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 he has to improve the enforcement on regulations standards for vape pens.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In April 2023, the Government announced £3 million of funding for a new national illicit vaping enforcement unit to tackle illicit and underage vape sales across the country. This will improve the enforcement of our regulations related to a range of products including vape pens.
We also launched a call for evidence on youth vaping which issues related to regulatory compliance. Once this closes on 6 June 2023, the Government will assess a range of options based on the evidence provided, including potential future changes to vaping policy and regulation.
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 guidance his Department has issued to NHS trusts on the provision of the same-sex staffing for patients receiving intimate care.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department is considering whether clearer guidance is needed on the provision of same-sex staffing for patients receiving intimate care. Guidance by the Care Quality Commission states that “When providing intimate or personal care, provider must make every reasonable effort to make sure that they respect people's preferences about who delivers their care and treatment, such as requesting staff of a specified gender/sex.” The guidance can be found at the following link:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/regulations-enforcement/regulation-10-dignity-respect
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 he will make an estimate of the number of children who use e-cigarettes.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Data from NHS Digital showed that 9% of 11- to 15-year-olds identified themselves as current users of vapes in 2021. The Government is clear that vaping should only be used to help adults quit smoking. Vapes should not be used by people under the age of 18 years old or non-smokers.
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, with reference to the Answer of 1 November 2019 to Question 4411 on Electronic Cigarettes: Pneumonia, what recent assessment his Department has made of trends in the prevalence of lipoid pneumonia since the introduction of vaping.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
It is not possible to assess the trends in the prevalence of lipoid pneumonia since the introduction of vaping. This is because there is insufficient data to identify this trend.
The evidence of respiratory risk from vaping is the subject of a Systematic Review in Chapter 10 of the report Nicotine Vaping in England 2022.
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, when he plans to publish the interim service specification for specialist gender dysphoria services for children and young people.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England is currently reviewing and analysing the consultation responses. A report summarising all the feedback received will be published as soon as possible, alongside the final interim service specification.
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 clinical disciplines will be included in the multi-disciplinary teams that replace the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust Gender Identity Development Service.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In October 2022, NHS England published a proposed interim service specification for the new services for the purpose of public consultation. The proposed service specification describes that the service should include consultant level paediatricians, endocrinologists, psychologists and specialists in autism, attention deficit with hyperactivity disorder and other neuro-developmental conditions. NHS England will agree a final version of the service specification once it has considered the outcome of the public consultation.
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, how many new patients have been referred to the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust Gender Identity Development Service since its closure was announced.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England is responsible for commissioning gender identity development services for children and young people. Between 10 October and 3 March 2023, 1,080 referrals were made to the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust Gender Identity Development Service. Data for the period 28 July to 9 October 2022 are not currently available.
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 he plans to take steps to help ensure that NHS documentation and correspondence relating to maternity services refers to women and mothers.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
As set out in the Women’s Health Strategy, published August 2022, the Government is committed to ensuring that women are properly represented in communications and guidance, including through the appropriate use of sex-specific language to communicate matters that relate to women’s and men’s individual health issues.
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, when the results of the public consultation on interim service specification for specialist gender dysphoria services for children and young people will be published.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England is currently reviewing and analysing responses and a report summarising all the feedback received will be published on their website in early 2023, alongside the final interim service specification.
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, with reference to the study entitled Evaluation of water fluoridation scheme in Cumbria: the CATFISH prospective longitudinal cohort study published in Public Health Research in November 2022, if his Department will commission a long-tern study into the impact of water fluoridation on levels in children of (a) fluorosis, (b) obesity and (c) autism.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health including the impact of water fluoridation in adults and children. The usual practice of the NIHR is not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics. We monitor the effects of the water fluoridation arrangements on the health of the populations served by schemes and publish a report every four years. The latest report, published in 2022, supports earlier findings and wider evidence that water fluoridation, at levels recommended in the United Kingdom, is a safe and effective public health measure to reduce dental decay and inequalities in dental health.