Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
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 implications for his policies of research from the National Literacy Trust and Audible on the impact of listening to audiobooks on people's health and wellbeing; and if he will make it his policy to support the campaign to reduce VAT on audiobooks.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
No specific assessment has been made. Taxation is a matter for HM Treasury.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
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 assessment of the implications for his policies of research from the National Literacy Trust and Audible on the impact of listening to audiobooks on the mental health and wellbeing of adults in the UK.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
No specific assessment has been made. Taxation is a matter for HM Treasury.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will hold discussions with representatives of mobile operators on zero-rating GP websites to ensure that virtual GP appointments do not rely on internet data plans.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
General practices are independent contractors and manage their websites. In March 2020 the Government worked with Vodafone, EE, O2 and Three to secure free online access to the following websites:
- NHS.UK;
- 111.nhs.uk;
- wales.nhs.uk;
- nhsinform.scot;
- nidirect.gov.uk; and
- publichealth.hscni.net.
These provisions were temporary and ceased at the end of 2020. There are currently no further plans to zero-rate these or general practice websites.
Patient preferences should be taken into account to determine the most appropriate consultation method and online tools must be provided in addition to, rather than as a replacement for, other channels. Patients unable to access video consultations for any reason should therefore be offered an alternative appointment mode.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 14 February 2022 to Question 119402, on Special Educational Needs: Ophthalmic Services, how many day special schools are part of the Proof-of-Concept programme to provide sight tests and dispensing of glasses on school premises; and how many children attending day special schools have been seen under that programme to date.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are currently 93 day special schools participating in the Proof-of-Concept programme. To date, claims submitted by contractors indicate that 2,695 children have received a sight test, of which 1,152 required and received glasses. The programme will be evaluated later this year.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many pieces of personal protective equipment were procured from China since January 2020.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Over the course of the pandemic the Department generated orders for 36.9 billion items of personal protective equipment. Of these, 24.1 billion items have a country of origin recorded as China, including 10.7 billion gloves.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on the establishment of the NHS Special Schools Eye Care Service.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
A Proof-of-Concept programme was launched by NHS England and NHS Improvement in 2021 to provide sight tests and the dispensing of glasses on school premises to children and young people with learning disabilities and autism attending residential special schools. The programme will run during the 2022/2023 financial year and NHS England and NHS Improvement hopes to undertake a service evaluation between April and July 2023.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of women who are at a high or very high risk of breast cancer and who are waiting for risk reducing mastectomies as of 31 January 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No estimate has been made of the number of women who are at a high or very high risk of breast cancer and who are waiting for risk reducing mastectomies.
The National Health Service is committed to recovering cancer services and to ensuring patients receive the best and most appropriate care.
At the beginning of the pandemic, NHS England asked the Federation of Surgical Speciality Associations to produce a guide on which surgery should be prioritised and the timescales for this. The current guidance states that risk reducing mastectomy surgery in gene carriers is a priority three procedure and should be carried out in under three months.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with representatives of mobile operators on how long NHS websites that have been zero-rated during the covid-19 will continue to be zero-rated and so remain accessible without internet data plans being charged.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
In March 2020 we worked with Vodafone, EE, O2 and Three to secure free online access to the following websites:
- NHS.UK;
- 111.nhs.uk;
- wales.nhs.uk;
- nhsinform.scot;
- nidirect.gov.uk; and
- publichealth.hscni.net.
We also agreed time-limited data provisions for Attend Anywhere, our main provider of video consultations. The provisions we made for access to the above websites and Attend Anywhere were temporary and concluded by the end of 2020.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which NHS websites are zero rated and so accessible without internet data plans being charged; and which mobile networks that applies to.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
In March 2020 we worked with Vodafone, EE, O2 and Three to secure free online access to the following websites:
- NHS.UK;
- 111.nhs.uk;
- wales.nhs.uk;
- nhsinform.scot;
- nidirect.gov.uk; and
- publichealth.hscni.net.
We also agreed time-limited data provisions for Attend Anywhere, our main provider of video consultations. The provisions we made for access to the above websites and Attend Anywhere were temporary and concluded by the end of 2020.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on GP surgery websites.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We do not hold information on general practitioner (GP) surgery websites. However, NHS England and NHSX have made guidance available to GP practices on website design. Some commissioners have also provided to support to practices to standardise and upgrade websites.