Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Government plans to respond to the consultation on the fortification of flour with folic acid.
Answered by Jo Churchill
We will provide further updates on the response after the summer recess.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to ensure that physician associates are afforded the protection of formal statutory regulation.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Department’s consultation ‘Regulating healthcare professionals, protecting the public’ closed on 16 June. The consultation sought views on proposals to modernise each of the healthcare professional regulators’ legal frameworks and on the proposed approach to introducing statutory regulation for physician associates (PAs) and anaesthesia associates (AAs).
The reforms will update the General Medical Council’s (GMC) current legislation, enabling it to bring PAs and AAs into regulation under a new, modernised framework. We plan to publish the consultation response in the autumn. A further consultation on the draft legislation that will bring PAs and AAs into regulation will follow. We are working with the GMC to ensure that regulation of PAs and AAs begins as early as possible in the second half of 2022.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government has a planned timescale for bringing forward legislative proposals to fortify flour products with folic acid.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Department published a consultation on the proposed mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid from 13 June to 9 September 2019. A post consultation update was published on GOV.UK. Publication of the consultation response has been delayed due to the pandemic. We will publish the response as soon as possible outlining the next steps for this proposal.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What steps his Department is taking to support targeted research into motor neurone disease.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Government is supporting research into motor neurone disease (MND). On 29 April, I jointly hosted a roundtable event on boosting MND research with the National Institute for Health Research Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre.
The event brought together researchers, charities, people with MND and funders and we will be working closely with these stakeholders over the coming months to consider ways forward for this vital area of research.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data the Government holds on the professions of designated medical professionals stationed in covid-19 quarantine hotels in the UK.
Answered by Jo Churchill
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
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 supplies of (a) personal protection equipment, (b) medicines, (c) equipment and (d) staff in hospices at the beginning of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
We have made no formal assessment. However, we have worked closely with Hospice UK on behalf of hospices to ensure an understanding of the adequacy of these resources during the pandemic.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to increase funding for bereavement support services for (a) BAME communities, (b) deprived communities and (c) other communities disproportionately affected by the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Since March 2020, the Government has given over £10.2 million to mental health charities, including bereavement support charities, to support adults and children struggling with their mental wellbeing due to the impact of COVID-19.
We continue to take a cross-Government approach to assess what is needed to provide support to bereaved individuals and families during this incredibly difficult time, in order to ensure that individuals from all backgrounds and communities have access to appropriate bereavement support.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to ensure that non-malignant stem cell transplant patients who received their transplant more than six months ago receive the same priority for the covid-19 vaccine as other stem cell transplant patients.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Priority group 6 includes all those who are defined as clinically vulnerable and at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19. People who have received a stem cell transplant more than six months ago are included in this definition. People who have received a stem cell transplant within the last six months will be defined as clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV), in which case they are included in priority group 4. Both groups should now have been called forward for vaccination.
Further information can be found at the following links: