Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what public health campaigns on improving oral and dental health his Department has commissioned in each year since 2017; and what funding his Department has provided for those campaigns.
Answered by James Morris
The Department has not commissioned specific national public health campaigns on improving oral and dental health since 2017.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
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 effectiveness of tooth brushing programmes in schools.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Local authorities are responsible for funding and commissioning oral health interventions for the local population, including tooth brushing campaigns in schools. Public health services commissioned by local authorities in England are funded through the ring-fenced Public Health Grant. In 2022/23, the Public Health Grant to local authorities is £3.417 billion.
No recent national evaluation of the effectiveness of existing local authority-led tooth brushing programmes has been made. The Office of Health Improvement and Disparities regularly reviews the available evidence on the effectiveness of measures to promote oral health, including supervised tooth brushing. This includes evidence from schemes in England and in other parts of the United Kingdom.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has provided funding for tooth brushing campaigns in schools in Norfolk in the last 12 months.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Local authorities are responsible for funding and commissioning oral health interventions for the local population, including tooth brushing campaigns in schools. Public health services commissioned by local authorities in England are funded through the ring-fenced Public Health Grant. In 2022/23, the Public Health Grant to local authorities is £3.417 billion.
No recent national evaluation of the effectiveness of existing local authority-led tooth brushing programmes has been made. The Office of Health Improvement and Disparities regularly reviews the available evidence on the effectiveness of measures to promote oral health, including supervised tooth brushing. This includes evidence from schemes in England and in other parts of the United Kingdom.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will list the regulatory authorisations required from the Food Standards Agency for conventionally bred crops.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) does not generally have a role in authorising conventionally bred crops, unless these have been processed into food or feed and are defined within a ‘regulated products’ category. Where a crop has been grown overseas but has not previously been eaten to a significant degree in the United Kingdom or the European Union, it may need authorisation as a ‘novel food’ before it can be sold in this country. Similarly, if a crop has been eaten for generations in the UK, but is then processed into a significantly different form, it may need authorisation as a novel food. If food businesses are unsure about whether a product needs authorisation as a regulated product, the FSA can provide advice.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
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 the proposals submitted by Queen Elizabeth Hospital Trust King’s Lynn as part of the new hospitals programme.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Last year the Government received an expression of interest (EOI) from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to be considered for the next eight new hospitals.
In the first of the two-stage assessment process, the 128 EOIs are evaluated alongside analysis of existing official datasets, including review from regional NHS leaders.
A national panel will consider the full breadth of this evidence to identify a longlist to progress to the next stage, and Ministers will announce the longlist in due course. We aim to update trusts soon on the next steps and to announce the final decision later in the year. While the process is ongoing, we cannot comment on individual schemes.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has been made in enabling the use of non-injectable covid-19 vaccines in the UK.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Alternative delivery methods for COVID-19 vaccines are currently in early clinical research stages and the NIHR and UK Research and Innovation have funded rapid research. This includes £580,000 awarded to Imperial College London for a study on the safety and lower airway immunogenicity of two candidate COVID-19 vaccines administered to the respiratory tract. The NIHR is currently providing infrastructure support to two phase one studies in this area. As the largest public funder of health and care research, the NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including alternative vaccine delivery methods.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
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 adequacy of the number of steel and timber support beams currently installed in the Queen Elizabeth hospital in King's Lynn to respond to Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete plank issues.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
National Health Service organisations are responsible for maintaining estates. However, we have provided a £110 million ring-fenced allocation to address the most serious and immediate risks posed by Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete.
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn has employed structural surveyors to assess the condition of its affected infrastructure and has received over £20 million to undertake the recommended mitigation measures. This is regularly re-assessed and will be supported by funding secured at the Spending Review 2021.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the different fee levels for administering individual covid-19 vaccination doses that have been applicable since the programme began are; and how much has been paid as of 4 January 2022.
Answered by Maggie Throup
To 30 November 2021, the fee applied to all doses administered by a Primary Care Network (PCN) or community pharmacy site was £12.58. Between 1 December 2021 to 31 January 2022, in order to accelerate the booster vaccination programme, this standard fee was increased to £15 per dose. This applied to any dose administered from Monday-Saturday. For any dose administered on a Sunday or Bank Holiday between 1 December 2021 to 31 January 2022, an increased £20 fee was applicable. This was also applied to any dose administered between 25 December 2021 and 3 January 2022.
Since 14 December 2020, PCN and community pharmacy sites could claim the relevant Item of Service (IoS) fee plus an additional £10 for each dose administered to housebound patients during the specified time period. From 16 September 2021 to 12 December 2021, the standard housebound supplement per dose was increased to £30 per dose for third or booster dose. Between 1 December 2021 to 31 January 2022, the IoS fee plus an additional £10 could be claimed for each dose administered to severely immunosuppressed patients. PCN and Community Pharmacy sites can claim the IoS fee plus an additional £10 for each dose administered to clinically extremely vulnerable 12 to 15 year olds.
The information requested as of 4 January 2022 is not held centrally.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients in the Norfolk and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group area have been waiting more than (a) 12 and (b) 24 months for elective care as of 4 January 2022.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Data for 4 January 2022 is not yet available. As of October 2021, the latest data available, there were 13,553 people waiting 12 months or more and 1,230 waiting 24 months or more for elective care in the Norfolk and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group area.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time from referral to discharge for child neurodevelopment services was in (a) Norfolk and (b) England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
NHS Digital’s Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) provides data on the time between referrals and discharge for neurodevelopmental services and average waiting times for these services. However, due to data limitations this does not provide comprehensive information on average waiting times across all child neurodevelopmental services.
NHS Digital began collecting data for neurodevelopmental conditions in 2018. In addition, some referrals and activity of neurodevelopmental services for children fall out of scope of the MHSDS, as these often happen in community settings. The MHSDS relies on data submitted by providers of services for neurodevelopmental conditions, therefore a substantial number of neurodevelopmental cases may be omitted from current modelling.
The following table shows the average number of days between referral and discharge for neurodevelopmental conditions and autism in Norfolk and England in each year since 2018/19.
| Norfolk | England |
Financial year | Average number of days between referral and discharge | Average number of days between referral and discharge |
2018/19 | 166 | 183 |
2019/20 | 254 | 246 |
2020/21 | 281 | 348 |
2021/22 (April to September) | 289 | 331 |
Source: Mental Health Services Dataset, NHS Digital
Notes: