Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report published by Collateral Global entitled Understanding Definitions and Reporting of Deaths Attributed to COVID-19 in the UK, whether he is taking steps to create a systematic process based on consistent definitions for verifying covid-19 deaths.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) provides a daily number of deaths in people with a positive COVID-19 test, to rapidly report numbers of deaths each day and provide surveillance of trends in mortality and underlying transmission. There are two definitions of a death in a person with COVID-19 in England:
- A death in a person with a positive COVID-19 test who died within 28 days of the first positive specimen date of the most recent episode of infection; and
- A death in a person with a positive COVID-19 test who died within 60 days of the first specimen date of the most recent episode of infection.
Verifying the number of people who have died from COVID-19 related illness is complex and this is one of several measures of deaths used by the Government, including death certificates and excess deaths. Multiple data sources are triangulated to provide the most accurate picture of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will enable people to access covid-19 vaccinations outside the NHS, such as by those who use private health service providers.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Private sales of any COVID-19 vaccine are a decision for vaccine manufacturers. There are sufficient stocks of COVID-19 vaccines in the United Kingdom to allow all those eligible to be vaccinated through the National Health Service free of charge. As of 14 April 2022, over 141.5 million doses have been administered via the NHS.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the purposes are of the Covid Pass Delivery Partner contract awarded to Netcompany UK Limited on 1 April 2022.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Netcompany is required to provide services for a range of COVID pass products. This includes providing live service support and infrastructure development services, such as the design and integration of the operation service of the COVID Pass system.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it will be possible to register a covid-19 lateral flow test result online with the NHS after 1 April 2022 for the purposes of presenting that result to hospital authorities.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The public can continue to register publicly provided tests online and receive a confirmatory text message, which can be used for hospital services.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will require all reporting of covid-19 PCR test results to include an estimated measure of viral burden.
Answered by Maggie Throup
We have no plans to do so. Cycle threshold (Ct) is a semi-quantitative value which can broadly categorise the concentration of viral genetic material in a patient sample as low, medium or high. The reporting of many laboratories, including the Lighthouse Laboratories, includes Ct values. However, a single Ct value in the absence of clinical context cannot be relied upon for decision making about a person’s infectivity. Ct values cannot be directly compared between assays of different types. Not all laboratories will use the same assay and some may use more than one.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether people visiting (a) friends or (b) relatives in hospitals after 1 April 2022 will be entitled to free covid-19 lateral flow testing.
Answered by Maggie Throup
From 1 April 2022, free universal access to lateral flow device tests for the general public in England will end. There will be limited testing available to a number of at-risk groups. Further details on eligible groups will be made available in due course.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
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 reduce the number of people who fail to attend their covid-19 booster vaccination appointments.
Answered by Maggie Throup
In order to reduce the number of ‘did not attend’ events, the COVID-19 vaccine programme will cancel appointments where people are identified as having received the vaccination, send reminders to those to advise they should cancel their appointments if they can no longer attend and has provided Primary Care Networks with access to National Booking System appointments to avoid inviting those with existing appointments.
The vaccine programme’s delivery models also provide options on vaccination sites, including walk-in services to reduce the number of unattended appointments and cancellations.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
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 23 February 2022 to Question 125137 on Coronavirus: Screening, what number of validated PCR tests is in use in the NHS.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Currently there are nine validated polymerase chain reaction tests used in the National Health Service as follows:
- Abbott Alinity m SARS-COV-2 assay;
- Abbott m2000 real time SARS-COV-2 assay;
- Life Technologies (ThermoFisher) TaqPath Covid assay;
- Hologic Panther Aptima SARS-COV-2 assay;
- Cepheid GeneXpert;
- Roche Cobas Liat;
- DNA Nudge;
- PrimerDesign PROmate; and
- Roche Cobas.
Since 31 December 2021, we no longer nationally procure DNA Nudge. From 31 March 2022 we will no longer nationally procure Primer Design PROmate. NHS trusts may also locally procure tests which would undergo local validation and verification before use, as part of their ISO 15189 accreditation.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to ensure that PCR test results for covid-19 are only given in a clinical context to take into account a patient's medical history.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The National Health Service provides clinical context for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests taken in healthcare settings. However, the purpose of PCR testing in the wider population is to identify positive cases for public health reasons and to reduce transmission. For pillar 2 PCR tests used for possible antiviral prescribing, an NHS clinical team will make an assessment of the patients’ medical history and clinical presentation to prescribe appropriate treatment.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will introduce a central repository of PCR tests in use in the NHS and publish evidence validating each test's effectiveness.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Manufacturers and distributors wishing to place a COVID-19 test on the market in the United Kingdom, including for sale to the National Health Service, must seek approval under the Medical Devices (Coronavirus Test Device Approvals) (Amendment) Regulations 2021. The approval process involves a review of evidence provided by the manufacturer about the performance of the test. Tests are approved where the manufacturer has provided suitable evidence that it meets performance thresholds in the Regulations. Tests which have been approved are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-test-validation-approved-products
Several tests procured by the Department for use in NHS trusts have received validation which involves laboratory testing. The results of this process are available at the following link:
For those tests without national validation, tests are validated and verified at each NHS site as part of the requirements of their ISO15189 accreditation.