Asked by: Lord Bishop of Newcastle (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to data released by the Office for National Statistics Alcohol-specific deaths in the UK: registered in 2022, published on 22 April, which showed that the North-East had the highest rate of alcohol-specific deaths of any English region in 2022, what steps they are taking to reduce alcohol-related harm in that region.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through the 2021 Drugs Strategy we are making the largest ever single increase in drug and alcohol treatment and recovery funding, with £780 million of additional investment. Of this, £532 million is being invested to rebuild local authority commissioned substance misuse treatment services in England, including alcohol treatment services. The Supplemental Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery (SSMTR) Grant is the mechanism by which local authorities receive Drug Strategy funding. This is additional to the amounts invested through the Public Health Grant. The following table shows the SSMTR Grant and the Inpatient Detox (IPD) Grant allocations for the North East, in 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25, as well as the total for those three years:
| 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | Total |
SSMTR | £7,051,992 | £13,677,970 | £24,787,253 | £45,517,215 |
IPD | £727,295 | £727,295 | £727,295 | £2,181,885 |
The Department is also providing £1,157,212 in funding to three local authorities in the North East, specifically Middlesborough, Newcastle, and Durham, to improve access to drug and alcohol treatment services for people who sleep rough, or who are at risk of sleeping rough. Under the NHS Long Term Plan, between 2019/20 and 2024/25, NHS England has made over £30 million available to local healthcare systems to facilitate the delivery of specialist Alcohol Care Teams in hospitals in the areas with the highest rates of alcohol harm and socioeconomic deprivation.
The Office for Health Improvements and Disparities is developing comprehensive United Kingdom guidelines for the clinical management of harmful drinking and alcohol dependence. The overarching aim of the guideline is to develop a clear consensus on good practice, and improve the quality of treatment and support.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Newcastle (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication of data by the Office for National Statistics Alcohol-specific deaths in the UK: registered in 2022 on 22 April, which revealed that 2022 was the highest year on record for deaths from alcohol-specific causes registered in the UK, what plans they have to publish an alcohol-specific strategy.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through the 2021 Drugs Strategy we are making the largest ever single increase in drug and alcohol treatment and recovery funding, with £780 million of additional investment. Of this, £532 million is being invested to rebuild local authority commissioned substance misuse treatment services in England, including alcohol treatment services. The Supplemental Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery (SSMTR) Grant is the mechanism by which local authorities receive Drug Strategy funding. This is additional to the amounts invested through the Public Health Grant. The following table shows the SSMTR Grant and the Inpatient Detox (IPD) Grant allocations for the North East, in 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25, as well as the total for those three years:
| 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | Total |
SSMTR | £7,051,992 | £13,677,970 | £24,787,253 | £45,517,215 |
IPD | £727,295 | £727,295 | £727,295 | £2,181,885 |
The Department is also providing £1,157,212 in funding to three local authorities in the North East, specifically Middlesborough, Newcastle, and Durham, to improve access to drug and alcohol treatment services for people who sleep rough, or who are at risk of sleeping rough. Under the NHS Long Term Plan, between 2019/20 and 2024/25, NHS England has made over £30 million available to local healthcare systems to facilitate the delivery of specialist Alcohol Care Teams in hospitals in the areas with the highest rates of alcohol harm and socioeconomic deprivation.
The Office for Health Improvements and Disparities is developing comprehensive United Kingdom guidelines for the clinical management of harmful drinking and alcohol dependence. The overarching aim of the guideline is to develop a clear consensus on good practice, and improve the quality of treatment and support.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of the average timescale for a diagnosis of coeliac disease from the point a person presents to their GP with symptoms; and what assessment she has made of the impact of the time taken for a diagnosis on patient mental and physical health.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Diagnostic services, including tests for coeliac disease, are provided in a range of settings, including community diagnostic centres (CDCs). We are expanding diagnostic capacity through the delivery of the CDC programme. NHS England assesses the delivery of diagnostic services, including by analysing regular management information for activity in CDCs as well as a national data collection for gastroscopy.
NHS England has also invested in senior clinical leadership in gastroenterology, which includes coeliac disease, as a priority workstream in the national Getting It Right First Time programme. However, it is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission services to meet the needs of their local populace, including the diagnosis and ongoing management of coeliac disease.
The Government and NHS England are taking steps to support people waiting for appointments and surgery for long-term conditions, including those waiting for a coeliac disease diagnosis, by offering online support, increasing elective capacity, and encouraging personalised support.
NHS England launched the My Planned Care platform in February 2022, giving patients advice and support to manage their health, and avoid significant deterioration of symptoms whilst they wait for appointments. This online platform includes advice on physical and mental health. In addition, through the NHS Long Term Plan, the Government is providing record levels of investment and increasing the mental health workforce to expand and transform National Health Service mental health services in England, helping to reduce waiting times.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence promotes its guidance on coeliac disease, which includes information for the public via its website, newsletters, and other media.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
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 help increase public awareness of coeliac disease.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Diagnostic services, including tests for coeliac disease, are provided in a range of settings, including community diagnostic centres (CDCs). We are expanding diagnostic capacity through the delivery of the CDC programme. NHS England assesses the delivery of diagnostic services, including by analysing regular management information for activity in CDCs as well as a national data collection for gastroscopy.
NHS England has also invested in senior clinical leadership in gastroenterology, which includes coeliac disease, as a priority workstream in the national Getting It Right First Time programme. However, it is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission services to meet the needs of their local populace, including the diagnosis and ongoing management of coeliac disease.
The Government and NHS England are taking steps to support people waiting for appointments and surgery for long-term conditions, including those waiting for a coeliac disease diagnosis, by offering online support, increasing elective capacity, and encouraging personalised support.
NHS England launched the My Planned Care platform in February 2022, giving patients advice and support to manage their health, and avoid significant deterioration of symptoms whilst they wait for appointments. This online platform includes advice on physical and mental health. In addition, through the NHS Long Term Plan, the Government is providing record levels of investment and increasing the mental health workforce to expand and transform National Health Service mental health services in England, helping to reduce waiting times.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence promotes its guidance on coeliac disease, which includes information for the public via its website, newsletters, and other media.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who is responsible for diagnosis of coeliac disease within NHS England; and what steps her Department takes to (a) monitor the adequacy of diagnostic services for coeliac disease and (b) ensure accountability of that role holder.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Diagnostic services, including tests for coeliac disease, are provided in a range of settings, including community diagnostic centres (CDCs). We are expanding diagnostic capacity through the delivery of the CDC programme. NHS England assesses the delivery of diagnostic services, including by analysing regular management information for activity in CDCs as well as a national data collection for gastroscopy.
NHS England has also invested in senior clinical leadership in gastroenterology, which includes coeliac disease, as a priority workstream in the national Getting It Right First Time programme. However, it is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission services to meet the needs of their local populace, including the diagnosis and ongoing management of coeliac disease.
The Government and NHS England are taking steps to support people waiting for appointments and surgery for long-term conditions, including those waiting for a coeliac disease diagnosis, by offering online support, increasing elective capacity, and encouraging personalised support.
NHS England launched the My Planned Care platform in February 2022, giving patients advice and support to manage their health, and avoid significant deterioration of symptoms whilst they wait for appointments. This online platform includes advice on physical and mental health. In addition, through the NHS Long Term Plan, the Government is providing record levels of investment and increasing the mental health workforce to expand and transform National Health Service mental health services in England, helping to reduce waiting times.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence promotes its guidance on coeliac disease, which includes information for the public via its website, newsletters, and other media.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will implement a public health approach to preventing (a) violence and (b) sexual violence for (i) boys and (ii) men.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
Since 2019, the Government has invested over £160m in 20 Violence Reduction Unit’s (VRUs) in England and Wales. VRUs are expected to deliver a ‘whole system’, public health approach to tackling violence, bringing together key partners to identify the local drivers and root-causes of serious violence and implementing a multi-agency response to them. VRUs are supported to adhere to the six key pillars of the public health approach to reduce violence, as set out by Public Health England (now OHID).
The Youth Endowment Fund was established in 2019, which will invest £200m over 10 years to identify, and build an evidence base around, what works in diverting children and young people away from involvement in serious violence and making this information accessible to practitioners.
The Serious Violence Duty introduced through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (PCSC 2022), requires a range of specified authorities, such as, the police, local government, youth offending teams, health, and probation services, to work together to prevent and reduce serious violence within their local communities, enabled by new powers to share data and information. Specified authorities are encouraged to take a public health approach in executing their responsibilities under the Act. The PCSC Act does not define serious violence for the purposes of the Duty but makes clear that local areas may also consider domestic abuse and sexual offences as part of their strategies, particularly where preventative activity is directed at risk factors which are shared between these crimes and public space youth violence.
The Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy (published July 2021) and Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan (published March 2022) contain over 100 cross government commitments and take a whole system approach to tackling these crimes. Commitments in these strategies cover all victims, including men and boys.
In 2021, we published the Rape Review Action Plan and set out a series of commitments to deliver cross-system improvements in the criminal justice response to rape. The National Operating Model, developed through Operation Soteria, provides policing with new training and tools to build strong cases and understand patterns of sexual offending, and seeks to support officers to building stronger cases, understand sexual offending behaviour and ultimately identify and disrupt offenders at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
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 help improve specialist services for patients diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning specialist myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), services that meet the needs of their population, subject to local prioritisation and funding. The process of commissioning services should take into account best practice guidance, such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidance on ME and CFS diagnosis and management, published in October 2021.
In October 2023, the British Association of Clinicians in ME/CFS published the ME/CFS National Services Survey. This report provides insight into the services being delivered for adults, children, and young people with ME and CFS. The Department published My full reality: an interim delivery plan for ME/CFS in August 2023, which sets out a number of actions to improve the experiences and outcomes for people living with the condition, including better education of professionals and improvements to service provision.
Alongside the publication of the interim delivery plan, we ran a public consultation to build a picture of how well the interim plan meets the needs of the ME and CFS community, and to understand if there are any gaps where further action may be necessary. The Department is currently analysing over 3,000 responses to the consultation, and will publish a summary of the consultation responses in due course. Those consultation responses, along with continued close engagement with key stakeholders, will drive the development of the final cross-Government ME/CFS Delivery Plan, which will be published later this year.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of low rates of breastfeeding on incidences of breast cancer.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving early diagnosis of cancer, including breast cancer, is a priority for the National Health Service. The public health benefits of breastfeeding for child and maternal health are significant and well established. Evidence suggests a range of potential benefits, for example, research published in the British Medical Journal found breastfeeding gave protection against breast cancer.
We want to ensure that every parent and carer understands the benefits of breastfeeding and has access to the high-quality infant feeding services they need, in their local area, to achieve their breastfeeding goals. Through the Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme, we are investing £50 million to increase the range of specialist support, which is enabling parents to access face-to-face and virtual support whenever they need it.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including material on (a) diagnosing and (b) detecting cardiovascular diseases in women's health hubs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No specific assessment has been made. We are investing £25 million in women’s health hubs, so that women can get better access to care for menstrual problems, contraception, menopause, and more. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services that meet the needs of their local population, and will determine the exact services that their women’s health hub will provide, so long as they deliver the core services set out in the Women’s Health Hubs: Core Specification, which is available at the following link:
Future expansion of women’s health hubs will reflect the need to meet women’s health needs holistically. This could also include developing care pathways into wider health and public services, including those for cardiovascular disease, however hubs should not create an additional step in the patient journey, or delay referral for specialist or urgent care where required.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she has taken to tackle changes in the level of premature deaths caused by liver disease in women under 75 between 2001 and 2022.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through the 2021 Drugs Strategy, we are making the largest ever single increase in drug and alcohol treatment and recovery funding, with £780 million of additional investment. Of this, £532 million is being invested to rebuild local authority commissioned drugs and alcohol treatment services in England. This is in addition to the funding invested through the Public Health Grant
By February 2024, the funding had enabled an additional 9,878 people to benefit from treatment for alcohol problems, where alcohol was their only substance misuse problem, and a further 6,258 people where, as well as their alcohol problems, they were also being treated for problems associated with non-opiate drug use.
Local authorities are responsible for understanding the drug and alcohol treatment needs of their local communities, and planning and commissioning services to meet that need, including ensuring women have good access to the most effective treatment. The Department supports them in doing this, with data and guidance.
The National Health Service’s piloting of early diagnosis and prevention through 19 community diagnostic hubs reached over 7000 people in 2022/23, and is identifying undiagnosed liver disease. The Community Liver Health Check pilot provides FibroScans in one-stop community clinics, where patients also have other investigations as required.
Beyond treatment and early diagnosis, we are committed to tackling alcohol harms, including reducing consumption levels, and in 2023 the Government introduced reforms to alcohol duty, meaning products are taxed directly in proportion to their alcohol content.