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 the Government will update its covid-19 vaccine delivery plan, published on 13 January 2021.
Answered by Maggie Throup
There are no current plans to update the COVID-19 vaccine delivery plan. We have published different plans subsequently for other aspects of the programme, such as the UK COVID-19 vaccine uptake plan, published 13 February 2021, and the COVID-19 Response: Autumn and Winter Plan 2021, last updated 14 September 2021, which also covered vaccine deployment.
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 he has made of the effectiveness of the covid-19 vaccine booster campaign.
Answered by Maggie Throup
As of 13 November 2021, more than 12.6 million people in the United Kingdom have received their COVID-19 booster vaccine or third dose to ensure the protection from the first two doses of the vaccine is maintained over the winter months. The Government continues to review the effectiveness of the COVID-19 booster campaign to maximise its impact.
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 he has made of the effectiveness of the rollout of covid-19 vaccines for 12 to 15 year-olds.
Answered by Maggie Throup
As of 7 November more than 823,000 12 to 15 year olds in England have already received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. We continue to assess the effectiveness of the programme in order to accelerate the COVID-19 programme in schools. The National Health Service is enhancing the in-school offer to increase the scale and pace of delivery, as well as targeting communications to parents and young people to improve uptake and increase overall confidence in the programme.
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 information his Department collects on the take-up of covid-19 vaccines by (a) Black and (b) BAME communities.
Answered by Maggie Throup
NHS England and Improvement collect and publish vaccine uptake data broken down by ethnicity. This is published weekly and shows a breakdown of number of COVID-19 vaccines administered by; ethnicity, ethnicity by region, and Ethnicity by Integrated Care System Sustainability Transformation Partnership. There is also a monthly publication of these statistics, which provides a breakdown of vaccine uptake by ethnicity as a percentage of the population. This can be found via the following link:
The UK Health Security Agency publishes data on COVID-19 vaccine uptake by ethnicity at national and regional levels in individuals aged 50 and over in the weekly flu and COVID-19 surveillance report. This data is extracted from the NHS National Immunisation Management Service and can be found via the following link:
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 support the Government is providing to local authorities to help with recruitment to the adult social care sector.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
On 21 October 2021, the Department announced a new £162.5 million workforce recruitment and retention fund to support local authorities working with providers to recruit and retain staff this winter. Our next national recruitment campaign for adult social care will be launched in early November and we are also working alongside Department for Work and Pensions to promote adult social care careers in job centres.
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 contingency plans his Department has put in the place in the event that Gilead do not agree an interim access arrangement with NHS England following licensing of Trodelvy for metastatic triple negative breast cancer patients through Project Orbis.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
NHS England and NHS Improvement and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have agreed a set of principles to allow potential interim access to medicines ahead of NICE’s guidance and are continuing to work with the manufacturer to explore options for interim access to Trodelvy. Following discussion with the manufacturer of Trodelvy, NICE has accelerated its appraisal and now expects to issue guidance in June 2022, with draft guidance expected in spring 2022.
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 add Hong Kong to the list of countries whose Pfizer BioNtech vaccination will be recognised by the Government for incoming travellers.
Answered by Maggie Throup
From 11 October, eligible travellers vaccinated in over 37 new countries and territories including Hong Kong, will be treated the same as returning fully vaccinated United Kingdom residents, if they have not visited a ‘red list’ country or territory in the 10 days before arriving 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, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the recommendations for improving cervical cancer outcomes made in Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust's report, Computer Says No, published June 2018; and what steps he is taking to improve access to cervical cancer screening and treatment services.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Many of the recommendations made by Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust have since been taken forward by the Department including those invited for a cervical screening appointment can now book at a range of primary care health settings rather than just at their own general practitioner practice and many providers now offer evening and weekend appointments. The Digital Transformation of Screening Programme has been developed to improve IT systems and accessibility and there are now trials to test the feasibility of self-sampling, initially in London via the NHS YouScreen trial, with plans for further trials nationwide.
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 further steps officials in his Department plan to take with officials in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to increase housing-with-care provision for older people.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Housing-with-care has a vital role in enabling older people to live independently, with the necessary care and support available if required. Both the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government provide capital funding to incentivise their supply. Both Departments are working closely together to improve the diversity of housing options available to older people, including housing-with-care and are engaging with the sector and a range of other stakeholders on this issue.
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 plans to take to improve housing-based social care provision for older people.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Housing-with-care has a vital role in enabling older people to live independently, with the necessary care and support available if required. Both the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government provide capital funding to incentivise their supply. Both Departments are working closely together to improve the diversity of housing options available to older people, including housing-with-care and are engaging with the sector and a range of other stakeholders on this issue.