Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the National Institute for Health Research is funding research projects relating to thyroid disorders as of 26 February 2024.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government funds research on thyroid disorders via the Department through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds and supports research into thyroid disorders through its research infrastructure, namely facilities, services and research workforce, and its research programmes. This includes research on the broad range of conditions that may affect the function of the thyroid gland, including hypo- and hyper-thyroidism, thyroid cancer and thyroid removal following surgery.
An example of NIHR research is a study investigating the risks of developing obesity, cardio-metabolic conditions, and risk of death in a cohort of 25,000 newly diagnosed patients with hyperthyroidism, and to compare the risks of these outcomes between all three modalities used to treat hyperthyroidism.
The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health including thyroid disorders and applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. It is not usual practice for the NIHR to ring fence funds for particular topics or conditions.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full time equivalent alcohol policy specialists her Department employs.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Public health policy to prevent and reduce alcohol related health harms is part of the Health Improvement Directorate, within the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. There are approximately 157.7 full time equivalent people employed in the directorate. Resources are allocated according to priorities to collectively address common behavioural risk factors, which often cluster, such as smoking, obesity and diet related factors, low physical activity, alcohol, and drug use. The directorate also draws on cross-cutting policy, surveillance, and analytical and delivery specialists across the Department to support policy development, including on alcohol related harms.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities has an alcohol policy team.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Public health policy to prevent and reduce alcohol related health harms is part of the Health Improvement Directorate, within the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. There are approximately 157.7 full time equivalent people employed in the directorate. Resources are allocated according to priorities to collectively address common behavioural risk factors, which often cluster, such as smoking, obesity and diet related factors, low physical activity, alcohol, and drug use. The directorate also draws on cross-cutting policy, surveillance, and analytical and delivery specialists across the Department to support policy development, including on alcohol related harms.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential economic benefits of reducing the prevalence of sight loss.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The benefits of reducing sight loss for both the economy and an individual’s quality of life are clear. That is why prevention, early detection, and timely treatment are essential. In England, over 12 million free National Health Service sight tests are provided annually. Diabetic retinopathy screening is also offered annually to individuals aged 12 years old or over, with diabetes. The Government also has well established programmes on reducing smoking and obesity, both long terms risk factors for sight loss.
NHS England’s transformation programme is considering how eye care services should be commissioned for the future, to improve access to care and patient outcomes. The National Institute for Health and Care Research also continues to invest to support research into the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of eye conditions.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department of Health and Social Care on 9 December 2022 (HCWS433), what assessment they have made of the impact of the delays to the implementation of the regulations in the Health and Social Care Act 2022 on children's health.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Further restrictions on the advertising of less healthy foods will come into force on 1 October 2025. The Government will simultaneously introduce a 9:00pm television watershed for products high in fat, salt, or sugar, and a restriction of paid-for advertising of these products online. This was delayed from January 2023 to ensure robust implementation. While it may take slightly longer for the projected health benefits of these restrictions to materialise, we do not anticipate a significant impact in the long term, either on obesity rates or the National Health Service.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to increase access to NHS-provided weight loss surgery in the Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning National Health Service specialist and bariatric weight management services. Rates of bariatric surgery fell across West Yorkshire during the pandemic as hospitals focused on surgeries that were more clinically urgent. More patients are, however, starting to receive treatment again. To speed up access to surgery, the West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts, which includes the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, are working to ensure that people who have been waiting the longest times are offered the opportunity to have their surgery at an alternative hospital, if they wish.
Additionally, local areas and care providers in West Yorkshire are working together to review obesity and bariatric surgery commissioning policies and processes to ensure that they are providing care in the best and most efficient way possible, to make the most of resources and to offer treatment to more people who need it.
Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to commission further research into the accuracy of BMI thresholds for (1) adults, and (2) children.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends that Body Mass Index (BMI) for adults and BMI centile, adjusted for age and sex, for children and young people should be used as a practical measure for estimating and defining adiposity, the measure of fatty tissue. In September 2022, NICE reviewed evidence on the most accurate methods and thresholds for assessing the risk associated with overweight and obesity in adults, children and young people, which included BMI.
The Government accepts NICE’s evidence review and recommendations on BMI, including that: BMI is used as a practical measure of overweight and obesity in both adults and children and young people but needs to be interpreted with caution because it is not a direct measure of central adiposity, the accumulation of excess fat in the abdominal area which directly relates to health risks such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease; in adults with a BMI below 35 kilograms per metre squared, waist-to-height ratio should be measured and used as well as BMI, as a practical estimate of central adiposity; in children or young people with a BMI on or above the 91st centile, waist to height ratio should be measured to estimate the degree of central adiposity to help identify or predict future health risks; and a child’s BMI centile should always be plotted on the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health UK-World Health Organization growth charts and BMI charts.
NICE also recommended further research, for adults as well as children and young people, on the most accurate and suitable measurements and boundary values to assess the health risks associated with overweight, obesity and central adiposity in people of different ethnicities, particularly those from black, Asian and minority ethnic family backgrounds.
The Department have noted NICE’s recommendations for research. The Department delivers research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, which funds and supports research across all areas of health and social care, including obesity. Research proposals in all areas compete for the funding available, with awards made on the basis of scientific quality, value for money, and importance of the topic to patients and the health and care system.
Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the accuracy of BMI thresholds for (1) adults, and (2) children.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends that Body Mass Index (BMI) for adults and BMI centile, adjusted for age and sex, for children and young people should be used as a practical measure for estimating and defining adiposity, the measure of fatty tissue. In September 2022, NICE reviewed evidence on the most accurate methods and thresholds for assessing the risk associated with overweight and obesity in adults, children and young people, which included BMI.
The Government accepts NICE’s evidence review and recommendations on BMI, including that: BMI is used as a practical measure of overweight and obesity in both adults and children and young people but needs to be interpreted with caution because it is not a direct measure of central adiposity, the accumulation of excess fat in the abdominal area which directly relates to health risks such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease; in adults with a BMI below 35 kilograms per metre squared, waist-to-height ratio should be measured and used as well as BMI, as a practical estimate of central adiposity; in children or young people with a BMI on or above the 91st centile, waist to height ratio should be measured to estimate the degree of central adiposity to help identify or predict future health risks; and a child’s BMI centile should always be plotted on the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health UK-World Health Organization growth charts and BMI charts.
NICE also recommended further research, for adults as well as children and young people, on the most accurate and suitable measurements and boundary values to assess the health risks associated with overweight, obesity and central adiposity in people of different ethnicities, particularly those from black, Asian and minority ethnic family backgrounds.
The Department have noted NICE’s recommendations for research. The Department delivers research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, which funds and supports research across all areas of health and social care, including obesity. Research proposals in all areas compete for the funding available, with awards made on the basis of scientific quality, value for money, and importance of the topic to patients and the health and care system.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many meetings she has held with representatives from obesity charities and organisations since being appointed.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care meets regularly with external stakeholders on a variety of issues. These ministerial meetings are routinely published on a quarterly basis in arrears on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve nutrition education in schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The government wants to support the health and wellbeing of everyone. The department understands the importance of education in delivering this aim and the department is supporting schools in a number of ways to provide high quality nutrition education for their students.
Nutrition is a discrete strand of the national curriculum for Design and Technology (D&T). This was introduced as part of the 2014 D&T curriculum and is compulsory for key stages 1 to 3. The curriculum aims to teach children how to cook and how to apply the principles of healthy eating and nutrition. It recognises that cooking is an important life skill that will help children to feed themselves and others healthy and affordable food.
A food preparation and nutrition GCSE was introduced in September 2016. It requires pupils to understand and apply the principles of food science, nutrition and healthy eating when preparing and cooking food.
The importance of nutrition is also included in the science curriculum for both primary and secondary schools. Nutrition through healthy eating is covered through topics relating to nutrition and digestion, which cover the content of a healthy diet and the impact of diet on how the body functions.
The statutory guidance for Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education, and Health Education includes content on the importance of daily exercise, good nutrition and the risks associated with an inactive lifestyle, including obesity.
Throughout the guidance, there is an emphasis on empowering young people to make choices and adopt lifestyles that will increase their chance of living happy and healthy lives to support the agenda on tackling obesity. To support teachers to deliver the healthy eating topic, the department has developed a teacher training module which can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-relationships-sex-and-health#train-teachers-on-relationships-sex-and-health-education.
The government also supports the provision of nutritious food in schools, which ensures pupils are well nourished, develop healthy eating habits and can concentrate and learn.
The standards for school food are set out in the Requirements for School Food Regulations 2014. The School Food Standards are part of the government’s drive to help children adopt healthy eating habits from a young age. The department provides a number of resources for schools, which are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-food-standards-resources-for-schools.
The School Fruit and Vegetables Scheme also provides over 2.2 million children in reception and key stage 1 with a portion of fresh fruit or vegetables each day at school. Schools are encouraged to use it as an opportunity to educate children and to assist a healthy, balanced diet.
The Oak National Academy will be providing a fully resourced curriculum for key stages 1 to 3 for food and nutrition. This will align with the national curriculum and Oak’s guiding principles, which focus on the knowledge and skills specific to food and nutrition.
Oak have assured the department that pupils will be able to cook more than six savoury dishes by the end of key stage three by following their food curriculum.