Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much capital funding he plans to provide to expand dental school estates to accommodate the increased number of dental students from September 2026.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department for Education is responsible for capital investment in Higher Education Institutions, including dental schools, and we will work closely with them on this matter. Specific programmes of capital funding to support dental school expansion are subject to the upcoming spending review.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the cost of training for new dental academic staff to support the expansion of dental school places in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan is fully funded.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Higher Education Institutions are responsible for training their members of staff, and ensuring they have adequate staffing levels to teach their courses.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the regulation of sales of weight loss injections by online pharmacies.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
When used appropriately, online prescribing provides a valuable route for patient access, taking pressure off general practices. We are concerned, however, about some online prescribing, including the prescribing of weight loss medicines by online businesses. These are prescription only medicines (POMs), licensed for use in the United Kingdom by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and should be prescribed according to the terms of the MHRA’s marketing authorisation. Prescribing outside of these terms, known as off-label prescribing, should only take place when the prescriber doing so judges it to be in the best interest of the patient, on the basis of the available evidence.
Rules regarding the advertising and promotion of medicines in the UK are set out under Part 14 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012. The MHRA works closely with other regulators to help ensure that the public is protected from the advertising of POMs. A joint enforcement operation is in place with the Advertising Standards Authority to take targeted action against weight-loss treatment providers who use social media to promote POMs. In England, online prescribing is regulated by the Care Quality Commission and the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). The GPhC regulates the supply of medicines against prescriptions in pharmacies. Regulators are able to take action when a provider does not comply with the standards.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of funding for the planned extension of Dental Foundation Training places after 2031.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan has made up to £2.4 billion available to support the additional education and training expansion across the plan up to 2028/29. This settlement pre-empted the next spending review. Revenue funding for the increase of undergraduate dental training places up to 2028/29 is provided within this. Decisions about funding beyond 2028/29, will be considered at a later date.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the plans to increase dental training places by 40% by 2031-32 outlined in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan are fully funded.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan has made up to £2.4 billion available to support the additional education and training expansion across the plan up to 2028/29. This settlement pre-empted the next spending review. Revenue funding for the increase of undergraduate dental training places up to 2028/29 is provided within this. Decisions about funding beyond 2028/29, will be considered at a later date.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the plans to increase dental training places by 40% by 2031-32 outlined in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan are fully funded.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan has made up to £2.4 billion available to support the additional education and training expansion across the plan up to 2028/29. This settlement pre-empted the next spending review. Revenue funding for the increase of undergraduate dental training places up to 2028/29 is provided within this. Decisions about funding beyond 2028/29, will be considered at a later date.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to commission an independent review of the Commission on Human Medicines’ Expert Working Group’s report on Hormone Pregnancy Tests.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
We remain hugely sympathetic to the families who believe that they have suffered as a result of using Hormone Pregnancy Tests. We have no plans to set up an independent review to examine the findings of the Expert Working Group. In the interests of transparency, all evidence collected and papers considered by the Expert Working Group were published in 2018, along with full minutes of its discussions. Details of conflicts of interests, and how these were managed, were also published.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of each Integrated care systems having a (a) specialist allergy nurse and (b) dietitian.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The majority of services for people living with allergies are commissioned locally through integrated care boards (ICBs), which are best placed to commission services according to local need. Specialised allergy services are provided for patients with severe and complex allergic conditions, or those who have common allergic conditions for which conventional management has failed and for whom specified specialist treatments are required. In 2023/24, these services are jointly commissioned by NHS England Specialised Commissioning and the ICBs, in line with the published Specialist Allergy Service Specification.
There is an established Clinical Reference Group (CRG), which is responsible for providing national clinical advice and leadership for specialised immunology and allergy services. The CRG uses its expertise to advise NHS England on the best ways to provide specialised services. This includes developing national standards in the form of service specifications and policies. The CRG commenced a review of the current service specification in May 2023, which is expected to be complete by summer 2024. The outcome of the service specification review will be an updated specification which references up-to-date guidance and takes into account the latest evidence base, to clearly define the standards of care for commissioned specialised services.
To help promote awareness of allergies, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance on a range of allergy conditions, including food allergy in under 19-year-olds, anaphylaxis, and drug allergy. The NICE promotes its guidance via its website, newsletters, and other media.
To support clinicians in the implementation of clear care pathways, the NICE website has guidance to support diagnosis and treatment of a range of allergy conditions, including how to identify allergies and when to refer to specialist care, and how to ensure allergies are recorded in their medical records. The NICE website also provides primary care practitioners with access to clinical knowledge summaries outlining the current evidence base and practical guidance on a range of skin conditions.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to improve allergy awareness in health care settings.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The majority of services for people living with allergies are commissioned locally through integrated care boards (ICBs), which are best placed to commission services according to local need. Specialised allergy services are provided for patients with severe and complex allergic conditions, or those who have common allergic conditions for which conventional management has failed and for whom specified specialist treatments are required. In 2023/24, these services are jointly commissioned by NHS England Specialised Commissioning and the ICBs, in line with the published Specialist Allergy Service Specification.
There is an established Clinical Reference Group (CRG), which is responsible for providing national clinical advice and leadership for specialised immunology and allergy services. The CRG uses its expertise to advise NHS England on the best ways to provide specialised services. This includes developing national standards in the form of service specifications and policies. The CRG commenced a review of the current service specification in May 2023, which is expected to be complete by summer 2024. The outcome of the service specification review will be an updated specification which references up-to-date guidance and takes into account the latest evidence base, to clearly define the standards of care for commissioned specialised services.
To help promote awareness of allergies, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance on a range of allergy conditions, including food allergy in under 19-year-olds, anaphylaxis, and drug allergy. The NICE promotes its guidance via its website, newsletters, and other media.
To support clinicians in the implementation of clear care pathways, the NICE website has guidance to support diagnosis and treatment of a range of allergy conditions, including how to identify allergies and when to refer to specialist care, and how to ensure allergies are recorded in their medical records. The NICE website also provides primary care practitioners with access to clinical knowledge summaries outlining the current evidence base and practical guidance on a range of skin conditions.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many integrated care boards have introduced (a) community audiology services and (b) self-referral for community audiology.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Information on how many integrated care boards (ICBs) have introduced community audiology services is not held centrally by the Department or NHS England. As part of an ICB self-assessment on the introduction of self-referral, conducted in September 2023, 26 ICBs reported having self-referral in place for community audiology in one or more services, with more ICBs reporting they had plans to introduce it later in the year, or as part of recommissioning arrangements for 2024/25.