Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data the Office for Veterans' Affairs holds on the number and proportion of veterans who have informed their GP that they served in the armed forces.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The information requested is not held centrally. Integrated care boards are encouraged to work with health providers in their area, including general practice (GP) surgeries, to ensure patient needs are met. The 2024/25 GP contract will introduce a requirement that GPs must have due regard for the requirements, needs, and circumstances of Armed Forces Veterans, when offering services and making onward referrals. In addition, the Veteran Friendly GP Practices, launched in 2018, is a voluntary scheme which enables GPs to deliver the best possible care and treatment for veterans and their families, including signposting and referrals to specialist services. As of March 2024, 85% of primary care networks have a veteran-friendly accredited GP in their area, and 83% of acute trusts have been accredited as veteran-aware.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of the NHS using hydrotreated vegetable oil as an alternative to fossil fuels.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Supply Chain has trialled hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) in its vehicles, and continues to assess HVO’s long-term viability as a fuel source for its network. A 2023 trial showed a 90% reduction in carbon emissions, though not other greenhouse gases, offered by HVO, although it also identified a 62% uplift in fuel costs. Whilst the National Health Service is committed to reducing reliance on fossil fuels across its operations, it will only roll out new measures where they are both fit-for-purpose and cost effective.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to commission an independent review of the Commission on Human Medicines’ Expert Working Group’s report on Hormone Pregnancy Tests.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We remain hugely sympathetic to the families who believe that they have suffered as a result of using Hormone Pregnancy Tests. We have no plans to set up an independent review to examine the findings of the Expert Working Group. In the interests of transparency, all evidence collected and papers considered by the Expert Working Group were published in 2018, along with full minutes of its discussions. Details of conflicts of interests, and how these were managed, were also published.
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 (a) trial and (b) roll-out early cancer screening.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In England, early cancer screening is already in place for cervical, breast, and bowel cancer. The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) does not currently recommend screening for prostate cancer due to the inaccuracy of the current best test, called Prostate Specific Antigen. We are providing £16 million of funding to Prostate Cancer UK's £42 million trial, which is aimed at helping us find a way of catching prostate cancer in men as early as possible. The UK NSC is also commissioning evidence for six possible approaches to targeted prostate screening for those at higher risk. The UK NSC will publish its recommendations when complete.
NHS England is responsible for the running of the Targeted Lung Health Check Programme, and its conversion to a nationally rolled out NHS Targeted Lung Cancer Screening Programme by 2030.
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, whether she has made an assessment of the implications for her policies of research by Professor Martin Schwendler and Dr Chiara Herzog on changes to epithelial cells caused by vaping.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Vaping is never recommended for children, and carries the potential harms of future addiction while their lungs and brains are still developing. The health advice is clear, vapes can be an effective tool to help smokers quit, but young people and those who have never smoked should not vape, or be encouraged to vape.
As stated by Cancer Research UK, this study contributes to our understanding of e-cigarettes, also known as vapes, but does not show that e-cigarettes cause cancer. Decades of research has proven the link between smoking and cancer, and studies have so far shown that e-cigarettes are far less harmful than smoking, and can help people quit. This paper does, however, highlight that vapes are not risk-free, and so we need additional studies to uncover their potential longer-term impacts on human health.
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, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of a full advertising ban on companies promoting vaping products.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The health advice is clear, if you don’t smoke, don’t vape and children should never vape. Advertising of vapes is already restricted by existing regulations. This includes a ban on advertising on television and radio, and through internet advertising, or commercial email. However, products can still be promoted elsewhere, such as on digital billboards.
Whilst we are not currently planning on making any further changes to the rules regarding vape advertising, we are taking action to protect children from the harms of vaping by taking new regulation making powers that can be used to limit vape flavours, how vapes are packaged, and where and how they can be displayed in retail settings. Collectively, these actions will reduce the appeal and accessibility of vapes to children, whilst ensuring vapes remain an effective smoking cessation tool for adult smokers.
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, whether she has made an assessment of the risk of people moving from non-nicotine to nicotine vapes.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our health advice regarding vapes covers both non-nicotine as well as nicotine vapes, that while vaping can play a useful role in helping adult smokers to quit, non-smokers and children should never vape. The long-term health impacts of vaping are unknown, and the nicotine contained within nicotine vapes can be highly addictive.
We recognise the risk of non-nicotine vapes being used as a gateway to nicotine vapes by children. That is why the Tobacco and Vapes Bill includes new regulation making powers that will cover all vapes, nicotine as well as non-nicotine, to reduce their appeal and availability to children and non-smokers.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwark (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in allocating the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund 2023 to 2024 for adult social care; and what are their plans for allocation in the financial year 2024–25.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund (MSIF) gives an overall profile of almost £2 billion over two years. Local authorities can choose to use the funding to increase fee rates paid to adult social care providers, increase adult social care workforce capacity and retention, and reduce adult social care waiting times.
In 2023/34, a total of £927 million was made available to local authorities via MSIF, with a further £1.05 billion being made available in 2024/25. The funding has been distributed using the adult social care relative needs formula. Full local authority allocations for 2024/25 are available in the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund Grant Determination 2024 to 2025 on GOV.UK in an online-only format.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department plans to undertake a review of vision rehabilitation provision across England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department is not planning to undertake a review of vision rehabilitation provision across England. Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are responsible for commissioning social care services, including reablement.
Guidance to support the implementation of the Care Act 2014 says local authorities should consider securing specialist qualified rehabilitation and assessment provision, whether in-house, or contracted through a third party, to ensure that the needs of people with sight loss are correctly identified and their independence maximised. Certain aspects of independence training with sight impaired and severely sight impaired people require careful risk management, and should only be undertaken by professionals with relevant experience and training.
Asked by: Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party - Motherwell and Wishaw)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the potential impact of the level of statutory sick pay on public health.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The government keeps Statutory Sick Pay policy under review.
I am clear that good work is good for you and our focus is on how we can keep people in work or get them back to work more quickly. That is why we are reforming the fit note process.
This is alongside our investment in Universal Support and Access to Work focussed on helping disabled people and those with health conditions return to and remain in work.