Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to consult patients, clinicians and manufacturers on the categorisation of products available on Part IX of the Drug Tariff as proposed in the recent consultation paper; and what assessment they have made of the impact of the proposed changes to Drug Tariff Part IX on (1) patients with continence care needs, (2) continence care services, (3) the range of devices available to clinicians and patients, and (4) new product development and innovation in medical devices in the continence sector.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The consultation response on the proposed amendments to Part IX is expected to be released in May 2024, which will outline the Government’s response. Any amendments that are taken forward will happen gradually, with review points, and engagement with stakeholders, including industry, patient representatives, clinicians, and National Health Service organisations. The Department will share a timeline of the proposed changes taken forward in due course.

The Department believes that it is currently difficult to identify which devices are broadly comparable, and whether more expensive devices provide added value. The proposed amendments that were consulted on intend to increase meaningful choice, not to decrease choice for clinicians and patients. Comparison between products can increase awareness of different brands amongst prescribers, which can also support small and medium sized businesses in entering the market.

The Department is aware that there are some very good devices in use, relied upon by clinicians and patients. Part IX will remain a list of devices available to be prescribed in the community via the FP10 prescription route.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish a timeline for the implementation of the proposed changes to Drug Tariff Part IX; provide the definition of "quality" that will be used as part of the enhanced assessment process included in those proposed changes; and publish in full the responses received to that consultation.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The consultation response on the proposed amendments to Part IX is expected to be released in May 2024, which will outline the Government’s response. Any amendments that are taken forward will happen gradually, with review points, and engagement with stakeholders, including industry, patient representatives, clinicians, and National Health Service organisations. The Department will share a timeline of the proposed changes taken forward in due course.

The Department believes that it is currently difficult to identify which devices are broadly comparable, and whether more expensive devices provide added value. The proposed amendments that were consulted on intend to increase meaningful choice, not to decrease choice for clinicians and patients. Comparison between products can increase awareness of different brands amongst prescribers, which can also support small and medium sized businesses in entering the market.

The Department is aware that there are some very good devices in use, relied upon by clinicians and patients. Part IX will remain a list of devices available to be prescribed in the community via the FP10 prescription route.

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government how they plan to reduce the rates of deaths of despair in the North East, which has over double the rate of London; and what assessment they have made of using rates of deaths of despair to assess progress on levelling up.

Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Supplemental Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery (SSMTR) Grant is the mechanism by which local authorities receive Drug Strategy funding to increase substance misuse treatment service capacity and the quality of interventions people receive. The SSMTR Grant is made available to local authorities on the condition of maintaining existing funding through the Public Health Grant.

Details of the SSMTR Grant and the Inpatient Detox (IPD) Grant allocations for the North East are set out below.

DHSC is also providing £1,157,212 in funding to three local authorities in the North East (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.

On 11 September 2023, the Government published a Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, with over 130 actions that we believe will make progress towards our ambition to reduce the suicide rate within two and a half years. The Strategy includes an intention to write guidance for local areas to support them to align their own strategies with the national strategy.

On 4 March 2024, we announced that 79 organisations up and down the country, including some in the North East, have been allocated funding from the £10 million Suicide Prevention VCSE Grant Fund. These organisations, from local, community-led through to national, are delivering a broad and diverse range of activity that will prevent suicides and save lives.

The Levelling Up White Paper set out 12 missions, including the health mission, focused on improving Healthy Life Expectancy and narrowing the gap between local areas where it is highest and lowest.

We are supporting people to live healthier lives, helping the NHS and social care to provide the best treatment and care for patients and tackling health disparities through national and system interventions such as the NHS’s Core20PLUS5 programme.

We are monitoring progress on a range of behavioural risk factors and underlying drivers of health, which are likely to impact on the health mission. We continue to use metrics that are publicly available and routinely updated to measure the levelling up missions, chosen to show as comprehensive a picture across the UK as possible. We are committed to developing this data picture and improving understanding of health disparities at a local level.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to research by Christine Camacho and Luke Munford at the University of Manchester showing that deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicide are higher in northern and coastal local authorities, what steps they are taking to address that regional inequality.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Levelling Up the United Kingdom white paper sets out the Government’s ambition to improve living standards and wellbeing across the UK, invest in communities, and improve public services. It sets mutually reinforcing levelling up missions to focus Government action, including a health mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030, and increase healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035.

The Government has published a 10-year drug strategy and is investing an extra £532 million between 2022/23 to 2024/25 to improve drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services. This funding is being used by local authorities to create places for an additional 54,500 people in drug and alcohol treatment services and bolster the workforce, seeking to prevent nearly 1,000 deaths. This funding is being targeted to areas of highest need first.

The Department is increasingly focusing on supporting local areas, including better meeting the needs of vulnerable groups. Current work includes: providing targeted support to local areas; enhancing data tools to better inform local needs assessments; supporting workforce development; implementation of the commissioning quality standard; and sharing good practice. Implementation support will adapt over the course of the 10-year strategy in response to need, to ensure we reach the drug strategy goals.

We also published our new Suicide Prevention Strategy for England in September 2023, setting out the actions we will take to save lives and reduce suicides within the next few years, and have set out our intention in the strategy to write guidance for local areas to support them in aligning their own strategies with the national strategy. We have also established a £10 million Suicide Prevention Grant Fund to run from 2023 to March 2025, and on 4 March 2024 we announced the 79 organisations across the country that have been allocated funding. We have also launched a new nationwide, near real-time suspected suicide surveillance system, that will improve the early detection of, and timely action to, address changes in suicide rates or trends.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to research by Christine Camacho and Luke Munford at the University of Manchester, what steps they are taking to reduce regional inequalities in what those researchers refer to as "Deaths of Despair".

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Levelling Up the United Kingdom white paper sets out the Government’s ambition to improve living standards and wellbeing across the UK, invest in communities, and improve public services. It sets mutually reinforcing levelling up missions to focus Government action, including a health mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030, and increase healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035.

The Government has published a 10-year drug strategy and is investing an extra £532 million between 2022/23 to 2024/25 to improve drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services. This funding is being used by local authorities to create places for an additional 54,500 people in drug and alcohol treatment services and bolster the workforce, seeking to prevent nearly 1,000 deaths. This funding is being targeted to areas of highest need first.

The Department is increasingly focusing on supporting local areas, including better meeting the needs of vulnerable groups. Current work includes: providing targeted support to local areas; enhancing data tools to better inform local needs assessments; supporting workforce development; implementation of the commissioning quality standard; and sharing good practice. Implementation support will adapt over the course of the 10-year strategy in response to need, to ensure we reach the drug strategy goals.

We also published our new Suicide Prevention Strategy for England in September 2023, setting out the actions we will take to save lives and reduce suicides within the next few years, and have set out our intention in the strategy to write guidance for local areas to support them in aligning their own strategies with the national strategy. We have also established a £10 million Suicide Prevention Grant Fund to run from 2023 to March 2025, and on 4 March 2024 we announced the 79 organisations across the country that have been allocated funding. We have also launched a new nationwide, near real-time suspected suicide surveillance system, that will improve the early detection of, and timely action to, address changes in suicide rates or trends.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following research by the University of Manchester showing that local authorities with higher unemployment rates have more deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicide, how they intend to tackle the socioeconomic factors that underpin deaths of despair, particularly in northern and coastal regions of England.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Good physical and mental health are underpinned by many socioeconomic factors beyond the health service. That is why we are working across the Government to improve air quality, ensure decent homes, and support disabled people and those with health conditions to work. The Levelling Up the United Kingdom white paper sets out the Government’s ambition to improve living standards and wellbeing across the United Kingdom, invest in communities, and improve public services. It sets mutually reinforcing levelling up missions to focus the Government’s action, including a health mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030, and increase Healthy Life Expectancy by five years by 2035. The Government also provides a range of support, specifically to benefit claimants with a drug or alcohol dependency, to overcome their addiction and move into work.