Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
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 help ensure that the Federated Data Platform supports Integrated Care Systems to implement secure data environment policies.
Answered by Will Quince
The Federated Data Platform will be a Secure Data Environment. NHS England is ensuring the supplier of the platform, when selected, can deliver a product which complies with the published Secure Data Environment guidelines. In addition to the requirements within the procurement process, NHS England has communicated with local systems on the importance of the alignment of the Federated Data Platform with Secure Data Environment policy.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress has been made towards implementing the Federated Data Platform by April 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England is currently undertaking the final stages of approvals to proceed with the procurement of the Federated Data Platform and the contract notice will be issued in due course. A contract award is anticipated in summer 2023.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that the Federated Data Platform will maintain patient confidentiality.
Answered by Will Quince
To ensure that the Federated Data Platform (FDP) complies with data protection principles and associated legislation and maintains patient confidentiality, NHS England has developed an initial Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) for the procurement of the FDP. An overarching DPIA will be undertaken to articulate the data security and protection principles and lawful bases for deployment. Purpose-specific DPIA’s will be drafted for each use case, which will receive formal approval within NHS England prior to deployment. A legal mechanism for sharing and processing data will be agreed in consultation with NHS England and legal counsel.
This will be concurrent and aligned with the procurement process to ensure data protection by design and default principles are embedded. This will ensure that a lawful basis for data sharing is identified and the common law duty of confidentiality is adhered to for all use cases. The FDP team is also consulting on this process with information governance leads in the sector and privacy campaigners.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the plans announced by the NHS to move to using Secure Data Environments to access NHS health and social care data, whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure public confidence in that process.
Answered by Will Quince
In ‘Data saves lives: reshaping health and social care with data’, the Department committed to increase public confidence in the use of data in the health and social care system. This includes a national programme of engagement and the development of a data ‘pact’ to outline how health and social care data will be used and address the public’s expectations.
We committed to engage with the public and professionals on high priority or complex topics, such as the delivery of Secure Data Environments. In summer 2022 we engaged patient and public panels to develop non-technical resources to explain the Secure Data Environment policy. In addition, in September 2022, we published policy guidelines on how we expect Secure Data Environments to function. Guideline 6 set out the expectation that Secure Data Environments must ensure that patients and the public are appropriately involved in ongoing decisions on how their data is used.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
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 electroconvulsive therapy; and what his policy is on whether that therapy should be a (a) voluntary or (b) mandatory treatment.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) assessment found electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to be an effective treatment for certain subgroups of individuals with mental disorders. However, it recognised that there remained a number of uncertainties, including a lack of information on longer term outcomes and the negative experiences of some individuals who have undergone ECT.
NICE recommends that ECT is used only to achieve rapid and short-term improvement of severe symptoms, after an adequate trial of other treatment options has proven ineffective and/or when the condition is considered to be potentially life-threatening, in individuals with catatonia or a prolonged or severe manic episode. These guidelines recommend that a decision should be made on case by case basis and that a risk–benefit assessment is made of the individual to determine if ECT is appropriate. NICE’s ‘Guidance on the use of electroconvulsive therapy’ and ‘Depression in adults: treatment and management’ are available at the following links:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ta59
The Mental Health Act 1983 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 allow for ECT to be administered in particular circumstances, without the person’s consent. The Independent Review of the Mental Health Act recommended further safeguards around the use of urgent ECT without the patient’s consent or where it conflicts with an advance decision, which the draft Mental Health Bill seeks to address.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has provided guidance to health and wellbeing boards on how health and wellbeing is to be applied within the context of the Government heat and buildings strategy.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Department has issued no specific definitions or guidance in relation to health and wellbeing nor made a specific assessment of the compatibility with the World Health Organization’s definition. However, the Department of Health and Social Care continues to work with the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on its heat and buildings strategy to ensure that health and wellbeing are considered
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how his Department defines health and wellbeing, as it applies to the Government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy; and what assessment he has made of the compatibility of that definition with that used by the World Health Organisation.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Department has issued no specific definitions or guidance in relation to health and wellbeing nor made a specific assessment of the compatibility with the World Health Organization’s definition. However, the Department of Health and Social Care continues to work with the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on its heat and buildings strategy to ensure that health and wellbeing are considered
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether people who receive social care support from their local authority will face any penalties or loss of support in the event that they support a Ukrainian refugee under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Deciding whether to review the support offered to people with care needs or to undertake a new financial assessment is a matter for local authorities. However, officials are reviewing whether national guidance is required to ensure that people who take part in the Homes for Ukraine scheme are not unfairly or unreasonably penalised for doing so.