Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that ambulance call-outs have risen following home use of medical abortion pills; and what steps they are taking in response.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
We are considering all evidence submitted to the Government’s public consultation on whether to make permanent the temporary measure allowing for home use of both pills for early medical abortion, including evidence from ambulance services. The consultation asked questions on whether other NHS services had been affected by the temporary measure. We will publish our response in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how COVID-19 vaccines will be distributed to communal living facilities, including almshouses; and whether such vaccines will be delivered on site at these facilities.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The National Health Service has a tried and tested track record for delivering vaccination programmes. The NHS will work with existing health and social care partners across the system to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines can be deployed safely and effectively. Following the advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s, vaccines are currently being given to care home residents and staff, those over 80 years old, and health and social care workers, then amongst the rest of the population in order of age and risk.
The NHS has developed three different models of delivery to allow the vaccine to be available to a wider population through hospital hubs, vaccination centres, and local vaccination services. As the vaccination programme builds, it will gradually be able to extend to more practices/community settings, as well as mass vaccination centres in the coming months. More than 730 vaccination sites have already been established across the United Kingdom and hundreds more are opening to take the current total to over 1,000.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, what plans they have to review the public health allocation formulae for local authorities.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The public health grant to local authorities is £3.279 billion in 2020-21, delivering real-terms funding growth to every local authority. Funding beyond 2020-21 will be set out following the Spending Review.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the need to provide ongoing support for the mental health and resilience of young people; and what plans they have to increase councils’ public health budgets to facilitate this.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Supporting children and young people's mental health and resilience is a priority for the Government. On 8 September, we launched a mental wellbeing campaign for children and young people. This involves an extension of Public Health England’s ‘Every Mind Matters’ with content specifically for children and young people and their parents and carers.
Our £8 million Wellbeing for Education Return programme will provide schools and colleges all over England with the knowledge and access to resources they need to support children and young people, teachers and parents.
The overall public health grant to local authorities in 2020/21 is £3.279 billion and this continues to be ring-fenced for health improvement. Funding beyond 2020/21 will be agreed in the Spending Review later this year. Local authorities make their own funding decisions based on their assessment of local population need.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Department of Health and Social Care policies have been assessed against the Family Test; and whether they will publish any such assessments.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Department does not hold this information. However, it is a Departmental requirement for all submissions to Ministers, including policy submissions, to cover all relevant legal duties including the Family Test.
The Department has to date published more than 100 such assessments which are only available online.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the total value of undelivered contracted units of dental activity in NHS dental contracts in England in each year from 2012–13 to 2016–17.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the (1) annual budget, and (2) spend, for section 7A public health monies for the years (a) 2014–15, (b) 2015–16, and (c) 2016–17; and what is the budget and projected spend for 2017–18.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The National Health Service public health functions agreement sets out the arrangements under which responsibility for certain elements of the Secretary of State’s public health functions is delegated to NHS England. The agreement is made under section 7A of the National Health Service Act 2006.
Ring-fenced funding and expenditure pursuant to the agreement for the period requested are shown in the following table.
NHS public health functions agreement funding and expenditure
Financial year | 2014/15 | 2015/161 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 |
Ring-fenced funding (£ m) | 1,929 | 1,376 | 1,069 | 1,152 |
Expenditure outturn (£ m)2 | 1,998 | 1,461 | 1,157 | (Not yet available) |
These figures do not include central procurement of adult and childhood vaccines which are administered within programmes under the NHS public health functions agreement as disaggregated figures are not available.
Notes:
1Figures from 2015/16 are not comparable with previous years as a result of:
- the transfer of responsibility for commissioning 0-5 year old children’s services to local government from 1 October 2015; and
- inclusion in 2014/15 of £169 million of public health-related Quality Outcomes Framework payments, which are accounted for separately from 2015/16.
2Includes other expenditure reported by NHS England on section 7A services in addition to the ring-fenced sum.