Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government has taken to (a) understand the potential risk of and (b) prevent future health system failures similar to those that led to the infected blood scandal.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The final report of the Infected Blood Inquiry describes the many failings of successive governments, including historic failings in the Department and its predecessor departments. The Department will study the report to make sure the lessons of Sir Brian’s inquiry are learned, and that these mistakes can never be repeated.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ensure that (a) clinical and (b) other data held by (i) the NHS and (ii) her Department is used to help identify poor clinical practice in the NHS; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of using (A) AI and (B) machine learning to identify such concerns.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Machine learning is in active use in the national patient safety learning system, known as the Learn from Patient Safety Events service, which has been rolled out across the National Health Service in England. The service provides a modern platform upon which technological advances such as machine learning can now operate. Named Entity Recognition is already aiding in the anonymisation of records, so that they can be used for learning activities without risk of identification of individuals.
Ongoing work is also being undertaken to explore how machine learning can support the analysis of data relating to patient safety events captured from across healthcare, and to look at how machine learning can identify new, emerging, and under recognised risks to patient safety. Future plans are also in place to enable support for the automated theming of unstructured free text, which will lay the foundations for targeted topic-specific improvement and guidance.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether waiting times to see (a) asthma specialists and (b) respiratory consultants have increased in the last 12 months; and whether there has been an increase in the number of asthma (i) deaths and (ii) acute presentations in the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the (a) availability and (b) trends in the use of nicotine pouches in the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Current evidence suggests that whilst nicotine pouch use is low amongst adults, it is increasing, especially with the younger male audience.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of trends in the level of non-tobacco nicotine product usage in the last five years.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Current evidence suggests that whilst nicotine pouch use is low amongst adults, it is increasing, especially with the younger male audience.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will undertake a study on trends in alcohol use among young people.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England holds several data sources covering alcohol use for people aged under 18 years old, including the Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People survey. This data is collected every two years, and the next survey report is due Autumn 2024, and will include 2023 survey data.
The guidance from England’s Chief Medical Officer for healthcare professionals is clear, an alcohol-free childhood is the healthiest and best option. The Department promotes this through online platforms such as the NHS.UK website, and the Talk to FRANK online resource. Local authorities promote these guidelines as part of their public health duties.
Alcohol or drug dependence is rare in children and young people under the age of 18 years old, although they may be drinking problematically. For those that do need support, the Department has allocated £532 million of additional funding through to 2024/25 to support improvements in treatment, including facilitating 5,000 more young people into age-appropriate alcohol and drug treatment.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take legislative steps to end the marketing of all nicotine products.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Current evidence suggests that whilst nicotine pouch use is low amongst adults, it is increasing, especially with the younger male audience. Nicotine products, such as nicotine pouches, are not currently subject to advertising restrictions.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill proposed measures to prohibit the sale of tobacco to people born on or after 1 January 2009, as well as enabling product requirements to be imposed in connection with tobacco, vapes, and other products. However, the bill did not receive Parliamentary approval prior to the prorogation on 24 May 2024.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the prevalence of the use of child labour in the production of nicotine products.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The United Kingdom is committed to working with partners to deliver on commitments from the Call to Action at the Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour in 2022 including eliminating child labour from global supply chains. The UK supports voluntary human rights due diligence approaches by our businesses to respect human rights and the environment across their operations and supply relationships, as steered by the UN Guiding Principles (UNGPs) on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises. The Government is clear that it expects all UK businesses to respect human rights throughout their operations, in line with the UNGPs.
Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires commercial organisations that supply goods/services and have a total turnover over £36 million to publish a transparency statement annually to set out what steps they have taken to ensure that modern slavery is not occurring in their supply chains.
The Department of Health and Social Care has pledged to put an end to modern slavery in the National Health Service by meeting the Secretary of State’s duty to assess and mitigate modern slavery risk in NHS supply chains. New regulations will require public bodies procuring goods or services for delivering health services in England to assess the risk of modern slavery and implement reasonable steps to procurement and contracting activities with a view to eradicating the use of goods and services tainted by modern slavery.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of trends in the level of nicotine gum usage (a) across the whole population and (b) by young adults below the age of 18.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
When accompanied by behavioural support, nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) has proven to be effective for smoking cessation, including for adolescents, although to a lesser degree. Since 2008, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends prescribing slow acting NRTs, such as patches and gum, for young smokers aged 12 to 17 years old, combined with behavioural support. Further information on the use of NRTs, which includes nicotine gum, in local NHS Stop Smoking Services is available at the following link:
In 2022/23, 360,619 NRTs were dispensed, a decrease from 2021/22, in which 374,169 NRTs were dispensed. The number of NRTs prescribed has been decreasing for a number of years, and is now less than a quarter of the total dispensed items in 2010/11, which was 1.5 million. However, the Department does not hold data on the level of nicotine gum usage specifically, for either adults or children.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an estimate of the number of people who start smoking tobacco as a result of using vapes.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is no current evidence to show a significant gateway effect from vaping into smoking, and no data to show the number of people who start smoking, as a result of vaping. Youth and adult smoking rates continue to fall and are at an all-time low, although they remain significant. Recent evidence shows that, for many adult smokers, vapes are an effective tool in supporting smoking cessation, especially when combined with expert support. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD010216.pub7/full
However, youth vaping has tripled in the last three years, with one in five children having now used a vape. The health advice is clear, young people, and those who have never smoked, should not vape. We have a duty to protect our children from the potential harms associated with underage vaping, while their lungs and brains are still developing. This is why we are committed to reducing the access, appeal, and affordability of vapes and tobacco through the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, to stop future generations of smokers and nicotine users.