Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to make the NHS Pension Scheme a tax unregistered scheme to help increase senior consultant retention.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Government has no plans to introduce a tax unregistered pension scheme for the National Health Service. The majority of NHS Pension Scheme members can build their pensions tax-free and an unregistered arrangement would remove this tax relief on contributions and a tax-free lump sum of up to 25% of the value of their pension on retirement. The Government has asked NHS England to work with NHS organisations to introduce schemes to allow recycling of employer pension contributions to high earners who opt out of the NHS Pension scheme due to the impact of pension tax.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the commitment by the Prime Minister in October 2020 to make 70 per cent of PPE in the UK, how much and what proportion of PPE is being made in the UK; and how much and what proportion of Government spending on PPE is on PPE made in the UK.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
‘Personal protective equipment (PPE) strategy: stabilise and build resilience’, published in September 2020, committed to ensure that for the following winter, the supply of United Kingdom manufactured PPE would be sufficient to meet 70% of demand for all categories, except gloves. In that period, UK manufactured goods met 82% of demand. The Department has ordered over 36 billion items of PPE, of which 3.9 billion or approximately 11%, was ordered from UK manufacturers. The total cost was £14.4 billion, of which £1.3 billion or 9%, was for orders with UK manufacturers.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Health and Social Care, whether the Government undertook a modern slavery impact assessment before procuring PPE overseas in the context of evidence of modern slavery in PPE supply chains in Malaysia and China.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government uses standard contracts, which include clauses on modern slavery. Labour standards are a part of the NHS Supply Chain Coordination Limited framework suppliers contract award process.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether foreign dignitaries are able to travel to the UK without proof of receipt of a UK-approved covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Exemptions from mandatory testing may apply in limited circumstances to representatives of a foreign country or territory and representatives of the Government of a British overseas territory, travelling to the United Kingdom (UK) to conduct official business with the UK. But For public health reasons they are strongly encouraged to take tests on days two and eight after arrival.
Foreign dignitaries may also be eligible for exemption from quarantine if they are amber arrivals and can show proof of being fully vaccinated under any of the following:
Those without proof of vaccination will need to take a COVID-19 test on day two and day eight after arrival in England unless they are issued with an exemption by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
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 onshore personal protective equipment manufacturing.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Lord Deighton is leading the Government effort to unleash the potential of British industry to manufacture personal protective equipment (PPE) for the health and social care sectors. This will maximise opportunities for United Kingdom-based companies to fulfil orders of PPE.
We are building up UK manufacturing with signed contracts to manufacture over three billion items of PPE through UK-based manufacturers, including facemasks, visors, gowns and aprons.
It is anticipated that around 20% of all PPE will be manufactured in the UK by the end of the year.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential financial savings to (a) health, (b) social care services and (c) education services of the early identification of cerebral palsy.
Answered by Steve Brine
No assessment has been made.
However, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published guidelines in January 2017 on the assessment and management of cerebral palsy. This provides authoritative, evidence-based guidance for healthcare professionals in identifying the early signs of cerebral palsy. Further information can be found via the following link:
Further to this, as part of the mandated reviews, health visitors (specialised nurses or midwives) assess the development of children between 0-5 years. They are skilled in early identification of delays, or concerns, in development. In such circumstances they will make a referral to a community paediatrician who will be able to diagnose any conditions, including cerebral palsy.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of introducing a national cerebral palsy register to record incidences of the condition and improve the provision of treatment for people affected.
Answered by Steve Brine
No assessment has been made. NHS England is responsible for securing high quality outcomes for people with cerebral palsy, and it has advised that there are currently no plans to establish a national register of children with the condition.
PACE, the charity which supports children and families affected by motor disorders such as cerebral palsy indicates that the current United Kingdom incidence rate of cerebral palsy is around one in 400 births and that approximately 1,800 children are diagnosed with cerebral palsy every year.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
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 support the implementation of the NICE Quality Standard on cerebral palsy in children and young people.
Answered by Steve Brine
Quality standards (QS) are important in setting out to patients, the public, commissioners and providers what a high quality service should look like in a particular area of care. Whilst providers and commissioners must have regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) QS in planning and delivering services, they do not provide a comprehensive service specification and are not mandatory.
The NICE QS: Cerebral palsy in children and young people was published on 10 October 2017. This standard covers the diagnosis, assessment and management of cerebral palsy and comprises four Quality Statements which describe high quality cerebral palsy care that can be used for the measurement and improvement of services locally. These statements are drawn from existing, evidence based guidance; in this case NICE’s cerebral palsy clinical guideline, published in January 2017. Both the QS and guideline can be found at the following links:
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to increase the number of neuromuscular care advisors for people with muscle-wasting conditions.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England is responsible for commissioning specialised neurological services, including some services for patients with neuromuscular disorders. NHS England has published a service specification for neurological care that includes an exemplar service specification for neuromuscular conditions which sets out what providers must have in place to offer evidence-based, safe and effective services. The service specification for neurological care can be found at the following link:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/d04-neurosci-spec-neuro.pdf
NHS providers, working with local area teams, may establish patient access to neuromuscular care advisers if they consider it would benefit service provision and such decisions are a local matter.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve access to specialist psychology support for people with muscle-wasting conditions.
Answered by Jane Ellison
With regards to the National Health Service in Scotland, as healthcare is a devolved issue, the Department cannot comment.
NHS England commissions specialised neurological services at a national level, including those with muscle-wasting conditions. The neurosciences service specification sets out what designated specialised providers must have in place to offer evidence-based, safe and effective care. Patients should have access to a multidisciplinary team (MDT) to assess, diagnose and provide support. The MDT will include neuromuscular consultants, neuromuscular physiotherapists, psychologists, specialist nurses, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and other health professionals.
The specification further sets out that neuromuscular clinics need to identify those at risk of respiratory problems and refer for specialist respiratory assessment and monitoring.
The specification can be found at the following link:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/d04-neurosci-spec-neuro.pdf
A separate specification covers services for children.
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/e09-paedi-neurology.pdf