Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department will publish the Government’s Vaccine Strategy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
England’s national all vaccine strategy has been delayed as a result of the Department’s ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The strategy is being kept under review given the continuously evolving understanding of COVID-19, its vaccines and vaccination programmes and the impact of these developments.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
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 research into intra-nasal covid-19 vaccines.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR and UK Research and Innovation have funded rapid research to support the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including on nasal administration of vaccines. Approximately £580,000 in funding was awarded to Imperial College London towards a study looking at safety and lower airway immunogenicity of two candidate COVID-19 vaccines administered to the respiratory tract. Additionally, the NIHR is providing infrastructure support to two phase one studies in this area, including the study at Imperial College London. As the largest public funder of health and care research, the NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including intra-nasal COVID-19 vaccines.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the roll out will begin of the primary course of covid-19 vaccination for children aged five to 11, who are in a clinical risk group or who are a household contact of someone who is immunosuppressed; when parents and caregivers will be able to book their children to get their vaccine; and what steps they will need to take to make that booking.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The COVID-19 vaccine programme for children aged five to 11 years old, who are in a clinical risk group or who are household contact of someone who is immunosuppressed began on 31 January 2022. General practice teams have identified eligible children and parents and guardians will be contacted by local National Health Service teams.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
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 provide financial support to local authorities for the provision of at-home HIV testing in all parts of England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Local authorities are responsible for the provision of HIV testing. Sexual health testing and prevention services, including HIV testing, are primarily funded by local authorities through the Public Health Grant. The Grant is ringfenced for use on public health activity although decisions on spending are made locally. During time-limited periods of specific national campaigning, such as National HIV Testing Week, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities provides a postal HIV self-sampling service which is available in England.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, by what date all local authorities in England will be providing postal at-home HIV testing.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Local authorities have primary responsibility for the provision of HIV testing. Decisions on how those tests are provided are therefore made locally. While most areas do provide services for at home HIV self-sampling services, there is no central requirement to do so.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether daily limits are in place on the number of postal at-home HIV tests available through local authorities.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Local authorities have primary responsibility for the provision of HIV testing. Decisions on how those tests are provided are therefore made locally. While most areas do provide services for at home HIV self-sampling services, there is no central requirement to do so.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
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 local authority provision of availability of at home HIV testing all year round; and what criteria is used to determine eligibility criteria for that testing.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Local authorities have primary responsibility for the provision of HIV testing. Decisions on how those tests are provided are therefore made locally. While most areas do provide services for at home HIV self-sampling services, there is no central requirement to do so.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to UKSHA data showing increasing hospitalisations among children with covid-19, if he will urgently publish (a) data on the primary cause of those hospitalisations and (b) the proportion of cases where covid-19 was the primary cause of the hospitalisation.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) does not collect data on the causes of increasing hospitalisation rates among children with COVID-19, and there are no plans for the publication of data on the primary cause of these hospitalisations.
The UKHSA collects data on the number of cases for which COVID-19 was the reason for hospitalisation in all age groups, including children, through the Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) Watch surveillance system. This data is not currently validated, however the UKHSA is considering including this data in future published reports as percentage figures (proportions).
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to help ensure that there is long-term monitoring of the immune response of people given a covid-19 booster vaccine.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) continuously monitors vaccine effectiveness over time. These analyses will continue as the booster programme deployment progresses, including the duration of protection of booster doses against a range of disease outcomes and will be published in due course.
The UKHSA observed limited waning in vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation and death more than 20 weeks post-vaccination with Vaxzevria (previously AstraZeneca) or Comirnaty (previously Pfizer) with the Delta variant. Early data suggest vaccine effectiveness is lower against the Omicron variant. However, high levels of protection against symptomatic disease were seen shortly after a booster dose. Further evidence is needed to understand the effect of the Omicron variant on duration of protection and vaccine effectiveness against severe disease.
The primary objective of the booster programme is to maintain protection against severe COVID-19 disease, specifically hospitalisation and deaths, over winter 2021/22. This is exceptional advice aimed at maintaining protection in those most vulnerable and to protect the National Health Service.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress he has made on negotiations with the EMA to license the AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine 4120Z002.
Answered by Maggie Throup
There have been no such negotiations as the European Medicines Agency is the independent regulatory body which determines the vaccines approved for use in the European Union.
No AstraZeneca vaccine doses branded as Covishield have been administered in the United Kingdom. Batch number 4120Z002 was approved by the UK’s regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and branded as the ’COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca’ which is now known commercially as ‘Vaxzevria’. The EU has recently published a list of vaccines it sees as equivalent to those authorised by the EMA, which includes all approved vaccines administered in the UK.