Asked by: Jane Stevenson (Conservative - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to officially recognise the service of NHS workers and volunteers during the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
National Health Service staff and volunteers have provided world-class care to patients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and deserve our recognition and support. Health and social care workers accounted for 10% of the recent New Year Honours and 14% of the 2020 Birthday Honours, with over 320 people receiving an award. We are committed to delivering 50,000 more nurses and growing the general practice workforce by 6,000 more doctors and 26,000 primary care professionals. The NHS People Plan, published last July, puts the health and wellbeing of NHS staff at its core with a new support package for staff.
Asked by: Jane Stevenson (Conservative - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his policy is on covid-19 testing for under 18s.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Children of any age can get a test. Those aged 12-17 years old can use the test themselves or have their parent or guardian perform the test. Children aged 11 years old and under must have the test performed by a parent or guardian.
Asked by: Jane Stevenson (Conservative - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will extend vaccination sites to hospitality and sports venues that are closed under covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We are grateful for the offers from businesses up and down the country, including supermarkets and sporting arenas, to use their venues as vaccination centres. NHS England and NHS Improvement have been working to identify partners and work with those whose facilities have been identified as suitable. NHS England and NHS Improvement are ensuring that all offers are appropriately considered, alongside local leaders, including from local authorities, to understand potential partnerships that build on the existing network.
We have many partnerships already in place. Seven large scale vaccination centres opened on 11 January, a further ten opened on 18 January and over 30 opened on 25 January. The centres offer an alternative to general practice and hospital services and can each deliver thousands of vaccinations every week. The initial sites were chosen from those ready to vaccinate large numbers of people quickly to give a geographical spread covering as many people as possible.
Currently, in England, 96% of the population is within 10 miles of a vaccine service and by the end of January, everyone will live within 10 miles of a vaccination service. In a small number of highly rural areas, the vaccination centre will be a mobile unit. Regularly updated data on the locations of hospital hubs and local vaccination services is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/hospital-hubs-and-local-vaccination-services/
Asked by: Jane Stevenson (Conservative - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with local authorities on the use of community buildings for covid-19 vaccinations clinics; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We are grateful for the offers from businesses up and down the country, including supermarkets and sporting arenas, to use their venues as vaccination centres. NHS England and NHS Improvement have been working to identify partners and work with those whose facilities have been identified as suitable. NHS England and NHS Improvement are ensuring that all offers are appropriately considered, alongside local leaders, including from local authorities, to understand potential partnerships that build on the existing network.
We have many partnerships already in place. Seven large scale vaccination centres opened on 11 January, a further ten opened on 18 January and over 30 opened on 25 January. The centres offer an alternative to general practice and hospital services and can each deliver thousands of vaccinations every week. The initial sites were chosen from those ready to vaccinate large numbers of people quickly to give a geographical spread covering as many people as possible.
Currently, in England, 96% of the population is within 10 miles of a vaccine service and by the end of January, everyone will live within 10 miles of a vaccination service. In a small number of highly rural areas, the vaccination centre will be a mobile unit. Regularly updated data on the locations of hospital hubs and local vaccination services is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/hospital-hubs-and-local-vaccination-services/
Asked by: Jane Stevenson (Conservative - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with local authorities on the use of civic buildings for the covid-19 vaccination rollout.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The identification of appropriate venues for the delivery of COVID-19 vaccinations has been led locally by the National Health Service, working with partners including local authorities and local resilience forums. In many cases, this does or will include local authority owned or operated facilities. The Department for Health and Social Care, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and NHS England and NHS Improvement are in regular contact with the Local Government Association and other relevant groups to ensure local authorities have the information they need to support the vaccine programme, as well as to feed back any issues or improvements that could be made.
Asked by: Jane Stevenson (Conservative - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ease covid-19 restrictions in local authority areas as covid-19 vaccinations are rolled out.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We will keep the restrictions under review with a statutory review required every two weeks. We anticipate the current restrictions will be needed until at least mid-February.
Asked by: Jane Stevenson (Conservative - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to roll out mass covid-19 testing in (a) Wolverhampton and (b) Tier 3 areas.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
On 12 December it was confirmed that Wolverhampton is amongst the first 67 local authorities to begin enhanced testing support via the Community Testing Programme.
On 10 January, we announced that regular testing for people without symptoms of COVID-19 will be made available across the country, with the eligibility of the community testing programme expanded to cover all 317 local authorities.
Asked by: Jane Stevenson (Conservative - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to reopen the Nightingale hospital in Birmingham for patients with covid-19.
Answered by Edward Argar
The NHS Nightingale hospital in Birmingham stands ready to provide support to local services and accept patients if needed based on local clinical advice.
Asked by: Jane Stevenson (Conservative - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the rate of transmission is of covid-19 in hospitality settings.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government is committed to publishing data that has informed its decision making, including the tier allocations. The Department publishes a weekly watchlist giving epidemiological COVID-19 data for each lower tier local authority in England. This is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-cases-by-local-authority-epidemiological-data
Detailed data on hospital activity is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-hospital-activity/
Our public dashboard on the progress of the virus across a range of metrics is updated every day at the following link:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk
The Contain framework sets out how national and local partners work with the public at a local level to prevent, contain and manage outbreaks, this includes through allocation of areas to the appropriate tier which is available at the following link:
Epidemiological data and projection models on local restriction tiers, including commentary on individual tier allocation decisions, which is available at the following link:
This provides further information and context beyond the headline metrics as to why areas are in particular tiers currently. We have also published supporting documents, to accompany the most recent regulations laid before Parliament. These are available at the following link:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1374/contents/made
Asked by: Jane Stevenson (Conservative - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the scientific basis is for closing hospitality venues in areas with Tier 3 restrictions for covid-19.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government is committed to publishing data that has informed its decision making, including the tier allocations. The Department publishes a weekly watchlist giving epidemiological COVID-19 data for each lower tier local authority in England. This is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-cases-by-local-authority-epidemiological-data
Detailed data on hospital activity is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-hospital-activity/
Our public dashboard on the progress of the virus across a range of metrics is updated every day at the following link:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk
The Contain framework sets out how national and local partners work with the public at a local level to prevent, contain and manage outbreaks, this includes through allocation of areas to the appropriate tier which is available at the following link:
Epidemiological data and projection models on local restriction tiers, including commentary on individual tier allocation decisions, which is available at the following link:
This provides further information and context beyond the headline metrics as to why areas are in particular tiers currently. We have also published supporting documents, to accompany the most recent regulations laid before Parliament. These are available at the following link:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1374/contents/made