Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What steps he is taking to help prevent a second wave of covid-19.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government’s strategy, based at all times on scientific advice, has been to stay alert, control the virus, save lives, and avoid or minimise a second wave.
Our strategies around controlled relaxations of national measures, local lockdowns and test and trace are all designed to manage that risk.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
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 communications on the importance of attending eyecare appointments for sight saving treatment is part of the NHS Open for Business communications campaign.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The ‘Help Us Help You’ campaign has been developed by NHS England and NHS Improvement to encourage people to continue to access NHS services when they need healthcare during the pandemic.
Campaign assets have been made available for regional and local National Health Service communications teams to use, as well as partner organisations, such as charities. Further campaign materials have been targeted to a range of priority services and conditions, which have experienced a significant decrease in people accessing them or presenting with symptoms, such as cancer and stroke, and maternity and mental health services.
In line with NHS England and NHS Improvement guidance issued to National Health Service trusts on 17 March, all clinically urgent care should have continued to be available throughout the height of the pandemic. Urgent care would include urgent sight saving treatment.
A copy of the letter to NHS trusts is available at the following link:
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
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 production of windowed face masks.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The United Kingdom Government’s national personal protective equipment (PPE) procurement team has been working extremely hard in recent weeks to source clear facemasks which comply with UK safety standards. While the product is not CE marked, UK Government regulators have agreed that a particular mask can enter the National Health Service supply chain for use during COVID-19 and further details will be announced as soon as possible about availability to health and care settings.
Where regulators find that PPE (as regulated by the Health and Safety Executive) or medical devices (as regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) can ensure an adequate level of health and safety in accordance with the essential requirements laid down in Regulation (EU) 2016/425 or the requirements of Directive 93/42/EEC, they may authorise the making available of these products for supply to frontline healthcare.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average length of time was for Ministers of his Department to respond to correspondence from hon. Members in each month in the last two years.
Answered by Edward Argar
In line with Cabinet Office guidance, the Department has a target of responding to correspondence within 18 working days, where a response is required.
The Department is currently dealing with unprecedented volumes of correspondence due to COVID-19. The Department ensures that urgent cases raised by hon. Members are prioritised and is taking steps to provide substantive responses in as short a time as possible.
All correspondence received from hon. Members is being reviewed and will be responded to as soon as possible.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
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 effect on efforts to prevent the spread of covid-19 of statutory sick pay provisions that may deter people that have to work from (a) self-isolating and (b) reporting symptoms.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The nature and scale of the response depends on the course of the disease. As our understanding increases and the impact of the disease becomes clearer, we will issue further detailed advice about what to expect if and when further measures become necessary.
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care advised in his Oral Statement on 26 February, columns 322-23, that self-isolation on medical advice is considered sickness for employment purposes and that it is a very important message for employers and those who can go home and self-isolate as if they were sick, because it is for medical reasons.
Individuals that develop any of the following symptoms, however mild: fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat and difficulty breathing should monitor their symptoms and call NHS 111 or their general practitioner.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, how much funding the Government Equalities Office has (a) allocated to and (b) spent on the EnAble Fund since the launch of that fund.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The interim EnAble Fund for Elected Office was set up to cover scheduled elections between December 2018 and March 2020. It has an allocated budget of £330,000 of which £103,000 has been spent.