Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 increase the public's awareness of the side effects that can arise from taking weight loss drugs such as Ozempic.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) plays a pivotal role in ensuring the safety, efficacy, and quality of medicines and healthcare products available to patients in the United Kingdom. Patient safety remains the MHRA’s highest priority, and they take every opportunity to encourage reporting of any safety concerns to the Yellow Card scheme, which helps to improve the safe use of medicines and medical devices for everyone.
New medicines including, Mounjaro and Wegovy, are intensively monitored to ensure that any new safety concerns are identified promptly. The Commission on Human Medicines and the MHRA encourages the reporting of all suspected reactions to newer drugs and vaccines, which are denoted by an inverted Black Triangle symbol. This symbol appears next to the name of a relevant product in drug safety updates, the British National Formulary and the Nurse Prescribers’ Formulary, the monthly index of medical specialities, the electronic medicines compendium, and advertising material. Patient information leaflets accompanying licensed medicines in the UK must include a description of the adverse reactions which may occur in normal use of the medicinal product, as well as information on how to report them. All adverse reactions must be reflected in the leaflet, in language that the patient will understand.
The MHRA has received a small number of reports of falsified and unlicenced medicines being sold illegally online as a treatment for weight loss. The agency has issued public health messaging warning of the dangers of buying such medicines from illegal trading sources online.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 effectiveness of NHS speak up guardians in (a) primary and (b) secondary care settings.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Freedom to Speak Up Guardians are a valued channel through which concerns can be raised, and have handled over 100,000 cases since the National Guardian’s Office first started collecting data in 2017. This represents over 100,000 opportunities for learning and improvement. In 2022/23 alone over 25,000 cases were raised with Freedom to Speak Up Guardians and over four-fifths, or 82.2% of those who gave feedback to their Freedom to Speak Up Guardian, said they would speak up again.
Asked by: Lord Carlile of Berriew (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the shortage of the psychotropic medication Olanzapine, and what steps they are taking to ensure that such shortages do not affect the health and safety of patients, and wider public safety.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware that there have been supply constraints with olanzapine 210 milligram, 300 milligram, and 405 milligram powder and solvent for prolonged release suspension for injection. We worked with manufacturers to uplift production, and the issues were resolved in February 2024. We worked with NHS England to issue national communications containing advice on how to manage patients whilst there was a disruption to supply. We are not aware of any supply issues affecting oral presentations of olanzapine, or of any supply issues with any risperidone or haloperidol products.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to license the drug Lecanemab for the treatment of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease; and if so, when.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency will review any marketing authorisation application received, and will consider the drug with regard to quality, safety and efficacy. We do not comment on application status or applications in progress, until a full and timely decision is made with consideration of the recommendation of Commission on Human Medicines as needed. We continue to advise that patients consult with their respective healthcare professionals regarding treatment and management options for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
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 support effective routes to market for precision medicines for (a) motor neurone disease and (b) other rare diseases in the UK.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Should the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) receive a marketing authorisation application (MAA) or applications, the MHRA will consider the drug with regards to quality, safety, and efficacy. The MHRA has procedures in place to consider drugs as part of an accelerated pathway. This is possible as part of national access collaboration, and international recognition. The MHRA would be able to consider motor neurone disease and other rare disease treatment products, under any of the procedures for the benefit of patients.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent discussions he has had on opening crossing points into Gaza for medical and humanitarian aid.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The British Government has pressed with Israeli counterparts the urgency of getting significantly more aid into Gaza to alleviate the desperate situation.
On 5th April Israel committed to significant steps to increase the amount of aid getting to Gaza, including allowing the delivery of humanitarian aid through the Port of Ashdod and the Erez checkpoint.
The UK has urged Israel to take these steps for a long time and they are welcome. We are resolved that the international community will work with Israel to see these vital changes fully implemented.
The Foreign Secretary has also called on Israel to reform its deconfliction mechanism to ensure the safety of aid workers, and to make progress on the UN's minimal operating requirements, including more visas and driver approvals granted, as well as more trucks permitted to cross into Gaza.
Palestinians are facing a devastating and growing humanitarian crisis. The UK is playing a leadership role in alleviating that suffering. We are doing everything we can to get more aid in as quickly as possible by land, sea and air.
150 tonnes of more UK aid arrived in Gaza on 13 March, including 840 family tents, 13,440 blankets, almost 3,000 shelter kits, and shelter-fixing kits, 6,000 sleeping mats and more than 3,000 dignity kits.
A field hospital, provided by UK Aid funding to UK-Med, has arrived in Gaza. This facility, staffed by UK and local medics, will be able to treat over 100 patients a day.
On 20 March, the Foreign Secretary announced the UK has funded WFP to provide 2000 tons of food aid, enough to feed 275,000 people in Gaza.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many never events occurred within NHS England in each year since 2019; and how many and what proportion of these incidents involved Physician Associates in each year.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Information on Never Events is published by NHS England, and all available data on Never Events is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/patient-safety/never-events-data/
NHS England does not collect specific data relating to Physician Associate involvement in Never Events, and as such the information is not held.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle (a) knife crime by and (b) the online sale of bladed weapons to people under the age of 18 in Wales.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since 2019, the Home Office has provided over £5 million of funding for a Violence Reduction Unit in Wales (known as the Wales Violence Prevention Unit (VPU)) which is providing a multi-agency, preventative response designed to tackle the drivers of serious violence and knife crime. Over the same period, we have invested c.£3.5 million (including c.£535k in 2023/24) in ‘hotspot policing’ to boost the policing response to serious violence in South Wales. In 24/25, we are providing c.£4.4 million of funding to all force areas in Wales under the Hotspot Response fund to deliver high-visibility patrols and problem-solving tactics in the streets and neighbourhoods worst affected by serious violence and Anti Social Behaviour.
The Wales VPU is tasked with investing in evidence-based approaches designed to steer vulnerable young people away from involvement in violence. As part of this approach, the VPU is funding local interventions including A&E Navigators, delivering advice, support and guidance to patients of any age who have experienced violence with injury, with the aim of engaging with those injured whilst they are in hospital to help break the cycle of violence at the point of crisis. The VPU is also funding youth workers to deliver sessions to young people within both education and community settings covering issues such as knife crime. Additionally, just under £1m was awarded in 2023/24 to support delivery of the Serious Violence Duty across Wales.
We have also introduced new legislation which, subject to parliamentary approval, will ban zombie-style knives and machetes from 24 September 2024. Through the Criminal Justice Bill 2023, we are providing more powers for police to seize knives held in private that they believe will be used for unlawful violence, increasing the maximum penalty for the offences of selling prohibited weapons and selling knives to under 18s and creating a new offence of possessing an article with blade or point or an offensive weapon with intent to commit unlawful violence.
It is an offence to sell bladed articles to people under the age of 18 and with measures in the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 we strengthened the requirements for age verification, and made it an offence to send bladed articles to residential addresses after they are bought online, unless the seller has arrangements in place with the delivery company to ensure that the product would not be delivered into the hands of a person under 18. This legislation is enforced by Trading Standards and the police. The Home Office does not hold enforcement data in relation to breaches of this legislation.
The Online Safety Act 2023 has finished its parliamentary passage and received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. The Government's intention is to have the regime operational as soon as possible.
Ofcom published the first draft codes of practice on illegal content for consultation on 9 November 2023. The Government expects these to be finalised in late 2024. These codes of practice will set out the steps companies can take to fulfil the duties for illegal content. In scope services will either need to follow these codes, or show their approach is equally effective. Tech companies will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content. This means less illegal content online and when it does appear it will be removed quicker.
Schedule 7 of the Act sets out a series of priority offences which includes the sale of weapons. Companies will need to take particularly robust action to prevent the proliferation of this content online and ensure that their services are not used for offending. This means companies will need to proactively mitigate the risk that their services are used for illegal activity or to share this illegal content, to design their services to mitigate the risk of this occurring and to remove any content that does appear as soon as they are made aware of it.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made a recent assessment of the effectiveness of the enforcement of regulations on the sale of bladed items (a) to and (b) by persons under the age of 18.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since 2019, the Home Office has provided over £5 million of funding for a Violence Reduction Unit in Wales (known as the Wales Violence Prevention Unit (VPU)) which is providing a multi-agency, preventative response designed to tackle the drivers of serious violence and knife crime. Over the same period, we have invested c.£3.5 million (including c.£535k in 2023/24) in ‘hotspot policing’ to boost the policing response to serious violence in South Wales. In 24/25, we are providing c.£4.4 million of funding to all force areas in Wales under the Hotspot Response fund to deliver high-visibility patrols and problem-solving tactics in the streets and neighbourhoods worst affected by serious violence and Anti Social Behaviour.
The Wales VPU is tasked with investing in evidence-based approaches designed to steer vulnerable young people away from involvement in violence. As part of this approach, the VPU is funding local interventions including A&E Navigators, delivering advice, support and guidance to patients of any age who have experienced violence with injury, with the aim of engaging with those injured whilst they are in hospital to help break the cycle of violence at the point of crisis. The VPU is also funding youth workers to deliver sessions to young people within both education and community settings covering issues such as knife crime. Additionally, just under £1m was awarded in 2023/24 to support delivery of the Serious Violence Duty across Wales.
We have also introduced new legislation which, subject to parliamentary approval, will ban zombie-style knives and machetes from 24 September 2024. Through the Criminal Justice Bill 2023, we are providing more powers for police to seize knives held in private that they believe will be used for unlawful violence, increasing the maximum penalty for the offences of selling prohibited weapons and selling knives to under 18s and creating a new offence of possessing an article with blade or point or an offensive weapon with intent to commit unlawful violence.
It is an offence to sell bladed articles to people under the age of 18 and with measures in the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 we strengthened the requirements for age verification, and made it an offence to send bladed articles to residential addresses after they are bought online, unless the seller has arrangements in place with the delivery company to ensure that the product would not be delivered into the hands of a person under 18. This legislation is enforced by Trading Standards and the police. The Home Office does not hold enforcement data in relation to breaches of this legislation.
The Online Safety Act 2023 has finished its parliamentary passage and received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. The Government's intention is to have the regime operational as soon as possible.
Ofcom published the first draft codes of practice on illegal content for consultation on 9 November 2023. The Government expects these to be finalised in late 2024. These codes of practice will set out the steps companies can take to fulfil the duties for illegal content. In scope services will either need to follow these codes, or show their approach is equally effective. Tech companies will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content. This means less illegal content online and when it does appear it will be removed quicker.
Schedule 7 of the Act sets out a series of priority offences which includes the sale of weapons. Companies will need to take particularly robust action to prevent the proliferation of this content online and ensure that their services are not used for offending. This means companies will need to proactively mitigate the risk that their services are used for illegal activity or to share this illegal content, to design their services to mitigate the risk of this occurring and to remove any content that does appear as soon as they are made aware of it.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will commission research into the impact of (a) autism and (b) ADHD on women.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR is currently funding research to address measurement bias in the assessment of the presentation of autism in women, and to develop a new psychometric tool assessing the female-dominant phenotype of autism. The NIHR previously funded a study to improve the accuracy and efficiency of autism assessment for adults which, while not specific to women, will be relevant to their experiences of receiving a diagnosis. The NIHR has also funded research into topics that impact autistic individuals differently, for example how to adapt suicide safety plans to address self-harm, suicidal ideation, and suicide behaviours in autistic adults.
The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including the impact of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder on women. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality. In all disease areas, the amount of NIHR funding depends on the volume and quality of scientific activity.