Asked by: Miriam Cates (Conservative - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the evidential basis is (a) for the inclusion of covid-19 vaccinations for children in the recommended list of NHS vaccinations, (b) that demonstrates the roll out of covid-19 vaccination for children provides long-term protection against disease, (c) that demonstrates covid-19 infection presents a substantial risk to children and (d) that risks to children associated with covid-19 vaccination are outweighed by benefits of vaccination.
Answered by Maggie Throup
On 16 February 2022, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised a non-urgent offer of the Pfizer vaccine should be made to children aged five to 11 years old who are not in a clinical risk group. The JCVI considers this advice as a one-off response to pandemic rather than part of the routine vaccination schedule. NHS.UK includes the offer of COVID-19 vaccination for this age group on its vaccination schedule information to raise awareness with the public.
Vaccine-induced protection against severe disease, hospitalisation and death is expected to be maintained for a longer period than protection against mild disease in children, as evidenced in the United Kingdom data for adults. Most children aged five to 11 years old who are not in a COVID-19 clinical risk group are at extremely low risk of developing severe disease with the majority experiencing asymptomatic or mild disease following infection.
The JCVI’s statement concludes that the potential health benefits of vaccination are greater than the potential health risks. Vaccination of children aged five to 11 years old who are not in a clinical risk group is expected to reduce the small number of hospitalisations and paediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome temporally associated with COVID-19 cases. The extent of these benefits is dependent on the timing and severity of any future wave of infection.
Asked by: Miriam Cates (Conservative - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an (a) estimate the number of covid-19 lateral flow tests that have been distributed to schools and further education colleges since 1 January 2021 and (b) assessment of the effectiveness of (i) lateral flow testing and (ii) the vaccination of 12 to 15 year olds in minimising covid-19-related pupil absences from full-time education.
Answered by Robin Walker
The testing programme is well-established in education providers. As of 19 January 2022, over 109.5 million tests (including household bubble and support bubble tests) have been completed in all education providers including higher education (HE). This includes:
Lateral flow device (LFD) tests have been widely and successfully used to detect asymptomatic COVID-19 cases. A recent report has shown that the accuracy of LFD tests was more than 80% effective at detecting any level of COVID-19 infection and likely to be more than 90% effective at detecting the most infectious people at the point of testing.
On 26 November 2021, every single nursery, school, college, and HE institution was invited to order supplies of lateral flow tests. They will have received their allocation of the 31 million tests, in advance of their pupils, students and staff returning, through a dedicated supply channel.
Vaccinating children should help to reduce the need for children to have time off school and should reduce the risk of spread of COVID-19 within schools. Modelling by the Department of Health and Social Care published in September 2021 suggested that a single dose of the vaccine could reduce absences due to confirmed cases of COVID-19 by 33% among healthy 12 to 15-year-olds. This is assuming a 60% uptake. All eligible staff and students aged 12 and over are encouraged to take up the offer of the vaccine, including boosters, where eligible.
Asked by: Miriam Cates (Conservative - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what coordination is taking place between the UK and Israel on covid-19 vaccine deployment.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government recognises that a global pandemic requires global solutions. It is essential that the Department is regularly in discussions with other countries, including Israel, on a wide range of COVID-19 issues to share learnings and collaborate internationally on the vaccination programme. Feedback from these discussions, where relevant, is used to improve the United Kingdom vaccination programme.
Asked by: Miriam Cates (Conservative - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church of England is taking to support family life during the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The Church of England is waiting to hear from the Government when its parent and toddler groups will be able to recommence in person, it is hoped that this will be from the 12th of April.
Many churches have tried new ways to continue their support for young families and children throughout the pandemic. At different stages of the pandemic, families needed different levels of support. The Church has seen some successful examples: using social media and Facebook live to hold parent support groups, using Zoom to hold a community storytime and craft group, and hosting socially distanced family picnics.
For older children and parents, the Church launched 'Faith at Home' to focus on inspirational experiences, using age-appropriate resources to grow together in faith. It has been an effective way to use schools, church leaders and chaplains to support young peoples development.
Asked by: Miriam Cates (Conservative - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what collaborative scientific research partnerships are ongoing between the UK and Israel to combat covid-19.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Funded by the Department, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is the nation's largest funder of health and care research. The NIHR has led urgent public health research on COVID-19, targeted at both domestic and global research and development solutions. Outside the United Kingdom, we are funding global health research to tackle COVID-19 in low- and middle-income countries, in partnership with UK Research and Innovation, using Official Development Assistance (ODA) to fund high quality applied health research and training. Countries eligible to receive ODA are as defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee list of ODA recipients. Israel is not eligible to receive ODA and as such has not been involved in the NIHR’s global health research in this area.
Asked by: Miriam Cates (Conservative - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the potential cost of extending the VAT Retail Export Scheme to countries in the EU from 1 January 2021.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government has announced that the VAT Retail Export Scheme (RES) will not be extended to EU visitors, and will be withdrawn for all non-EU visitors, following the end of the transition period. However, retailers will continue to be able to offer VAT-free shopping to non-EU visitors who purchase items in store and have them sent direct to their overseas addresses and this will be available to EU visitors following the end of the transition period.
In 2019 HMRC estimate that VAT RES refunds cost around £0.5billion in VAT for around 1.2million non-EU visitors. HMRC also estimate that fewer than one in ten non-EU visitors use the VAT RES.
In 2019 the ONS estimate there were substantially more EU visitors (24.8 million) than non-EU passengers (16.0 million) to the UK. This implies an extension to EU residents would significantly increase the cost by up to an estimated £0.9billion. This would result in a large amount of deadweight loss by subsidising spending from EU visitors which already happens without a refund mechanism in place, potentially taking the total cost up to around £1.4billion per annum.
The final costing will be subject to scrutiny by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility and will be set out at the next forecast.