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 publish his Department's negotiating position on a new convention, agreement, or other international instrument under the auspices of the World Health Organisation on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response; and if he will make an (a) oral and (b) written statement.
Answered by Sajid Javid
The United Kingdom supports a new international instrument to strengthen pandemic prevention and preparedness. The purpose of the instrument is to strengthen global cooperation in order to better protect the UK from the health, social and economic impacts of pandemics. We want to agree UK priority areas such as improving transparency, timely data sharing and supporting equitable access to vaccines and treatments.
We are clear that the UK would not sign up to any instrument that compromises the UK’s sovereignty. That includes any instrument which compromises the UK’s ability to take domestic decisions on national restrictions or other measures. On the contrary, our support for a new pandemic instrument is intended to strengthen our ability to prevent, detect and respond to future health threats without the restrictions seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK has led from the front on learning to live with COVID-19 and will continue to do so at the forthcoming G7 and World Health Assembly.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her policy is on UK citizens returning from combat in Ukraine; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference the report published by Collateral Global entitled Understanding Definitions and Reporting of Deaths Attributed to COVID-19 in the UK, if he will take steps to require establishments to regularly verify a subset of deaths using autopsies with full medical documentation in any potential future pandemic.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the hon. Member’s Parliamentary Question of 14 April is attached.
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, if he will take steps to reduce the use of aggregate data as severity markers during potential future pandemics as a result of the heterogeneity of definitions of cases and attribution of deaths.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The UK Health Security Agency publishes data on deaths in England on the GOV.UK COVID-19 Dashboard by age, sex, date of death and local authority to understand population level trends in the pandemic while reducing the risk of deductive disclosure of individual patient information. Aggregate data on hospitalisations is based on data reported to NHS England and NHS Improvement.
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 for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential link between developing Parkinson’s disease and the use of the paraquat pesticide; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government’s first priority with regard to pesticides is to ensure that they will not harm people or pose unacceptable risks to the environment. A pesticide may only be placed on the market in Great Britain if the product has been authorised by our expert regulator, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), following a thorough risk assessment
It has been illegal to sell or use paraquat in the UK since 2007. HSE has therefore not carried out a recent risk assessment.
HSE is aware that several studies have been undertaken investigating associations between exposure to paraquat and Parkinson’s disease. HSE is not aware that a causal link has been demonstrated.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
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 the Government has made of the potential role played by paraquat in the cause of Parkinson’s Disease.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government’s first priority with regard to pesticides is to ensure that they will not harm people or pose unacceptable risks to the environment. A pesticide may only be placed on the market in Great Britain if the product has been authorised by our expert regulator, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), following a thorough risk assessment
It has been illegal to sell or use paraquat in the UK since 2007. HSE has therefore not carried out a recent risk assessment.
HSE is aware that several studies have been undertaken investigating associations between exposure to paraquat and Parkinson’s disease. HSE is not aware that a causal link has been demonstrated.
Asked by: Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the report published by Lloyds Bank entitled Black. British. In Business & Proud, if he will take steps to work with the banking sector on creating a bespoke mentoring programme for Black-owned businesses.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
On 17 March, the Government published “Inclusive Britain” in response to the independent report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, setting out a ground-breaking action plan to tackle negative disparities, promote unity and build a fairer Britain for all. The Government has responded in detail to each of the Commission’s 24 recommendations from its report. In some cases, The Government’s response has gone further than the report envisaged, to ensure that our action plan is as wide-reaching as possible and builds a fairer and more inclusive society in the long-term.
The Government is very supportive of the Race At Work Charter, which over 100 financial services firms have already signed up to. The Charter commits firms that sign up to take practical steps to tackle barriers that ethnic minority people face in recruitment and progression.
We are also supporting entrepreneurs through the Start-Up Loans scheme, which offers businesses 12 months of free mentoring. Of all loans issued up to December 2021, 20% went to Asian people, Black people, or people from other Ethnic Minorities (excluding White minorities). At the end of December 2021, the programme had delivered more than 90,000 loans, providing more than £819m of funding to entrepreneurs.
In March 2021, the Parker Review published statistics showing that significant progress has been made on improving ethnic diversity of UK boards, with 89 out of 100 FTSE 100 companies reporting they had appointed a director from a minority ethnic group.
The Treasury remains committed to supporting individuals and businesses of all backgrounds to access the finance they need and continues to engage with the private sector and other government departments including BEIS and Cabinet Office on this important issue.