Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the availability of covid-19 booster vaccines for people who are clinically vulnerable.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The United Kingdom has sufficient supply of vaccines to meet the current advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation for the 2023 spring and autumn booster campaigns. This includes agreements with Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Sanofi/GSK and Novavax, which the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has approved for use in the UK. We remain in regular contact with the vaccine manufacturers to ensure the future supply of vaccines to the UK.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of recognising people who have severe learning disabilities as being clinically vulnerable for the purposes of the eligibility criteria for covid-19 booster jabs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is the independent body made up of scientific and clinical experts who advise Government on which authorised vaccines the United Kingdom should use and which groups in the population should be offered initial or further doses of a particular vaccine.
The primary aim of the COVID-19 vaccination programme continues to be the prevention of severe disease, such as hospitalisation and mortality, arising from COVID-19. The JCVI identified at the start of the programme a number of groups in the population at high clinical risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19. One of these clinical risk groups covers those with chronic neurological disease. This includes all those with severe learning difficulties. The full list of conditions covered is defined in tables two and four of the UK Health Security Agency guide to vaccinators known as the Green Book.
For each new COVID-19 booster campaign the JCVI considers which groups should be recommended for a further booster. For the current spring campaign, the JCVI has recommended boosters were needed only for those at the very highest risk of serious outcomes. This covered those in care homes for older people, all those aged 75 years old or over and all those aged 5 or over who are immunosuppressed. The JCVI has advised that there should be a further booster programme in autumn 2023 for those at higher risk of severe COVID-19. Advice from the JCVI on which risk groups are recommended for a booster dose in autumn 2023 is expected ahead of autumn.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to protect the welfare of beagles bred for sale to animal testing facilities.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA) provides protections for animals bred in the UK for use in scientific procedures.
All establishments licensed to breed protected animals under ASPA are required to comply with the published Code of Practice, which sets out standards for the appropriate care and accommodation of animals, including dogs.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether Afghan refugees who are in hotels can apply for homelessness with any local authority.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
We recognise the work of local authorities up and down the country in providing housing and integration support to enable Afghan families to begin their new lives in the UK. All Afghan arrivals via the ARAP and ACRS schemes have had the right to work and receive benefits from the first day of their arrival, as well as access to public services which includes housing and homelessness assistance.
Under homelessness legislation, the first local authority approached will need to take a homelessness application and assess what duties are owed. The council can then consider if a local connection referral is appropriate. In cases where there is no local connection, but there is a local connection to a different local authority; they may refer the household back to where they do have a local connection.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
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 trends in the size of waiting lists for aortic stenosis among women in the last three years.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, for what reasons his Department plans to introduce voter identification for postal votes before its review into the effect of voter identification on the level of turnout in the 2023 council elections has concluded.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
These regulations are separate to the introduction of a requirement for photographic identification at the polling booth.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether staff working for social enterprises in the health sector will be included in Agenda for Change.
Answered by Will Quince
As National Health Service social enterprises are independent providers, they remain free to develop and adapt their own terms and conditions for employment that best help them attract and keep the staff they need. This includes the pay scales that they use.
Staff employed at NHS social enterprises who utilise the Agenda for Change terms and conditions may be entitled to the non-consolidated pay award that staff working for eligible NHS organisations will receive, and organisations should consider their contractual obligations.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made with Cabinet colleagues of the potential economic impact of sewage discharges on coastal communities.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan was published in August 2022, alongside an Impact Assessment which considers costs and benefits of the final targets to businesses, the public, wider society and government spending where applicable.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase access to dental care for Ukrainian refugees.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Ukrainians in the United Kingdom are guaranteed free access to National Health Service healthcare, including screening, vaccinations, mental health support, dental and hospital services. In September 2022 the Government announced ‘Our plan for patients’ which aims to improve patient access to NHS dental care. This includes access for Ukrainians. Information on how to access NHS dental care is outlined in the Welcome Pack provided to all Ukrainian arrivals.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that people with assistance dogs are not discriminated against when entering public buildings.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
No one should be refused access to businesses or services because they use a guide or other assistance dog.
Under the Equality Act 2010 (the Act), businesses and public bodies that provide goods and services to the public must not unlawfully discriminate against disabled people, including those with assistance dogs. The Act places a duty on service providers to make reasonable adjustments to improve access to premises, buildings and services. This could include allowing the use of assistance dogs so that disabled customers have the same access to goods and services and are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled customers.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published guidance for all businesses, including service providers, on this subject. The guidance explains that assistance dogs should be treated as auxiliary aids and not as pets. The guidance is available at: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/assistance-dogs-a-guide-for-all-businesses.pdf and makes clear that businesses and service providers should allow assistance dogs access to buildings where dogs would normally not be permitted whenever this is reasonable.
Anybody who thinks that they have been discriminated against in the services offered to them - including where access to an assistance dog has been refused - can take legal action to resolve the issue. Before doing so, they might first find it useful to contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) which provides free bespoke advice and in-depth support to individuals with discrimination concerns via their website - http://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/ , or by telephone on 0808 800 0082 or by text phone on 0808 800 0084.