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Written Question
Consent to Medical Treatment: Pupils
Monday 18th March 2024

Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)

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 adequacy of the use of Gillick competence for vaccinations in schools.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The Gillick competence is a guideline used to determine whether children can provide informed consent based on their level of intelligence, knowledge, and competence. In schools, where requests for parental consent haven’t been responded to, vaccinators may ask for the child’s parents’ contact details to seek oral consent over the phone. For young people, and children in secondary school settings who may be offered the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine alongside other school aged vaccinations, after every attempt to gain parental consent has been exhausted, the School Aged Immunisation Service team may make a clinical decision to give the vaccination using the Gillick competence framework. This allows a child to consent to their own treatment where appropriate, and when they are competent to do so.

The Green Book Chapter two, Information for public health professionals on immunisation, provides guidance on seeking consent for vaccination, including the use of the Gillick competence. Obtaining consent to treatment and assessing the adequacy of the use of the Gillick competence in schools is the responsibility of each service provider.


Written Question
Health Services: Children
Monday 18th March 2024

Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of levels of parental (a) choice and (b) responsibility to decide the medical care their child receives.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

No assessment has been made of the adequacy of levels of parental choice and responsibility to decide the medical care their child receives. Those with parental responsibilities are entitled to give consent for medical treatment on behalf of their children. However, they are not entitled to inappropriate treatment for their children, or to refuse treatment which is in the child’s best interests.


Written Question
Breast Cancer: Screening
Tuesday 12th March 2024

Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans she has to help improve breast screening uptake.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England has developed an internal national plan in collaboration with key stakeholders, to improve uptake within the breast screening programme from 2023 and beyond. This plan will encompass a series of evaluative projects, which are expected to report by April 2024. It is available on the NHS Futures Platform. This is a collaboration platform that empowers everyone working in health and social care to safely connect, share, and learn across boundaries.

The Government has invested £10 million of funding for the breast screening programme, which provided 28 new breast screening units and nearly 60 upgrades, to be targeted at areas with the greatest challenges of uptake and coverage. This will provide extra capacity for services to recover from the impact of the pandemic, boost uptake of screening in areas where attendance is low, tackle health disparities, and contribute towards higher early diagnosis rates in line with the NHS Long Term Plan.


Written Question
Fluoride: Drinking Water
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria were used to determine the location of water fluoridation schemes.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Decisions on existing water fluoridation schemes in England were determined by the relevant National Health Service or local authorities responsible at the time they were introduced, in agreement with the water undertaker and focussed on reducing tooth decay. The Government’s proposal to expand water fluoridation in the North East, subject to a public consultation to begin early this year, is based on large inequalities in oral health, existing feasibility studies, and water company experience operating such schemes.


Written Question
Drugs: Misuse
Monday 22nd January 2024

Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help local authorities tackle substance misuse.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

As part of the Government’s 10-year drug strategy, local authorities are receiving £532 million of additional investment through to 2024/25 to improve drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services. This funding is in addition to the Public Health Grant.

The Department is actively supporting local authorities to develop and implement their local plans for drug and alcohol treatment and are monitoring outcomes through the national outcomes framework. This support includes the Commissioning Quality Standard, published in August 2022, which provides guidance for commissioning effective alcohol and drug treatment and recovery services. The Department also published guidance on Recovery support services and lived experience initiatives to support regions to develop and improve recovery-orientated systems of care, to help people to achieve and sustain recovery. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/recovery-support-services-and-lived-experience-initiatives


Written Question
Oral Tobacco: Young People
Tuesday 16th January 2024

Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)

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 potential impact of high-profile use of snus on young people's health.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Snus is banned in the United Kingdom and we have no plans to introduce additional tobacco products to the UK market. Alternative tobacco-free products exist, such as nicotine pouches, which are sometimes referred to as snus. Research suggests that, although nicotine pouch use is low among adults, with 0.26% or 1 in 400 users in Great Britain, it is increasingly popular with younger male audiences. We will continue to monitor the evidence on these products.

In our recent consultation, Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping, the Government explored whether further regulatory measures are needed for other nicotine consumer products such as nicotine pouches. The consultation closed on 6 December 2023 and we will publish a consultation response shortly.


Written Question
Electronic Cigarettes and Oral Tobacco
Wednesday 20th December 2023

Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is her Department's policy to restrict the future availability of Snus and vapes.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The sale of oral tobacco, such as Snus, is banned in the United Kingdom under the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016.

Vapes are less harmful than smoking because they do not contain tobacco, and therefore can be an effective tool in supporting smoking cessation. Vaping is already estimated to contribute to an extra 50,000 to 70,000 smoking quits per year in England. Ensuring that vapes continue to be available to current adult smokers is vital to reducing smoking rates.

However, the number of children using vapes has tripled in the past 3 years. To tackle this, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill will introduce measures to restrict the appeal and availability of vapes to children.

To support this, we recently consulted on a set of proposals to reduce youth vaping, ensuring we get the balance right between protecting our children and supporting adult smokers to quit. We will respond to the consultation in the coming weeks.


Written Question
Cancer: Diagnosis
Wednesday 22nd November 2023

Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)

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 non-stageable cancers are included in the NHS early diagnosis target.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The NHS Long Term Plan set an ambition that, by 2028, the proportion of cancers diagnosed at stages 1 and 2 will rise from around half now to three-quarters of cancer patients. Achieving this will mean that, from 2028, 55,000 more people each year will survive their cancer for at least five years after diagnosis. Due to the nature of the ambition, this only includes stageable cancers.

To find and diagnosed all cancers earlier, NHS England is streamlining cancer pathways to support diagnosis within 28 days by implementing non-symptom specific (NSS) pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms that can indicate several cancers, as well as implementing timed cancer pathways.

Since 2019, cancer alliances have been developing new dedicated urgent diagnostic pathways for these patients so that every cancer patient with concerning, but non-specific symptoms, gets the right tests at the right time in as few visits as possible. By March 2024, the NSS programme will achieve full population coverage across England for non-specific symptom pathways as set out in the 2023/24 NHS Planning Guidance.


Written Question
Lead: Health Hazards
Tuesday 21st November 2023

Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she made of the impact of lead pollution on (a) children's and (b) other people's health.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

Exposure to lead can result in a range of adverse health effects, including effects on the cardiovascular, immune, reproductive and neurological systems. Unborn and young children are particularly at risk as lead exposure can adversely affect development of the nervous system.

Several measures have been implemented in the United Kingdom to reduce exposure to lead, including the phasing out of lead in paint, petrol, food cans and water pipes. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) runs the Lead Exposure in Children Surveillance System (LEICSS), for reporting cases of elevated lead exposure in England. The aim of LEICSS is to facilitate public health action in individual cases, to reduce the effects of lead exposure.

Information on the health effects of lead is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lead-properties-incident-management-and-toxicology.


Written Question
Commercial Clinical Trials in the UK Review
Tuesday 21st November 2023

Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department has taken to implement the (a) significant actions under problem statement 6 and (b) other recommendations of the Lord O'Shaughnessy review of commercial clinical trials.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government will soon publish a full response to the Lord O’Shaughnessy independent review into commercial clinical trials.

The response will include an update on progress and implementation of the initial five headline commitments and foundational actions that the Government made in May 2023 as well as all other recommendations in the review.