Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what her Department's priorities are in the development of a new strategy for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Answered by Grant Shapps
The UK was awarded its seat on the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in March 2015. The UK priority is to ensure that the Global Fund is able to deliver against our shared ambition of ending the three diseases as epidemics.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department plans to take to facilitate NHS staff volunteering overseas to assist with the strengthening of health systems in least developed countries.
Answered by Grant Shapps
In 2014 DFID, with the Department of Health and the National Health Service (NHS), produced the Framework for Voluntary Engagement in Global Health to explain to health sector organisations how they can most effectively support volunteers engaged in health work in developing countries. As part of its support for volunteering, DFID is providing £30 million from 2011 to 2017 for the Health Partnerships Scheme which uses the skills of UK health professionals to train, mentor and coach their developing country counterparts in their home countries. DFID also provides support to the non-governmental organisations VSO and UK-Med which facilitate skilled health professionals volunteering overseas.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of the Government's proposed £200 million reduction in the local government public health grant will apply to public health funding in each local authority area.
Answered by Jane Ellison
We will shortly publish a consultation on how best to implement these savings in ways that minimise any impact on services.
Spending decisions on particular services, such as sexual health services, will remain for local authorities to make in the light of their local priorities. They are best placed to assess local needs and prioritise the deployment of their available resources accordingly.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his policy is on the level of future funding for open access to sexual health services which local authorities are obliged to provide under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
Answered by Jane Ellison
We will shortly publish a consultation on how best to implement these savings in ways that minimise any impact on services.
Spending decisions on particular services, such as sexual health services, will remain for local authorities to make in the light of their local priorities. They are best placed to assess local needs and prioritise the deployment of their available resources accordingly.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the press notice from the Prime Minister's Office dated 7 June 2015, announcing a global programme of drug development and research into infectious diseases, what the contents and timing of that programme will be; and what steps her Department plans to take to ensure the success of that programme.
Answered by Grant Shapps
The Manifesto commitment was made to respond to the urgent need for research to develop new health products for infectious diseases. There is insufficient funding globally available for the development of new drugs and vaccines for neglected diseases and resistance to essential drugs is a growing problem globally. DFID is currently working on a strategy to deliver on this commitment.
The UK Government has a strong track record of supporting successful product development research, through public-private Product Development Partnerships (PDPs). In the last ten years, DFID-supported PDPs have developed 11 new drugs, 2 new vaccines and 6 new diagnostic tests. Success is judged not only by cost-effective development of the products but also by ensuring that they are affordable and made available to the poorest in low and middle income countries.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what cross-departmental work her Department is engaged in to increase the retention of trained medical staff from low income countries in those countries' health systems.
Answered by Grant Shapps
DFID funds the Health Partnership Scheme, which uses the skills of UK health professionals to train, mentor, and coach their developing country counterparts in their home countries. Over 25,000 health workers have received training and education through this scheme. As a complementary measure, the UK has also signed the World Health Organisation Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel and the Department of Health implements it through the UK Code of Practice for international recruitment. The UK Code specifies a list of developing countries that should not be targeted for international recruitment under any circumstances.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will reassess her Department's decision to reduce funding for the development of an AIDS vaccine.
Answered by Grant Shapps
DFID is strongly committed to tackling HIV through the appropriate vehicles but has no plans to reassess funding levels for the development of an AIDS vaccine. In the last 2-3 years there have been some promising and significant scientific advances, but an effective vaccine is still many years away and the science has now moved back to the laboratory. DFID’s comparative advantage does not lie in supporting basic science. The recent award to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative recognises that other agencies, supporting basic scientific research, are better placed to provide support in this area.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department plans to take as a member of the board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to help achieve that organisation's aim of ending epidemics of those diseases in developing that Fund's new strategy.
Answered by Grant Shapps
The UK was awarded its own seat on the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in March 2015 and is an active member of the Strategy, Investment and Impact Committee, which provides technical and strategic advice to the Board. The UK is using its seat on that committee to try to focus the strategy on controlling the three diseases, ending them as epidemics.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether his Department supports the request by the Least-Developed Countries (LDC) group at the World Trade Organisation for an extension of the transition period to utilise trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights' flexibilities relating to pharmaceutical products for as long as those countries remain an LDC.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The UK Government supports an extension of the transition period for least developed countries (LDCs) to comply with certain obligations regarding pharmaceutical products under the World Trade Organisation’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. Extending the transitional arrangements for a time-bound period will allow LDCs time to ensure their intellectual property laws and practices conform with the TRIPS Agreement. Stimulating innovation and growth in LDCs is key, and we are working to encourage all countries to establish high quality intellectual property protection and enforcement frameworks to facilitate economic growth and participation in world trade.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential benefits of trialling HPV vaccinations for men who have sex with men in a small number of GUM clinics as part of a wider cost-effectiveness evaluation.
Answered by Jane Ellison
It is the role of the independent expert body, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), to provide advice on vaccination programmes following consideration of evidence, including on the cost effectiveness of immunisation strategies.
In June 2015 the JCVI human papillomavirus (HPV) subcommittee met to consider a revised impact and cost effectiveness assessment by Public Health England on a targeted HPV vaccination programme for men who have sex with men (MSM). This revised consideration took into account comments from an independent peer review and a stakeholder consultation. The results of a small pilot study (unpublished) that was conducted in North West London on the feasibility and acceptability of a vaccination programme for MSM were also used to inform the revised assessment.
The JCVI is due to consider the results of the HPV Subcommittee meeting at its October 2015 meeting, when it is anticipated that the Committee will be in a position to finalise its advice to the Department on an HPV vaccination programme for MSM.