also publish guidance for staff and employers.
We understand the Scottish Government are working on a separate scheme for NHS Scotland.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will undertake an equality impact assessment of research funding spent by the National Institute for Health Research.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is funded by the Department. As a public authority, the Department is required to adhere to the Public Sector Equality Duty in line with the Equality Act 2010. The Department takes its obligations under the Equality Act very seriously, specifically in ensuring that we give due regard to the impacts on people with protected characteristics. The NIHR Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Board is leading work on equality impact assessments and their applicability to the NIHR. A decision on whether and where to apply equality impact assessments will be made as a result of this work.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
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 bringing forward legislative proposals to ban (a) organ trafficking and (b) transplant tourism to China.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Human Tissue Act 2004 prohibits commercial dealings in human material for transplantation and makes it an offence to traffic organs.
Clinical advice to United Kingdom patients is not to travel to less well-regulated countries to seek an organ transplant. It is thought that very few patients in the UK choose to do so but data on those who do is not available.
The Government has welcomed China's move to stop using organs harvested from executed prisoners from January 2015. The Government continues to monitor the degree of implementation of this commitment, and encourages China to make further progress in bringing transparency to their organ transplant process.