Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of rising fuel prices on carers who are required to attend home appointments.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
No recent assessment has been made. The vast majority of care workers are employed by private sector providers which set terms and conditions independently of central Government. Local authorities work with care providers to determine fee rates, which should take account of employment costs, based on local market conditions. The Government continues to work closely with local authorities to understand the impact of emerging challenges, such as rising fuel costs.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the 10-Year Cancer Plan will be published.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Officials are analysing the responses received to the call for evidence to develop the 10 Year Cancer Plan. The Plan will set out how we will improve cancer services and further details will be published in due course.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total cost to NHS hospitals was of using (a) agency staff and (b) bank staff in (i) 2020-21 and (ii) 2021-2022.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The following table shows the expenditure on bank and agency staff in 2020/21. The information requested for 2021/22 is currently being collated and centrally verified.
| 2020/21 |
Agency staff | £2,436,415,000 |
Bank staff | £4,663,858,942 |
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 ensure local authorities are able draw on resources from the £500m fund designed to support better mental health outcomes.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
In 2021/22, we provided £500 million to accelerate plans to expand National Health Service mental health provision and target groups whose mental health has been most affected by the pandemic. This included a £15 million investment in activity to promote positive mental health in 40 of the most deprived local authority areas in England. The Department monitors the delivery and impact of this funding through a quarterly Ministerial Mental Health Recovery Board.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many CAMHS beds are available in each NHS commissioning area.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The following table shows the number of children and young people’s mental health inpatient beds commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement as at 7 January 2022.
Commissioning area | Number of beds |
North East and Yorkshire | 153 |
North West | 209 |
Midlands | 297 |
East of England | 164 |
South East | 186 |
South West | 60 |
London | 255 |
Other | 18 |
Source: NHS England and NHS Improvement
The availability of unoccupied beds changes on a daily basis and is dependent on the availability of staff, the acuity of other individuals in the unit and the acuity of the individual needing admission.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his planned timetable is for the paper version of the covid-19 vaccine certificate being capable of recording that a person has received their covid-19 booster vaccination.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Since 13 December, the Travel NHS COVID Pass letter includes all details about an individual's COVID-19 vaccination events, including booster vaccinations. A letter can be requested through NHS.UK or by calling 119. Booster vaccinations are not currently required for the domestic NHS COVID Pass letter.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many housebound patients that require covid-19 vaccinations at home there are in each Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area; and how many of those patients have received the covid-19 booster vaccination as of 14 December 2021, by CCG.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The data requested is not held centrally. Identifying and vaccinating those who are housebound is managed at a local level as it requires access to more detailed patient information.
On 12 December 2021, the Prime Minister announced all eligible adults will now be offered a booster jab before the end of the year. To deliver this offer of boosters to all adults by the end of the year, General Practitioners teams are being asked to prioritise their services to free up capacity to support the COVID-19 vaccination programme, including for housebound patients, alongside delivering critical appointments such as cancer, urgent and emergency care.
For those completely housebound and unable to leave their homes, Primary Care Networks have established mobile or roving vaccination teams. A standard operating procedure and operational guidance has been provided to local health teams to support their efforts to reach those who are housebound.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department will take to ensure that adequate provision is made for people who do not have smart phones and require physical covid-19 vaccination certificates.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The NHS COVID Pass has been developed to be inclusive to ensure that those without access to a computer or smartphone can demonstrate their vaccination status. The domestic or travel NHS COVID Pass letter can be requested by contacting 119.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the Government has to (a) commission and (b) fund research into further treatments for covid-19.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the Department has funded and continues to commission and fund research into prospective treatments for COVID-19. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has also funded, some jointly with NIHR, a number of projects to identify targets and develop new treatments for people infected with COVID-19 and continues to provide support to research in this area.
The Department’s Antivirals Taskforce and Therapeutics Taskforce have established a horizon scanning function to develop a pipeline of treatments to be considered for United Kingdom research and procurement if proven to be effective.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his policy to make covid-19 antibody tests available to immunosuppressed patients; and when he those tests will be available in each CCG area.
Answered by Maggie Throup
There are currently no plans to implement targeted antibody testing for immunocompromised patients. National Health Service clinicians can arrange antibody testing for patients based on their assessment of clinical need. Those with a cancer diagnosis may also be able to access free antibody tests through the National Cancer COVID Survey, which aims to assess levels of protection conferred by antibodies following vaccination/infection in cancer patients.