Asked by: Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has a timetable for bringing forward commencement orders on powers for the Care Quality Commission to assess integrated care systems.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Section 31 of the Health and Care Act 2022 introduced duties on the Care Quality Commission to conduct reviews and assessments of integrated care systems. The government is preparing to make a Commencement Statutory Instrument that will commence these duties on 1 April 2023.
Asked by: Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether there will be further investment funds, such as a new Post-16 capacity fund, for sixth form colleges to bid from in future.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Sixth-form colleges have been eligible to bid into all rounds of the Post-16 Capacity Fund to date, for a share of £238 million to increase the capacity of their estate due to demographic increases in the local 16-19 population. The current bidding round, which will distribute funding secured in this spending review period, closes on 11 November 2022.
Funding beyond this spending review period is subject to consideration in future spending reviews.
Sixth-form colleges are also eligible to bid to the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) for estate expansion projects. The CIF 2023/24 application round is currently open for applications, and eligible sixth form colleges have been invited to submit an application.
Asked by: Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure there is no reduction in funding for sexual health budgets due to the Sexual Health tariff and reduced mainstream Sexual Health activity caused by the monkepox outbreak.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
We continue to work with the UK Health Security Agency, local authorities and NHS England to monitor the impact of monkeypox on sexual health services and maintain access to routine sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, including HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and contraception.
We have allocated more than £3 billion to local authorities in England to fund public health services, including SRH services, through the Public Health Grant in 2022/23. It is for individual local authorities to determine spending priorities based on an assessment of local need, including for SRH services. In addition, we have provided funding for antiviral medicines to treat monkeypox, the procurement of the smallpox vaccine and for sexual health services to deliver this vaccine to those eligible for vaccination.
Asked by: Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department will take to address displaced access to (a) PrEP, (b) HIV services, (c) family planning services and (d) contraception services within the NHS.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
We continue to work with the UK Health Security Agency, local authorities and NHS England to monitor the impact of monkeypox on sexual health services and maintain access to routine sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, including HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and contraception.
We have allocated more than £3 billion to local authorities in England to fund public health services, including SRH services, through the Public Health Grant in 2022/23. It is for individual local authorities to determine spending priorities based on an assessment of local need, including for SRH services. In addition, we have provided funding for antiviral medicines to treat monkeypox, the procurement of the smallpox vaccine and for sexual health services to deliver this vaccine to those eligible for vaccination.
Asked by: Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department will take to address the displaced activity that monkeypox has caused within the sexual health services.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
We continue to work with the UK Health Security Agency, local authorities and NHS England to monitor the impact of monkeypox on sexual health services and maintain access to routine sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, including HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and contraception.
We have allocated more than £3 billion to local authorities in England to fund public health services, including SRH services, through the Public Health Grant in 2022/23. It is for individual local authorities to determine spending priorities based on an assessment of local need, including for SRH services. In addition, we have provided funding for antiviral medicines to treat monkeypox, the procurement of the smallpox vaccine and for sexual health services to deliver this vaccine to those eligible for vaccination.
Asked by: Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answer given on 27 May 2022 to Question 5327, on Rights of Way, when the Government plans to bring forward proposed rights of way reforms including repealing the 2026 cut-off date to record historic rights of way.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
HM Government is committed to implementing the rights of way reform package as soon as reasonably practicable in 2023 and is working closely with the Stakeholder Working Group in finalising the individual measures. The 2026 cut-off date will be repealed as soon as a suitable legislative vehicle has been identified.
Asked by: Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when the Government plans to bring forward legislative proposals on changing the inflationary index calculation for the pitch fees of park homes from the Retail Price Index to the Consumer Prices Index.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are actively considering options for legislating to change the inflationary index to the Consumer Price Index, including through supporting a Private Member's Bill in this Session.
Asked by: Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has requested guidance from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation on the potential merits of an autumn booster covid-19 vaccine programme for the general population.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Government continues to be guided by the advice of the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on COVID-19 vaccinations.
On 15 July 2022, the Government accepted the JCVI’s advice to offer an autumn booster vaccination to increase immunity in those at higher risk from COVID-19 and protect against severe illness, hospitalisation and death in winter 2022/23. The booster dose will be offered to residents and staff in a care home for older adults; all adults aged 50 years old and over; those aged five to 49 years old in a clinical risk group or who are household contacts of someone with immunosuppression; frontline health and social care workers; and carers aged 16 years old and over.
Asked by: Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps the Government is taking in their engagement with the G7, G20 and Commonwealth to help ensure the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria reaches its target of at least $18 billion in their seventh replenishment in 2022.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The UK has a long-standing partnership with the Global Fund, investing £4.1 billion to date. We are the second largest donor of the 6th replenishment. The Global Fund remains an essential partner for the UK in the fight against HIV, TB and malaria. We will continue to work and engage with our allies in the G7, G20, and the Commonwealth to encourage support of the Global Fund's 7th replenishment and to strengthen health systems. We have been supporting the German G7 Presidency to ensure a sustained G7 commitment to the Global Fund and are working with the Indonesian G20 Presidency to support its focus on TB financing which includes a successful Global Fund replenishment.
Asked by: Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of her Department's programmes to reduce the global incidence of HIV and AIDS; and what plans she has for the future of those programmes.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The UK remains committed to addressing HIV and AIDS through our overseas development programming. This currently includes our funding of £1.4 billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and funding for UNAIDS and the Robert Carr Fund. Future funding, beyond our current commitments, will be determined as part of departmental business planning following on from the departmental allocations announced in last year's Spending Review. It will also be guided by the approaches set out in the Health Systems Strengthening Position Paper and the Ending Preventable Deaths of Mothers, Babies and Children Approach Paper published on the 14th December 2021.