Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many contracts relating to covid-19 are ongoing; and what the value is of those contracts.
Answered by Will Quince
A report from the Department’s central procurement and contracts database shows 220 contracts with a value of £9.7 billion awarded by the Department and the UK Health Security Agency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are still active and ongoing as of 3 April 2023.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the policies are of healthcare regulations on the publication of (a) fitness to practice decisions, (b) sanctions and (c) warnings when a person changes their gender and requests their former public record is suppressed.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Professional Regulators have a statutory duty to ensure patient safety and public protection and one way in which they achieve this is by publishing relevant information relating to a professional’s fitness to practise. A healthcare professional’s fitness to practise record is tied to their unique registration record held by the relevant regulatory body, which will remain associated with the individual throughout their career. This is regardless of whether a professional changes their name and or gender. As independent bodies, the policies relating to publication of such information is a matter for each professional regulator, within the scope of their governing legislation and in line with existing data legislation and other law.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
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 15 February 2023 to Question 141370 on Protective Clothing, what the evidential basis is for the pathogen and disease-specific guidance produced by the UK Health Security Agency; and what the local risk assessment procedure is.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
UK Health Security Agency considers a range of evidence when producing pathogen and disease-specific guidance. For example, reviewing the published literature and relevant guidance published by main stakeholders, such as the World Health Organization, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence; consulting with medical and subject matter experts; and considering lessons learnt from previous outbreak investigations. Guidance for specific pathogens or infectious diseases is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/topic/health-protection/infectious-diseases
All National Health Service providers have responsibility for their own Infection, Prevention and Control guidance and risk assessments. All decisions are based on clinical evidence, local infection data and are signed off by senior clinicians.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report entitled Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses published on 30 January 2023, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of that report's recommendations on wearing of face masks; and if he will make it his policy that no patients or visitors are required to wear face masks in NHS settings.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government is aware of the Cochrane Review published on 30 January 2023, which concludes that there is uncertainty about whether wearing masks helps to slow the spread of respiratory viruses based on the studies assessed.
The National Infection Prevention and Control Manual (NIPCM), published in April 2022, is consistent with the recommendations in the Cochrane Review. The NIPCM is used by healthcare providers in all healthcare settings in England and is complemented by pathogen/disease specific guidance produced by UKHSA.
The NIPCM does not require patients or visitors to NHS settings to routinely wear a face mask. However, there are some circumstances where it is recommended by a local risk assessment that patients and visitors to care settings wear masks. For example, where patients are at high risk of infection due to immunosuppression.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what happens to the disciplinary records of (a) doctors and (b) nurses when they change (i) gender and (ii) name.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Healthcare workers are issued with a unique staff number when they are first appointed into a National Health Service position. This number is one of the main identifiers for personnel records and does not change during their term of employment. This is regardless as to whether the employee changes their gender and/or name.
Employers are required to retain information about their employees in accordance with employment, gender recognition and data protection laws and must follow good human resources practice, this includes any information that might be held about an individual’s disciplinary record.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of general practice appointments were carried out by (a) GPs in face-to-face consultations and (b) non-GPs in each of the last five years.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The following table shows the available data from January to October 2022 and August to December 2021 on the number and proportion of appointments conducted face-to-face by general practitioners (GPs), excluding COVID-19 vaccinations.
January to October 2022 | August to December 2021 | |
Number of face-to-face appointments with GPs | 72,510,020 | 33,609,864 |
Percentage of face-to-face appointments with GPs | 54.5% | 49.0% |
The following table shows the number and proportion of appointments undertaken by non-GP staff in general practices in England, excluding COVID-19 vaccinations since 2018.
| January to October 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
Number of appointments | 128.87 million | 141.27 million | 125.31 million | 138.03 million | 131.46 million |
Proportion of appointments | 47.5% | 45.4% | 45.3% | 45.4% | 45.6% |
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to Answer of 21 November to Question 83584, how many people in his Department are working on matters relating to covid-19.
Answered by Will Quince
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 21 November 2022 to Question 83584.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much NHS England has spent on gender identification services 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 following table outlines the total NHS England expenditure on gender identity services in each of the last five years. It provides a break down by services provided to children and adolescents versus services provided to adults.
Year | Gender identity development service for children & adolescents (£m) | Gender identity services for adults (£m) | Total (£m) |
2021/22 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
2020/21 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
2019/20 | 8.0 | 26.4 | 34.4 |
2018/19 | 6.1 | 25.5 | 31.6 |
2017/18 | 6.8 | 21.6 | 28.4 |
The total expenditure for 2020/21 or 2021/22 is not held due to the financial arrangements that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many employees in his Department work on matters related to covid-19.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not collected centrally in the format requested. Departmental staff work on multiple policy matters simultaneously.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of A&E consultations were (a) face to face consultations and (b) carried out by GPs, in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not collected in the format requested.