Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of providing (a) free or (b) low-cost NHS covid-19 tests to parents whose children live abroad, to allow such parents to visit their children under legally agreed custody agreements between the UK and other countries whilst incurring reduced costs for covid-19 testing.
Answered by Jo Churchill
No assessment has been made.
Since requirements were introduced for international travel testing, the costs of travel testing have fallen significantly. The Government is committed to working with the travel industry and private testing providers to reduce the cost of travel testing whilst also ensuring travel is as safe as possible. NHS Test and Trace tests are priced at the mid-market level. We offer deferred payment plans and hardship support for people who cannot afford to pay for the cost of managed quarantine and testing. In some circumstances this may be available to those who are not in receipt of income related benefits.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of amending the Units of Dental Activity (UDA) allocation of an urgent band of treatment from 1.2 UDAs to 3 UDAs retrospectively from 1 January 2021 until the end of the covid-19 outbreak to (a) reduce contractual pressures on dentists and (b) take into account the time taken to see urgent patients during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Department has no current plans to assess the units of dental activity (UDA) allocation for urgent dental treatment.
Contractual arrangements for the first six months of the 2021/22 financial year have been introduced by NHS England and NHS Improvement. The revised UDA threshold set at 60% is based on data that indicates practices may now have capacity to safely achieve more dental activity. Arrangements will be monitored on a monthly basis and are expected to be in place for six months in order to provide increased stability for dental practices. National Health Service commissioners have the discretion to make exceptions, for instance in cases where a dental practice has been impacted by staff being required to self-isolate.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on the contractual requirements for NHS primary dental care from 1 April 2021.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Department is working closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement and the Office of the Chief Dental Officer on contractual arrangements for 2021/22 onwards. An announcement will be made shortly.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
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 ability of SMEs in the hospitality and food and drink manufacturing industries who have regularly changing menus to determine what constitutes a product high in fat, sugar or salt for the purposes of the online advertising ban.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The consultation on the proposal to introduce a total restriction of online advertising for products high in fat, salt and sugar asked a question on the impact of the proposals on small businesses and we have engaged with industry to understand these in more detail to factor in the final policy decision. We will publish the response to the consultation shortly.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he publish a comparative estimate of the contribution of (a) personal care settings such as hair and beauty salons, barbershops and in mobile services and (b) hospitality and leisure sectors to the covid-19 R rate.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
It is not possible to systematically identify where infection occurs in individual positive cases definitive data on the different locations where transmissions occur is not available.