Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What progress the Government has made on making medical cannabis available to people who need it.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Government acted swiftly to change the law and those patients for whom it is clinically appropriate can be prescribed medicinal cannabis. It is a clinical decision whether to prescribe, and prescriptions of medicinal cannabis are available, and being issued where it is judged clinically appropriate for the patient.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much money from the public purse was allocated to the national drug treatment monitoring system by the Government in each year from 2010 to 2018.
Answered by Steve Brine
Data on how much money from the public purse was allocated to the National Drug Treatment Monitoring Service by the United Kingdom Government for each year from 2010 to 2018 is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2019 to Question 210707 on electromagnetic fields: health hazards, whether the independent Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation plans to make an assessment of the effect on health of (a) developments and advances in the use and coverage of wireless signals across the UK since 2012 and (b) the roll out 5G networks.
Answered by Steve Brine
The independent Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation (AGNIR) came to an end in 2017. Further information can be seen at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/advisory-group-on-non-ionising-radiation-agnir
Public Health England (PHE) continues to monitor the health-related evidence in respect of electromagnetic fields, including the radio waves from developing wireless communication systems such as 5G. PHE remains committed to delivering expert review reports on non-ionising radiation topics, as and when sufficient new evidence has accumulated.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much NHS England has spent on palliative care in each financial year since 2012-13.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Much of the palliative care patients receive will be provided either in outpatient or community settings, by nurses, community teams or general practitioners as part of general NHS services provision, rather than as an identified palliative care service. In such services, data are either not available or do not identify palliative treatment. In addition, social and voluntary sector organisations can provide additional support to patients and the end of life. Therefore, figures for the total cost of palliative care service for children nationally, or across boroughs, is not available.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made on the health-related effects of electromagnetic fields.
Answered by Steve Brine
The independent Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation (AGNIR) published a comprehensive evidence review in 2012. The group’s overall conclusion was that although a substantial amount of research has been conducted in this area, there is no convincing evidence that electromagnetic field exposures below guideline levels cause health effects in either adults or children. The guideline levels are those of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, as used in the United Kingdom. Public Health England has committed to keeping emerging evidence under review and preparing another comprehensive review when sufficient new evidence has accumulated. The AGNIR report can be viewed at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/radiofrequency-electromagnetic-fields-health-effects
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) prescriptions of and (b) patients who will use medical cannabis in the next 12 months.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England has set up systems to monitor the prescribing of cannabis-based products for medicinal use via the NHS Business Services Authority and NHS England Controlled Drugs Accountable Officers. We expect the first data to be available by the end of March 2019.
The Department has made no estimate of future demand for medical cannabis over the next 12 months.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS prescriptions for medicinal cannabis have been dispensed at a pharmacy since 1 November 2018.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England has set up systems to monitor the prescribing of cannabis-based products for medicinal use via the NHS Business Services Authority and NHS England Controlled Drugs Accountable Officers. We expect the first data to be available by the end of March 2019.
The Department has made no estimate of future demand for medical cannabis over the next 12 months.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS prescriptions have been issued for patients to use medical cannabis since 1 November 2018.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England has set up systems to monitor the prescribing of cannabis-based products for medicinal use via the NHS Business Services Authority and NHS England Controlled Drugs Accountable Officers. We expect the first data to be available by the end of March 2019.
The Department has made no estimate of future demand for medical cannabis over the next 12 months.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people in England have been prescribed Sativex in each year since 2010
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS Digital reports that it does not hold information on the number of people in England who were prescribed Sativex in the years specified.
NHS Digital does, however, hold data about prescription items dispensed by doctors and community pharmacies in England, which is detailed in the following table.
Year | Cannabis (Sativex) |
2010 | 2,502 |
2011 | 2,964 |
2012 | 2,813 |
2013 | 2,832 |
2014 | 2,703 |
2015 | 2,448 |
2016 | 2,249 |
2017 | 2,204 |
Source: Prescription Cost Analysis, NHS Digital
Notes:
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase the (a) knowledge and (b) awareness among GPs of the benefits of medicinal cannabis.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Government has rescheduled cannabis-based products for medicinal use from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001. Doctors on the specialist register of the General Medical Council may now prescribe these products where there might be potential benefit to individual patients. General practitioners will not be able to prescribe but the Government has commissioned the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to produce guidance for all clinicians by October 2019.