Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many applications for exemption from the hotel quarantine system from travellers from red-list countries have been made; and how many of those applications have been granted.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The information on exemptions from ‘red list’ countries is not available in a consolidated format as individual departments are responsible for managing exemptions relevant to their responsibilities. Exemptions from managed quarantine are agreed on a case by case basis and are recorded by the relevant Government department.
Exemptions include those that are work related such as jobs that are essential for the effective running of the country, for medical and compassionate reasons or for safeguarding unaccompanied minors. Those seeking an exemption on medical or compassionate grounds would be granted an exemption before travel while in some other categories, prior approval for an exemption is not required. In these cases, relevant documentation would be presented to confirm exemption from managed quarantine. Due to the range of conditions and evidence required to satisfy each exemption, this data is not collected in a central record.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support he is providing to local authorities on the provision of mental health services.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
In 2021/22 the total Public Health Grant to local authorities will be £3.324 billion. The Grant will be ring-fenced for use on public health functions, including public mental health.
As part of the Mental Health Recovery Action Plan, £15 million will be invested in local authorities in the most deprived areas for prevention and early intervention services.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support he is providing to charities on the provision of frontline mental health services.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
We have invested £10.2 million last year to support the work of mental health charities and a further £5 million to the sector to support suicide prevention service delivery in 2021/22.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that the covid-19 passports of (a) students and (b) other people who have had their first and second dose of the covid-19 vaccine administered in different nations of the UK are (i) valid and (ii) do not require longer waits to be verified.
Answered by Maggie Throup
All United Kingdom certification systems are fully recognised in all four nations and do not require longer waits to be verified.
For a NHS COVID Pass to be issued, both vaccine doses must be recorded in national vaccine databases. NHS Digital has established bi-directional live data flows between England and Wales and England and Scotland. The NHS App can demonstrate vaccines administered in England, Wales and Scotland for residents registered with a general practitioner in England. Data flows will be established with Northern Ireland shortly.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
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 help support charities which are researching Type 1 diabetes.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Department supports research charities, including those researching type 1 diabetes, through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and Research England’s Quality Related Charity Research Support Fund. This includes supporting the charity-funded ADDRESS-2 diabetes research database resource through the NIHR’s Clinical Research Network.
The Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy announced a £20 million initiative to support medical research charity-funded early career researchers. All fundraising medical research charities in the United Kingdom, including charities researching type 1 diabetes, which have funded an early career researcher in 2021/22 were eligible to apply.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason people who have been fully vaccinated against covid-19 on a mixed-vaccine course and are travelling from an amber list country have to quarantine for ten days.
Answered by Maggie Throup
There is now a single ‘red list’ of countries. The rules for travel from countries and territories not on the ‘red list’ is dependent on the individual’s vaccination status. Those who are fully vaccinated with a mixed doses of one of the four vaccines authorised for supply in the United Kingdom arriving from countries and territories currently approved for relaxed inbound travel measures do not have to quarantine.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that victims of medical negligence are able to seek redress for (a) damage, (b) suffering and (c) diminished earnings that have been found to result from receiving inadequate care from less experienced doctors.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
A cross-system National Patient Safety Programme Board was established in February 2021 to provide new coordination and monitoring of improvements in patient safety and response to harm across the National Health Service. All registered healthcare professionals must keep within their scope of practice at all times to ensure they are practising safely, lawfully and effectively.
A person who believes they have been injured as a result of negligent medical treatment can take legal action to claim appropriate compensation. Where a claim is upheld, compensation is determined with the aim of restoring the person, as far as possible, into the same position they were in had the negligent injury not occurred. This could include compensation for loss of earnings and for pain, suffering and loss of amenity.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support he is providing to hospitals that have backlogs of patients awaiting emergency operations.
Answered by Edward Argar
We expect all National Health Service trusts to prioritise patients based on clinical need and then by length of wait. We therefore expect there to be little to no backlog for emergency operations.
We have provided £2 billion to support the wider recovery of elective surgery and increase activity in addition to £8 billion over the next three years to transform elective services. This funding, together with the £1 billion Elective Recovery Fund, could deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million more checks, scans and procedures or the equivalent of 30% more elective activity by 2024-25.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether British citizens residing overseas who have been double vaccinated abroad and want to return to the UK from amber list countries need to quarantine after returning from those countries; and what steps he is taking to alleviate the need for those people to have to enter quarantine on arrival in the UK.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Currently, British citizens returning to England must have received the full course of COVID-19 vaccination under any of the following programmes in order to qualify for ‘amber list’ countries relaxed inbound travel measures and need not quarantine:
- A United Kingdom vaccination programme approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA);
- A UK vaccine programme overseas, approved by the MHRA;
- A vaccination programme authorised by the European Medicines Agency or Swissmedic;
- A vaccination programme authorised by the Food and Drug Administration and must also be resident in the United States of America.
From 4 October, the ‘red’, ‘amber’ and ‘green’ traffic light system will be replaced with a single ‘red list’ of countries and the rest of the world. The rules for travel from countries and territories not on the ‘red list’ will depend on the international arrivals’ vaccination status. Fully vaccinated British citizens residing in seventeen countries and territories will be able to travel to the UK without the need to quarantine.