Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
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 access to defibrillators.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease is a priority for the Government. We want people to have the best chance of survival from cardiac arrest, and rapid intervention is central to improving outcomes. Therefore, the Government wants to increase the number of publicly accessible automated external defibrillators (AEDs).
This is why the Government has announced The Community Automated External Defibrillators Fund, with a £1 million investment that will increase the number of AEDs within England. We want to ensure AEDs are located where they are needed most. Applications that are submitted for funding are assessed to ensure that each AED is installed in areas where there is a clear need for the device, such as high footfall areas or rural locations with extended ambulance response times. Priority will also be given to applications that are considered a cardiac health hotspot, with high levels of deprivation and low numbers of AEDs within the local area.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 defibrillators in rural communities.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease is a priority for the Government. We want people to have the best chance of survival from cardiac arrest, and rapid intervention is central to improving outcomes. This is why the Government wants to increase the number of publicly accessible automated external defibrillators. The Government has therefore announced the Community Automated External Defibrillators (AED) Fund, with a £1 million investment that will increase the number of AEDs within England. We want to ensure AEDs are located where they are needed most. Applications that are submitted for funding are assessed to ensure that each AED is installed in areas where there is a clear need for the device, such as high footfall areas or rural locations with extended ambulance response times. Priority will also be given to applications that are considered a cardiac health hotspot, with high levels of deprivation and low numbers of AEDs within the local area.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to help improve access to care homes in rural communities.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Care Act, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care market to meet the diverse needs of all local people. Last year we launched Care Quality Commission assurance of local authorities’ delivery of their Care Act duties, and all local authorities will be assessed over the next two years. We have also committed to setting national standards for commissioners and are investing in a pilot training programme for senior commissioners to improve practice and drive more consistency at local level.
The Government has also made available up to £8.6 billion in additional funding over two years to support adult social care and discharge. This includes nearly £2 billion over two years specifically through the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund (MSIF) and MSIF Workforce Fund. Both are designed to support increased adult social care capacity and improvements to adult social care services.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Fourth Report of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee of Session 2022-23 on Rural Mental Health, HC248, published on 9 May 2023, what progress his Department has made on implementing the recommendations in the section entitled Rural mental health service provision, policy and strategy development.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We remain committed to supporting thriving rural communities, as set out in our report Unleashing Rural Opportunity, published in June 2023.
Since the launch of the EFRA Committee’s inquiry in 2021, considerable progress has been made to help ensure access to mental health services in rural areas. The Government published its Response to the EFRA Committee Report on Rural Mental Health in October 2023.
The response recognised that people living and working in rural areas may face specific challenges in accessing the mental health services that they need and set out the various actions being taken forward to address mental health needs.
Key actions include:
To help improve the service and support on offer to farmers we will make up to £500,000 available to deliver projects that support mental health in the farming sector. This will build on the support already on offer through the Farming Resilience Fund, which has benefitted over 19,000 farmers to date.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to promote research on diabetes health inequalities in rural communities.
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 welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including diabetes and health inequalities.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to promote collaboration between (a) the NHS, (b) community organisations and (c) health experts to tackle diabetes health inequalities.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Diabetes Programme (NDP) develops policies and provides leadership and support to integrated care boards (ICBs), to improve diabetes care and outcomes. The NDP routinely engages with people with firsthand experience of diabetes, sector stakeholders, and health experts in order to inform policy, and seeks input from a broad range of communities to support development of projects that aim to tackle variation and inequalities.
The NDP collaborates extensively with Diabetes UK, who conducts research with people who have lived experience of diabetes on behalf of the programme, for specific projects, and participates in the programme’s decision making at a board level. The NDP has also collaborated with Diabetes UK’s Tackling Inequality Commission, which engaged with communities, community organisations, and health experts. A report was released of the findings in November 2023.
The National Health Service statement on information on health inequalities sets out a description of the powers available to relevant NHS bodies to collect, analyse, and publish information, and the views of NHS England about how those powers should be exercised. The following diabetes metrics are included: the care process delivery, measuring variation between the percentage of people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes receiving all eight care processes, reported by deprivation and ethnicity; and the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, measuring variation between the percentage of NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme referrals from the most deprived quintile and the percentage of the type 2 diabetic population from the most deprived quintile.
ICBs and other NHS bodies will be required to include in their annual reports for 2023/24 and 2024/25, information that shows they have exercised their functions in accordance with the NHS legal statement. They will also need to publish reports on the information collected, how the data has been used to guide action, and summarise the inequalities it reveals.
The NDP ensures local health care systems, including those with rural communities, can benchmark and identify inequalities in diabetes care and outcomes through National Diabetes Audit data that contains demographic information such as age, deprivation, and ethnicity. Examples of the data can be found in the National Diabetes Audit Dashboards. The NDP also allocates funding to support the costs of diabetes clinical lead posts in local health systems, with a key priority of supporting improvement in addressing health inequalities at the local level.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has considered the potential merits of introducing a retailer licensing scheme for the sale of vapes.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is concerned about the worrying rise in vaping among children. Youth vaping has tripled in the last three years, and one in five children now use a vape. To address this, we recently published our response to the smoking and vaping consultation, which sets out our plan to restrict vape flavours, point of sale display, and packaging. The response is available at the following link:
We also set out our plans to introduce an age of sale requirement for non-nicotine vapes and other consumer nicotine products, as well as a £100 fixed penalty notice for underage sales of tobacco and vaping products. In addition, the consultation response announced that disposable vapes will be banned, which will be taken forward by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs. The Government will introduce legislation as soon as possible.
Whilst there are no current plans to introduce a retail licensing scheme, we have announced £30 million of additional funding per year to tackle illicit and underage sales of tobacco and vape products. In April last year, we also provided funding for a new enforcement unit to tackle the illegal and underage sale of vapes, which has conducted targeted inspections in ports, upskilled trading standards officers, and piloted online underage test programmes.
Asked by: Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative - North East Somerset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to her Oral Statement of 7 February 2024 on NHS Dentistry: Recovery and Reform, how she defines Somerset in the context of the area across which dentistry vans will be deployed.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will deploy dental vans offering appointments to patients in targeted rural and coastal communities who have the most limited access to dentistry, including Somerset, starting later this year.
We are currently working with NHS England and the integrated care boards (ICBs), including NHS Somerset ICB, to agree the exact number of vans, and where they will be deployed. I expect to be able to provide more details on this in due course.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on supporting the mental health and wellbeing of people impacted by flooding.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has responded to the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee’s inquiry into rural mental health. Further information on the inquiry is available at the following link:
https://committees.parliament.uk/work/1627/rural-mental-health/
It is important that the right support is in place, including for those affected by flooding. NHS England has clinical guidelines on dealing with major incidents, including on providing psychosocial support for both patients and staff.
Talking therapies are available remotely so people can access help safely from home and the National Health Service is working to ensure the option of face-to-face support is provided to people with serious mental health illnesses, across all ages where it is clinically safe to do so.
The UK Health Security Agency has published flooding and health guidance to provide information to assist health professionals and public agencies to understand and mitigate the mental health risks posed by flooding. It is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/flooding-health-guidance-and-advice
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 she is taking to help tackle underage vaping.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is concerned about the worrying rise in vaping among children. Youth vaping has tripled in the last three years, and one in five children now use a vape. The health advice is clear: if you don’t smoke, don’t vape, and children should never vape.
The Government’s response to the recent smoking and vaping consultation sets out our plan to introduce powers to crack down on youth vaping by restricting flavours, point of sale and packaging for vaping products. We will introduce legislation as soon as possible. The consultation is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/creating-a-smokefree-generation-and-tackling-youth-vaping/outcome/creating-a-smokefree-generation-and-tackling-youth-vaping-consultation-government-response
In the consultation response, we also announced that disposable vapes will be banned, due to their appeal to young people and environmental concerns. The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs will be taking forward the ban and are looking to legislate as soon as possible.
We have also developed new training resources and support available for teachers and schools, working with the Department for Education to update the curriculum to include the health risks of vaping, and publish new online content on the potential risks of vaping for young people.
Finally, we will also introduce a £100 fixed penalty notice for underage sales of tobacco and vaping products. This will enable trading standards officers to take quicker and more proportionate enforcement action against the irresponsible retailers who allow underage sales.