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Written Question
MMR Vaccine: North West
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2024 to Question 11582 on MMR Vaccine: North West, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the lower uptake of MMR2 at five years; and what steps her Department is taking to increase the uptake of childhood vaccines.

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

It is vitally important that everyone takes up the vaccinations to which they are entitled. Vaccination rates across the country are too low, particularly in some local areas, and we need a concerted effort to reach the 95% coverage, with two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, required to provide population protection.

The Department works with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and NHS England to improve immunisation through diverse delivery methods, making getting vaccinated easier for all, including those in traditionally under-served groups. The UKHSA launched a new multi-media marketing campaign across England on 4 March 2024, to remind parents and carers of the risk of their children missing out on protection against serious diseases that are re-emerging in the country.

There have also been increased outreach efforts to make sure that communities with historically lower uptake are informed of the benefits of vaccines and have access to inclusive resources. For example, in the North West and the Midlands, National Health Service teams are using initiatives like roving clinics, extra vaccination sessions in schools, and community pharmacies to step up their efforts to get more children protected with the MMR vaccine.

The Government supports NHS programmes focused on improving coverage, including regional and national campaigns for polio, and a new targeted national MMR catch-up campaign for children aged six to 11 years old this year, extended to all those aged 11 to 25 years old in London, the West Midlands and the North West. Human papillomavirus infection vaccination catch-ups for adolescents are also taking place.

The NHS Vaccination strategy outlines plans to maximise convenience, with more vaccination services at locations that the public can easily access such as libraries, leisure centres, social clubs or sports grounds, family hubs, support services, and places of worship, or at local cultural and community events, with flexible opening hours and booking options.


Written Question
Disease Control
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to prepare for (a) an avian influenza outbreak and (b) a future pandemic.

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

The Department continues to plan and prepare for a range of pandemic and emerging infectious disease scenarios, including those caused by respiratory contact, both influenza and non-influenza, and vector-borne pathogens, building on lessons learned from exercises and incidents, including the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department, working with health and care partners, is strengthening pandemic preparedness by considering the flexible and scalable response capabilities that can be adapted to any threat that the health and social care system needs.

These capabilities include stockpiles of critical medicines, an advance purchase agreement for a pandemic specific influenza vaccine, and a long-term strategic partnership with Moderna on vaccine development. These complement core scalable capabilities in the UK Health Security Agency, such as surveillance and diagnostics.

We are carefully monitoring avian influenza globally. The risk to people in the United Kingdom from avian influenza is very low. It is primarily a disease of birds and there is currently no evidence that it can spread more easily to people, or that it can spread between people. We continually review our readiness plans as new evidence emerges.


Written Question
Life Expectancy
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the potential long-term impact of the cost of living on life expectancy; and what steps her Department is taking to reduce regional disparities in life expectancy.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is mindful of potential interactions between cost of living pressures and health, which is one of the reasons we are delivering cost of living support worth an average of £3,700 per household between 2022 and 2025. The Government is committed to its levelling up mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030, and increase healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035.

In January 2023 we announced our plan to publish the Major Conditions Strategy. The strategy will be a direction setting document which aims to pave the way for further action towards integrated care, coordinated around the needs of people, to address our aims of improving healthy life expectancy, reduce pressure on the National Health Service, and reduce ill-health related labour market inactivity. It will emphasise the importance of working with local services and organisations to address disparities in health outcomes, supporting the levelling up mission. Our intention is to publish the Major Conditions Strategy in Spring 2024.


Written Question
Human Papillomavirus: Vaccination
Monday 18th March 2024

Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to increase the uptake of the HPV vaccine by (a) girls and (b) boys.

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

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) works closely with charities such as Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust and the Teenage Cancer Trust to develop resources to raise awareness and educate young girls and boys about the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine and related cancers. The UKHSA has helped develop education resources for schools called EDUCATE, co-developed with teenagers and the Health Protection Research Unit on Behavioural Science and Evaluation.

School Aged Immunisation Service (SAIS) providers have continuously been focusing on HPV programme recovery since the pandemic and the school closures, and have robust catch-up plans in place for HPV vaccination based on population need, and utilising opportunities from the HPV programme change in September 2023 to deliver further catchup activities from the academic year 2023/24 using innovative models.

The UKHSA monitors uptake for immunisation programmes for teenagers. Annual published statistics help local NHS Screening and Immunisation teams develop plans to improve uptake and reduce inequalities in collaboration with key partners, including Directors of Public Health, and teams in local authorities.


Written Question
Dental Services
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to (a) increase availability of and (b) reduce waiting times for dental appointments.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

On 7 February, we published Our Plan to Recover and Reform National Health Service Dentistry. The Dentistry Recovery Plan will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for patients and will fund around 2.5 million additional appointments.

The Plan sets out a number of actions which will improve access for patients, by helping the sector to recover activity more quickly, including the introduction of a New Patient Payment Premium of up to £50 for each new patient. This is on top of the funding dental practices already receive for delivering that care.

We will further incentivise dentists to do more NHS work by raising the minimum Units of Dental Activity (UDA) rate to £28.

From 1 April 2023 responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. ICBs are responsible for having local processes in place to identify areas of need and determine the priorities for investment.


Written Question
Vaccination: Children
Monday 5th February 2024

Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to tackle the spread of misinformation on (a) the MMR vaccine and (b) other childhood immunisations.

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

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) ensures all relevant healthcare professionals have access to childhood immunisation resources to maintain confidence in the national vaccination programmes, including measles, mumps and rubella.

There are a range of information leaflets and promotional materials available online about the different vaccination programmes, co-branded with the National Health Service. These include translations in a range of languages and braille, British Sign Language, large print and audio versions.

NHS England is actively working with regional and local systems in low uptake communities, to enhance outreach activities and interventions to support access for individuals. UKHSA has developed an evaluation framework and resources to facilitate the efficient sharing of the most successful interventions.

To assess the level of public confidence in vaccination programmes, the UKHSA undertakes annual surveys, to understand how knowledge, beliefs and attitudes towards vaccine safety, and disease severity influence vaccine uptake. This information is used to inform programme planning and implementation and the development of effective communication strategies.


Written Question
Measles: North West
Monday 5th February 2024

Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many cases of measles have been reported in (a) Preston, (b) Lancashire, and (c) the North West in each of the last five years.

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

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publishes routine data on laboratory confirmed measles. As provided in the latest published data between 1 January 2023 and 30 November 2023, there have been eight laboratory confirmed cases in the North West.

UKHSA does not routinely publish measles case data at local authority level, due to the risk of deductive disclosure. However, the total number of laboratory confirmed cases of measles for the North West in the past five years is:

- eight cases in 2023;

- three cases in 2022;

- zero cases in 2021;

- nine cases in 2020; and

- 51 cases in 2019.

Data on monthly cases by age and region is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-epidemiology-2023/confirmed-cases-of-measles-in-england-by-month-age-and-region-2023

Data over the last five years is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-confirmed-cases/confirmed-cases-of-measles-in-england-and-wales-by-region-and-age-2012-to-2014


Written Question
Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis: Research
Monday 5th February 2024

Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department plans to increase funding for research into a cure for (a) colitis and (b) Crohn’s disease.

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

The Department invests over £1 billion per year in health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR funds research in response to proposals received from scientists rather than allocating funding to specific disease areas, although we do commission research under certain themes, it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions.

NIHR has funded a total of 60 projects into Crohn's and Colitis research, with a combined total funding value of £33.5 million since financial year 2017/18. The NIHR also supports the delivery in the health and care system for Crohn's and Colitis research funded by research funding partners in the charity and public sectors.

The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including Crohn's and Colitis. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition. It is worth noting that all applications that were peer reviewed as fundable in open competition have been funded.


Written Question
Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis: Health Services
Monday 5th February 2024

Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to improve the (a) diagnosis time and (b) access to care for people suffering from (i) Crohn’s disease and (ii) colitis.

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

Cutting waiting lists is one of the Government’s top priorities. We are making progress on tackling the longest waits, to ensure patients get the care they need when they need it. Diagnostic checks are a key part of many elective care pathways, and our ambition is that by March 2025, 95% of patients needing a diagnostic check receive it within six weeks. We are working together with NHS England to increase diagnostic capacity as quickly as possible, including for patients with suspected Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, through the continued rollout of community diagnostic centres (CDCs).

As of January 2024, there are 153 CDCs currently operational that have delivered over six million additional tests since July 2021. In addition, the Getting it Right First Time programme has launched a set of Further, Faster pilots to support groups of trusts to accelerate progress on outpatient transformation across a range of specialties, to reduce unnecessary appointments and improve access and waiting times for patients. The pilots are driving forward interventions within gastroenterology, for instance with the introduction of Patient Initiated Follow Up, which can be beneficial for patients with chronic conditions like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.


Written Question
MMR Vaccine: North West
Monday 5th February 2024

Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the vaccination rates are for the MMR vaccine in (a) Preston, (b) Lancashire, and (c) the North West.

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

Official childhood vaccine coverage estimates, including for the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, are published annually by the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and NHS England, and quarterly by UKHSA. Coverage of childhood vaccines are measured when children reach their first, second and fifth birthdays. Whilst the data for Preston alone is not available, the quarterly vaccine uptake data for Lancashire, which includes Preston, is available. The following table shows the number and percentage of children who received the first MMR vaccine at two and five years old, and the second MMR vaccine at five years old, in the second quarter of 2023/24:

MMR1 at 2 years

MMR1 at 5 years

MMR2 at 5 years

2957

91.1%

3204

95.3%

2947

87.7%

The following table shows the same information for the North West:

MMR1 at 2 years

MMR1 at 5 years

MMR2 at 5 years

19199

89.4%

21412

93.7%

19472

85.2%