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Written Question
Epilepsy: Cannabis
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department plans to take in the next year to help ensure that children with severe epilepsy can access effective cannabis-based medications through the NHS.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The licensed cannabis-based medicine epidyolex is prescribed routinely for three forms of epilepsy, for patients aged two years old and above. However, clinical guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence demonstrate a clear need for more evidence to support routine prescribing and funding decisions for unlicensed cannabis-based medicines.

We continue to call on the manufacturers of these products to conduct research, and we are working with regulatory, research, and National Health Service partners to establish clinical trials to test the safety and efficacy of these products, to enable evidence based prescribing decisions.


Written Question
Department of Health and Social Care: Public Appointments
Tuesday 25th January 2022

Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department seeks references for candidates appointed to public positions which fall under the remit of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Department asks all candidates for public appointments to provide at least two referees, one of whom should be from the candidate’s main or most recent organisation. Referees are approached for shortlisted candidates.

Candidates are also asked to declare when they apply and again if interviewed, if they have any potential conflicts of interest, or any issues in their history which if they were appointed, may bring the appointment into disrepute, particularly in the context of meeting the Principles of Public Life. The Principles form part of the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies, which candidates are informed they will need to adhere to. Checks are also carried out on open-source material for shortlisted candidates and information is provided to the assessment panel.


Written Question
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Thursday 23rd September 2021

Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the need for additional resources to help ensure that NHS bodies provide timely responses to requests for information to assist investigations by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

We have made no such assessment.


Written Question
Department of Health and Social Care: Correspondence
Thursday 8th July 2021

Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many items of written correspondence from hon. Members sent to Ministers in his Department have been (a) received and (b) replied to since 1 April 2020; and how many of those responses were responded to by (i) Ministers and (ii) officials.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Between 1 April 2020 and 31 June 2021, the Department received 44,456 items of written correspondence from hon. Members, of which 37,527 have received a reply.

The information requested on the number of responses from Minister and officials is not collected centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Kawasaki Disease: Health Services
Friday 26th July 2019

Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of (a) the potential cost savings of improving early identification and treatment of Kawasaki disease and (b) the potential consequent reduction in demand for long-term specialist care for children with that disease.

Answered by Seema Kennedy

The requested information is not available and therefore no such estimate has been made.

NHS Improvement has previously published a Patient Safety Alert for the attention of providers of National Health Service-funded care to emphasise the high risk and atypical presentation of coronary artery aneurysms, coronary thrombosis and myocardial ischaemia or infarction in patients with Kawasaki disease, and to highlight the importance of specialist advice.

Guidance is also available from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on the assessment and initial management of fever in children under five, and this guidance includes recommendations on recognising the symptoms of Kawasaki disease.


Written Question
Kawasaki Disease: Health Services
Friday 26th July 2019

Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department is providing to (a) enable early treatment and (b) increase awareness amongst healthcare providers of Kawasaki disease .

Answered by Seema Kennedy

NHS Improvement has previously published a Patient Safety Alert for the attention of providers of National Health Service-funded care to emphasise the high risk and atypical presentation of coronary artery aneurysms, coronary thrombosis and myocardial ischaemia or infarction in patients with Kawasaki disease, and to highlight the importance of specialist advice.

Guidance is also available from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on the assessment and initial management of fever in children under five, and this guidance includes recommendations on recognising the symptoms of Kawasaki disease.

NICE’s clinical guidelines help healthcare professionals deliver the best possible care based on the best available evidence; the guidelines are not mandatory, although health and care commissioners are expected to take them fully into account.


Written Question
Kawasaki Disease: Medical Records
Friday 26th July 2019

Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)

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 establishing a patient registry on Kawasaki disease.

Answered by Seema Kennedy

No such assessment has been made.


Written Question
Kawasaki Disease: Research
Thursday 25th July 2019

Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent comparative assessment he has made of the UK level of research funding into Kawasaki disease with that of other EU member states.

Answered by Caroline Dinenage

The Department has not made a recent comparative assessment of the United Kingdom level of research funding into Kawasaki disease with that of other European Union member states.

The EU has recently agreed to fund a Kawasaki disease study led from Great Ormond Street Hospital/University College London. The trial, which aims to recruit 262 children from 40 centres across Europe, will look at the effectiveness of using of steroids in addition to the standard treatment for Kawasaki syndrome, intravenous immunoglobulins. The award is for over €5 million in funding for the trial to be run through a new European consortium, connect4children.

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Imperial Biomedical Research Centre was funded between 2013-18 to carry out a project on the ‘Genetic determinants of Kawasaki disease for susceptibility and outcome’ with NIHR funding of £77,000.


Written Question
Health Services: Reciprocal Arrangements
Tuesday 26th February 2019

Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many times European Health Insurance Cards were used by UK citizens abroad in the past year.

Answered by Stephen Hammond

There were 118,684 accepted claims when a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) was used, in the last 12 months.

There are 3,108,739 United Kingdom-issued EHICs in circulation for people aged over 70. This is based on cards which have not expired and the applicant’s age on the date the card was issued, and not their current age. EHICs are valid for five years after their issue date.

Information is not available on the number of times EHICs were used by UK citizens abroad to support the treatment of pre-existing conditions in the last year.


Written Question
Health Services: Reciprocal Arrangements
Tuesday 26th February 2019

Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many times European Health Insurance Cards were used by people over the age of 70 in each of the last five years.

Answered by Stephen Hammond

The following table shows the number of European Health Insurance Card claims from people aged over 70 by year for the last five years:

2014

29,632

2015

35,518

2016

43,121

2017

38,271

2018

23,172