Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Childhood Obesity Plan, Chapter two, what steps he is taking to ensure the halving of childhood obesity by 2030.
Answered by Jo Churchill
As part of delivering measures outlined in chapter two of the childhood obesity plan, we have held consultations on ending the sale of energy drinks to children, calorie labelling in the out-of-home sector, restricting promotions of fatty and sugary products by location and by price, and introducing further advertising restrictions on TV and online for products high is fat, salt and sugar. The consultation on Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services runs until 13 August. We have received a high level of responses to the consultations and it is important we take the time to consider them carefully before we set out further action.
Chapter 3 of the childhood obesity plan, published on 22 July 2019 as part of ‘Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s’, sets out further measures to help meet our ambition including confirmation of our intention to end the sale of energy drinks to children under the age of 16, and our plans for infant feeding, clear nutrition labelling, food reformulation to improve the nutritional content of foods, and support for individuals to achieve and maintain a healthier weight.
In addition, the Chief Medical Officer is reviewing what more can be done to help us meet our ambition of halving childhood obesity by 2030. The review, due to report in September, will consider the approaches taken internationally, regionally and across the country, and will make a series of recommendations.
‘Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s’ is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/advancing-our-health-prevention-in-the-2020s
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the proposed Green Paper on Prevention, what assessment of he has made of his Department's ability to improve healthy life expectancy by at least five extra years by 2035.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Prevention Green Paper ‘Advancing our Health: prevention in the 2020s’, was published on 22 July 2019. The proposals it sets out will make a valuable contribution to the nation’s health. The Green Paper acknowledges further action will be needed in future to support the Ageing Grand Challenge ambition on healthy life expectancy.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether integrated (a) care systems and (b) sustainability and transformation partnership will be required to publish local long-term plans in the Autumn.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The NHS Long Term Plan Implementation Framework asked both integrated care systems and sustainability and transformation partnerships to undertake strategic system planning.
System plans for delivery through to 2023/24 are being developed, with an initial submission in September 2019 and a final submission to follow by mid-November 2019. Plans should fully align across the organisations within each system so that they can subsequently be translated into organisational plans for 2020/21, which will be required in early 2020.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he as made on aligning the Cancer Alliances and Integrated Care Systems footprints as a result of the recommendations in the NHS Long-Term Plan.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The NHS Cancer Programme is working closely with regional and Cancer Alliance colleagues in the few remaining areas where integrated care systems are not yet coterminous to assess where boundaries need to change to meet this requirement, to ensure footprints align with cancer patient flows, optimise use of capacity and resources across Alliance geographies and support robust governance.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Childhood Obesity Plan: a plan for action, chapter 2, published on 25 June 2018, what progress he has made on reducing children's consumption of sugary drinks and food.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The National Diet and Nutrition Survey is used to monitor consumption trends in the United Kingdom population. Data covering the period after publication of the Childhood Obesity Plan will become available in 2020.
As part of the Childhood Obesity Plan, Public Health England (PHE) oversees a sugar reduction programme. In May 2018, PHE published a report assessing progress in the first year of the programme. This showed sugar in retailer own brand and manufacturer branded products reduced by 2% overall, with larger reductions in some individual product categories. Sugar in drinks covered by the Soft Drinks Industry Levy reduced by 11%. Data also showed that consumers are buying more drinks that have sugar levels below five grams per 100 millilitres. The report is available at the following link:
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is his timeframe is for the publication of the Prevention Green Paper.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Steve Brine MP) to the hon. Member for Glasgow Central (Alison Thewliss MP) on 16 January 2019 to Question 206879.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what preparations his Department is making for the UK leaving the EU without an agreement; and how much funding has been allocated to those preparations.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
As a responsible Government, we continue preparations to minimise any disruption in a ‘no deal’ scenario. We are putting in place a range of mitigations, these include:
- leading a procurement exercise to secure an ‘express freight service’, with the aim to secure transport of small medical supply consignment into the United Kingdom within the 24 hours if the UK leaves the European Union without a deal;
- changing or clarifying regulatory requirements so that companies can continue to sell their products in the UK if we have ‘no deal’;
- working with industry to improve trader readiness in preparation for the new customs procedures that will come into force on day one if we leave the EU without a deal; and
- advising travellers to ensure they have comprehensive travel insurance.
HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and devolved administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This breaks down as £412 million over the spending review period for the Department for Exiting the European Union, Department for International Trade and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Autumn Statement 2016); £286 million of additional funding for 2017/18 (a full breakdown of which can be found in Supplementary Estimates 2017/18); over £1.5 billion for 2018/19 (Supplementary Estimates 2018/19); and over £2 billion for 2019/20 (Main Estimates 2019/20).
This funding is to cover all exit scenarios and is in addition to departmental efforts to reprioritise from business as usual toward preparations for the UK’s departure from the EU. Work on ‘no deal’ exit preparations cannot be readily separated from other EU exit work, given the significant overlap in plans in many cases.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU without a deal on his Department’s ability to bring forward and implement the NHS Workforce Plan.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The NHS interim People Plan was published on 3 June 2019, it puts staff at the heart of National Health Service policy and delivery and sets out a shared vision and the actions the NHS will take now and over the long term to meet the challenges of supply, reform, culture and leadership. A final People Plan will be published soon after the conclusion of the 2019 Spending Review.
This is a priority which the Government is committed to delivering regardless of the manner in which we exit the European Union.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many UK citizens residing in the EU receive free healthcare under the S1 scheme.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
As at 26 June 2019, there were 151,529 United Kingdom-insured people residing in a European Union country, excluding Ireland, who had an active registered entitlement under the S1 scheme and are eligible for UK-funded healthcare. As S1 certificates are not issued for Ireland, the exact number of people receiving UK-funded healthcare within the EU is not held by the Government or its arm’s length bodies.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps UK citizens visiting Spain and Portugal will have to take to prove that they are entitled to healthcare under the bilateral agreements on healthcare rights for UK citizens in the event that the UK leaves the EU without an agreement.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Government of Spain has offered to continue to maintain the existing arrangements for reciprocal healthcare in the event that the United Kingdom leaves the European Union without a deal. This includes access to treatment that becomes necessary during the course of a visit to Spain.
This means that in Spain, UK-issued European Health Insurance Cards (EHICs) or the equivalent would continue to be accepted as proof of UK cover in a ‘no deal’ scenario. The UK EHIC or its equivalent would need to be presented with a valid passport. It is important to note that UK EHICs will be accepted in Spain for 21 months after EU exit.
The Government of Portugal’s ‘no deal’ unilateral offer is only extended to UK nationals. This means that other nationals, including EU citizens, resident in the UK who presently enjoy UK EHIC cover would be fully charged for accessing public healthcare when they visit Portugal. Only UK passports, and not UK EHICs, would be accepted as providing proof of UK cover. The unilateral offer covers the period from exit day until 31 December 2020.