Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Hamble Valley)
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 links between BGI Group and the People's Liberation Army; and if his Department will ban BGI Group in the UK in light of reports of that company's involvement in genetic data harvesting and involvement in abuses against Uyghurs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The United Kingdom has an established policy to manage modern slavery risks and we continue to take action to limit exposure to human rights and modern slavery abuses in supply chains. Governmental commercial teams are required to undertake due diligence to ensure risks in supply chains are mitigated. Managing risks within existing contracts is the responsibility of those who are party to the contract and decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.
There is no specified procurement evaluation criteria in UK legislation or policy related to entities of Chinese origin and to take account of the national origin of companies would be against the principles in UK law related to equal treatment. The Department evaluates bids and if there is sufficient evidence of human rights or modern slavery abuses in any of the supply chains, we take appropriate steps to exclude them from that procurement. Procurement rules include ‘exclusion grounds’ of mandatory grounds, where contracting authorities must exclude and discretionary criteria, where they may exclude. If a bidder is convicted of an offence under section 1, 2 or 4 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, there is a mandatory exclusion. However, even if there is no conviction, strong evidence of breaches is likely to be grounds for discretionary exclusion.
BGI Genomics is a supplier on the National Microbiology Framework contract, launched in 2021. The mandatory and discretionary exclusion criteria was requested from all suppliers at the time the Framework was tendered. BGI Genomics was awarded a call-off contract from the Framework contract by the UK Health Security Agency in August 2021 which also involved compliance with mandatory and discretionary selection requirements. This call-off contract lapsed on 14 November 2021 and no further contract with BGI has been let.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Hamble Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he will extend the departmental ban on Hikvision to include (a) BGI Group and (b) other Chinese state linked companies implicated in abuses against Uyghurs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The United Kingdom has an established policy to manage modern slavery risks and we continue to take action to limit exposure to human rights and modern slavery abuses in supply chains. Governmental commercial teams are required to undertake due diligence to ensure risks in supply chains are mitigated. Managing risks within existing contracts is the responsibility of those who are party to the contract and decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.
There is no specified procurement evaluation criteria in UK legislation or policy related to entities of Chinese origin and to take account of the national origin of companies would be against the principles in UK law related to equal treatment. The Department evaluates bids and if there is sufficient evidence of human rights or modern slavery abuses in any of the supply chains, we take appropriate steps to exclude them from that procurement. Procurement rules include ‘exclusion grounds’ of mandatory grounds, where contracting authorities must exclude and discretionary criteria, where they may exclude. If a bidder is convicted of an offence under section 1, 2 or 4 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, there is a mandatory exclusion. However, even if there is no conviction, strong evidence of breaches is likely to be grounds for discretionary exclusion.
BGI Genomics is a supplier on the National Microbiology Framework contract, launched in 2021. The mandatory and discretionary exclusion criteria was requested from all suppliers at the time the Framework was tendered. BGI Genomics was awarded a call-off contract from the Framework contract by the UK Health Security Agency in August 2021 which also involved compliance with mandatory and discretionary selection requirements. This call-off contract lapsed on 14 November 2021 and no further contract with BGI has been let.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Hamble Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of expanding the range of milks covered by the Nursery Milk Scheme to include plant-based and other non-dairy milks.
Answered by Jo Churchill
At present the legislation governing the Nursery Milk Scheme allows for the reimbursement of the cost of cow’s milk and infant formula based on cow’s milk. The Department is currently considering this position.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Hamble Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, for what reason Public Health England has suspended its investigation into the selling of cigarette products which contain menthol flavourings; and for what reason those products have not been removed from the market.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The investigation is currently going through the process in accordance with the European Union Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/779. The Government has made a commitment to comply with the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive until the end of the transition period. We await the outcome of this and will then assess if there are further steps for the UK to take regarding this matter.
This Government is committed to addressing the harms from smoking and has set an ambition to make England Smokefree by 2030 with plans to achieve this to be set out next year.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Hamble Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
(FAO Amelia) To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to Answer Question 97046, tabled by the hon Member for Eastleigh on 29 September 2020.
Answered by Edward Argar
We take parliamentary scrutiny incredibly seriously and it is fundamentally important that hon. Members are provided with accurate and timely information to enable them to hold the Government to account. We are working rapidly to provide all Members with accurate answers to their questions, as well as supporting the Government’s response to the unprecedented challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The hon. Member’s question will be answered as soon as possible.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Hamble Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the child and adolescent mental health services budget was allocated for service provision for (a) children under the age of 10 (b) children under the age of 5 in each year since 2015-16; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
This information is not held at this level of granularity. National Health Service commissioning organisations are responsible for deciding what funding is allocated to specific services.