Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to her Department's Women's Health Strategy for England, published in August 2022, if she will publish a timeline for the commitments made to female same-sex couples on (a) intrauterine insemination and (b) IVF treatment in all integrated care boards.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England has made good progress in developing guidance to assist integrated care boards with implementing this policy commitment. The Department is working at pace with NHS England to share this guidance with the National Health Service. This commitment remains a priority for us in implementing the Women’s Health Strategy.
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)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what his priorities are for the UN Summit of the Future on 22-23 September 2024.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK welcomes the Summit of the Future as an opportunity to secure UN reform, so that it can meet the challenges of today and those of tomorrow. Our priorities are to: support a New Agenda for Peace which commits to conflict prevention through national prevention approaches, and localised warning mechanisms; shape shared principles for digital co-operation; accelerate the full achievement of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), based on the International Development White Paper priorities; and defend positions on human rights and gender, notably sexual health and reproductive rights and Female Genital Mutilation, and advance women's participation at all levels of decision-making.
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, what steps she is taking to help ensure that (a) young and (b) vulnerable people have access to free contraception.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities across England are responsible for commissioning comprehensive, openly accessible sexual and reproductive health services, which includes the provision of free contraception to meet local demand. Local authorities decide on commissioning arrangements based on an assessment of local need, including the needs of young and vulnerable people. Contraception is also widely available free of charge through general practices (GPs).
The Government is committed to improving access to contraception, and reducing reproductive health inequalities. The Women’s Health Strategy sets out our 10-year ambition and the actions we are taking to improve disparities in access to services, experiences of services, and outcomes for all women and girls.
As part of our work to deliver the Women’s Health Strategy we have launched a dedicated women’s health area on the National Health Service website as a first port of call for women’s health information, including contraception. We have also worked closely with NHS Digital to create a new YouTube series on contraception, which has been designed to help answer common questions often found in search engines, as well as more detailed information on the range of contraceptive methods available.
In 2023 we also introduced the NHS Pharmacy Contraception Service. This service offers greater choice in how people can access contraception services. It will also create additional capacity in GPs and sexual health clinics, to support meeting the demand for more complex assessments.
We are working with the Women’s Health Ambassador and others to provide health information to diverse groups of women, across their life course. We know that young people who receive effective relationships and sex education are more likely to use contraception and condoms, and less likely to have an unplanned pregnancy as a teenager, and in later life.
The 2020 roll-out of statutory relationships and sex education in all schools means that more young people receive support to prevent early unplanned pregnancy through learning about the full range of contraceptive choices and sexual health services available. The statutory guidance is available at the following link:
As set out in the Women's Health Strategy, the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education are working to understand women’s health topics that teachers feel less confident in teaching, and we will work to improve provision of high-quality teaching resources.
Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
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 a recent assessment of the potential merits of using breast density assessment software at women's first breast cancer screening appointments; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of that technology on women's awareness of their personal risk of developing breast cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Breast Screening Risk Adaptive Imaging for Density trial is looking into the use of supplementary imaging techniques for women, within the standard breast screening programme, who are found to have radiographically dense breast tissue. The UK National Screening Committee, which advises ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries in the United Kingdom, will review this evidence when it becomes available.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support they are providing to assist women and girls subjected to sexual violence in Darfur in Sudan.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Since the outbreak of conflict in April 2023, there has been a significant escalation of gender-based violence (GBV) in Sudan. The UK has pivoted our programme delivery to focus on GBV prevention, and protection and care for rape survivors. We have also integrated consideration of conflict-related sexual violence into the humanitarian system, making use of Women's Centres, mobile clinics and internally displaced persons' gathering points, for community engagement and service provision. In 2023, UK support provided for the delivery of 83,399 consultations offering sexual and reproductive health services, and delivered mental health and psychological support to over 104,225 people.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what support his Department provides for the survivors of rape and sexual abuse by Arab militias in West Darfur.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Since the outbreak of conflict in April 2023, there has been a significant escalation of gender-based violence (GBV) in Sudan. The UK has pivoted our programme delivery to focus on GBV prevention, and protection and care for rape survivors. We have also integrated specific measures to address conflict-related sexual violence into the humanitarian system, making use of Women's Centres, mobile clinics and internally displaced person's gathering points, for community engagement and service provision. In 2023, over 83,399 consultation providing sexual and reproductive health services were delivered, over 104,225 people were given mental health and psychological support, and over 9,000 people benefitted from risk mitigation and response services.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Women's Health Strategy for England, updated on 30 August 2022, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of progress on the 10-year ambition that women and girls with severe endometriosis experience better care.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No specific assessment has been made. Care for menstrual problems including endometriosis is a 2024 priority for implementing the Women’s Health Strategy. We are investing £25 million in women’s health hubs, so that women can get better access to care for menstrual problems, including women with suspected or diagnosed endometriosis.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is in the process of updating its recommendations on diagnosing endometriosis, and surgical management of endometriosis if fertility is a priority. The NICE will provide information on the expected publication date of its final guidance in due course.
Additionally, NHS England is updating the service specification for severe endometriosis, which defines the expected standards of care. This update will ensure that specialist endometriosis services have access to the most up-to-date evidence and advice, and will improve standards of care for women with severe endometriosis.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
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 funding for the ambitions in the Women's Health Strategy for England, updated on 30 August 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Women’s Health Strategy sets out our plans for boosting the health and wellbeing of women and girls, and for improving how the health and care system engages and listens to all women. The funding confirmed at the last Spending Review was on top of the historic long-term National Health Service settlement announced in 2018. Taken together with funding announced at subsequent fiscal events, it means the NHS resource budget in England will increase in cash terms to £164.9 billion in 2024/25, up from £121.7 billion in 2019/20.
We are also investing in a number of specific programmes within the strategy. For example, we are investing £25 million in the expansion of women’s health hubs over 2023/2024 and 2024/2025, and recently announced a £35 million investment to further improve maternity safety across England over 2024/2025 to 2026/2027.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the number of women’s health hubs open on 29 February 2024.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The expansion of women’s health hubs is a priority ambition within the Women’s Health Strategy for England. In October 2022 the Birmingham, RAND and Cambridge Evaluation (BRACE) Centre’s early evaluation of women’s health hubs identified 13 women's health hubs in England. This evaluation is available at the following link:
We are investing £25 million into women’s health hubs to enable the establishment of at least one women’s health hub in every integrated care system. The funding is being distributed to every integrated care board (ICB), with each ICB receiving £595,000 in total over two years, 2023/24 and 2024/25. ICB plans received in September 2023 indicate that the funding is supporting at least 49 women’s health hubs, which includes the creation of 38 new hubs and the expansion of 11 existing hub models. This funding is intended to show proof of concept to enable ICBs to assess the benefit of hubs and roll out more widely.