Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answers by the Minister for Primary Care and Public Health on 17 March and 24 April (HC163765, HC180118, and HC180748), what steps they are taking (1) domestically, and (2) internationally, to produce a “universally agreed definition of ultra-processed foods”.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The United Kingdom’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) is currently carrying out a scoping review of the evidence on processed foods and health and aims to publish its initial assessment in July 2023. This will include evaluating existing classifications of processed foods, including ultra-processed foods and the NOVA classification. We are not aware of any plans to agree a definition internationally.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to limit the spread of extensively antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea (1) in the general population, (2) in vulnerable populations, and (3) among elderly populations.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The effectiveness of treatment for gonorrhoea continues to be threatened by the development of resistance to the last-line treatment, ceftriaxone. The UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) Gonococcal Resistance to Antimicrobials Surveillance Programme (GRASP) includes a suite of testing and surveillance systems to detect and monitor antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae and potential treatment failures. GRASP reports annually on drug resistance in N. gonorrhoeae in England and Wales and has directly influenced changes in treatment guidelines on three occasions.
Additionally, all primary diagnostic laboratories test gonococcal isolates for susceptibility to ceftriaxone and refer suspected resistant isolates to the UKHSA national reference laboratory for confirmatory testing and follow-up in real-time. UKHSA has published guidance on managing cases of ceftriaxone-resistant gonorrhoea and performs a risk assessment for each case. If there is a risk of transmission within England, UKHSA instigates an Incident Response to contain spread.
This applies to all population groups, including vulnerable and elderly populations, as the approach to tackling antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea is universal across England.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to end the use of animals to test products including (1) vaccines, and (2) pharmaceutical products for bacterial contamination, and to use biochemical methods instead for these processes.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is committed to the principles of the three Rs: replacement, refinement and reduction, developed by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals (NC3Rs). This commitment extends to both the research undertaken at their laboratories at South Mimms, and through their interactions with stakeholders. Where Marketing Authorisation Holders propose to use animals in tests required for ensuring the safety of medicines, the MHRA requests that non-animal alternatives are investigated and adopted where appropriate for patient safety.
The MHRA is also contributor to a revision of the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for Biologicals and Vaccines under the leadership of the NC3Rs. These revisions propose that the WHO guidelines adopt the principles of the three Rs and include a general chapter on how regulators and Marketing Authorisation Holders can end the use of animal testing for biological medicines including pharmaceutical products for bacterial contamination and vaccines. These revised guidelines will be presented to the Autumn 2023 summit of the WHO for the consideration by committee and WHO members.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following changes in EU standards regarding the maximum level of arsenic in food, what plans they have to amend the standards for maximum level of arsenic in food.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no immediate plans to revise the standards for arsenic in food. To protect consumers there are currently maximum levels in place for inorganic arsenic in foods such as rice which contribute to overall consumer exposure. We will always maintain strong rules on arsenic levels in food and keep our position under very close review guided by the risk analysis undertaken by the Food Standards Agency. We work closely with regulators across Europe and the rest of the world to ensure that we take account of global best practice and prioritise safety for our citizens.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the research paper An approach to conflicts of interest in UK food regulatory institutions, published in Nature Food on 30 December 2022; and what plans they have, if any, to address any risk of any conflicts of interest for members of food policy advisory committees, including in the Food Standards Agency and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) strives to be an open and transparent organisation. When people provide formal advice through their scientific committees and advisory bodies, there are clear processes in place so that their interests are declared and this information is publicly available.
FSA Board members also declare their interests. These are scrutinised as part of the appointment process and continually updated. This information is also available on the FSA’s website and where relevant to a formal Board or Committee discussion, it is documented at the public meeting.
Recruiting people to the FSA Board and Committees who have experience and insights from across the food system helps the FSA deliver its mission to keep food safe. The paper did not identify any evidence that bias arising from conflicts of interest has influenced the work of the FSA.
The FSA will keep its approach to managing potential conflicts of interest up to date, and in line with all relevant Government guidance. It will also continue to strive to ensure that decisions are made with consumer interests front and centre of our thinking and to be transparent in our decision-making.
For committees listed on the Public Appointments Order in Council 2016 where members are appointed by Ministers, such as the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment which adheres to the principles and guidance set down in the Governance Code on Public Appointments. This includes reminding candidates of the need to declare any conflicts of interest at application and interview stage, and ensuring candidates are familiar with Nolan principles.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to enforce the ban on marketing baby (under six month) child milk formula in the UK; and whether they plan to extend the ban across all child milk formula.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In England overall responsibility for enforcement of the legislation governing infant formula and follow-on formula, including the marketing restrictions which apply to infant formula, rests with Local Authorities. Local authority enforcement officers will usually be the Trading Standards or environmental health department of the local authority or Port Health Authority.
In the United Kingdom, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is responsible for regulating advertising across traditional forms of media (print, radio, television) through its Broadcast and online advertising through its non-broadcast codes. The ASA’s rules on formula advertising are backstopped by Trading Standards. This means that the ASA can refer cases if necessary for Trading Standards to take a view on whether there are breaches of the law and apply tougher sanctions as appropriate.
There are no plans to extend the restrictions on the marketing of infant formula to include other breastmilk substitutes.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to monitor and mitigate the impact of antimicrobial resistance on marginalised communities in the UK, including (1) people of migrant, refugee or asylum seeker status, (2) prisoners, and (3) homeless people.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency’s antimicrobial resistance (AMR) programme is committed to tackling and reducing antimicrobial health inequalities nationwide. Over the years, the AMR health inequalities workstream has taken a systematic approach to increasing our work to understand and address health inequalities in relation to AMR. This involves improving our understanding of the association between health inequalities and antimicrobial usage and resistance; developing a health inequalities and AMR engagement strategy including learning from the wider public health community; and producing recommendations for public health action.
Future projects include surveying knowledge, attitudes, and health-seeking behaviours towards antibiotics in different populations, identifying and improving surveillance reporting gaps required to understand the impact of AMR and AMR-targeted interventions on Core20PLUS populations, and publishing the health inequalities scoping review. The Core20PLUS populations include vulnerable migrants, people in contact with the justice system and people experiencing homelessness.
Furthermore, antibiotic consumption data within prisons, which is grouped with “other community settings”, are monitored and published annually within the antimicrobial consumption chapter of the English surveillance programme for antimicrobial utilisation and resistance (ESPAUR) report.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce waiting lists for initial appointments at (1) Sheffield Gender Identity Clinic, and (2) other gender identity clinics in England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Sheffield Gender Identity Clinic is reducing waiting lists for initial appointments by recruiting and training more staff. This has increased the number of initial assessments since November 2022, and the service expects to further increase capacity incrementally from April this year.
NHS England has increased investment in these services by approximately 130% over the past five years, as well as the number of Gender Dysphoria Clinics in England from seven to 12 with the rollout of five new adult gender pilot clinics since July 2020. These pilots will be evaluated over the next two years to determine how they can be expanded nationally.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to remove the Good Choice badge from ultra-processed food products, and (2) to introduce dietary guidelines addressing ultra-processed food and drink.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not currently have plans to change the way the Good Choice badge is used. The Good Choice badge helps people identify healthier options using the NHS Food Scanner application and when shopping in store and online. The application helps families to see what's in their food and drinks and suggests healthier alternatives, where these exist, that can help them cut down on sugar, saturated fat and salt. Together, the application and wider Better Health campaign support families on their journey towards having a healthier diet, as making the step to the healthiest option may be too far for many people in one move.
Government dietary guidelines are based on advice from expert groups, including the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN). SACN is currently carrying out a scoping review of the evidence on processed foods and health and aims to publish a position statement in the summer of 2023.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the link between ultra-processed food and cancer; and what steps they are taking to reduce the consumption such foods.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition is currently carrying out a scoping review of the evidence on processed foods and health, including cancer, and aims to publish a position statement in the summer of 2023.
Diets high in foods classified as processed are often also high in calories, sugar, saturated fat and salt and low in fibre, which is associated with an increased risk of chronic illnesses including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. The Government encourages everyone to have a healthy balanced diet in line with the United Kingdom’s healthy eating model, the Eatwell Guide, which shows that foods high in fat, salt or sugar should be eaten less often or in small amounts.