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Written Question
Nurses: Training
Tuesday 7th March 2023

Asked by: Baroness Walmsley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of nurses dropped out of (1) all nurse training, (2) paediatric nurse training, (3) adult nurse training, and (4) mental health nurse training, in the most recent year for which figures are available.

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

The Higher Education Statistics Agency publish the proportion of nursing entrants to undergraduate courses that are no longer in higher education. The following table shows the proportion of United Kingdom domiciled undergraduate nursing entrants who are no longer in higher education 2019/20. The rates in will not include students that have transferred to a course in another subject. Non-continuation rates are not available at the level of specific nursing professions.

Proportion of entrants that are no longer in higher education

Young students (21 years old and under)

4.70%

Mature students (over 21 years old)

7.10%

Source: The Higher Education Statistics Agency Non-continuation rates 2022.


Written Question
National Underground Asset Register
Thursday 2nd March 2023

Asked by: Baroness Walmsley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the proposed establishment of the National Underground Asset Register, what plans they have to put a legal obligation on housebuilders, commercial developers, and individual property owners to register all deep underground obstructions, such as deep foundations, energy piles, and other potential underground obstructions.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The National Underground Asset Register is a digital map of underground pipes and cables that is primarily aimed to support safe digging through the creation of a secure, auditable, trusted and sustainable platform that will support greater data sharing of underground assets such as water and gas pipes and electricity cables.

There are no plans to introduce a legal obligation to require housebuilders, commercial developers and individual property owners to register all deep underground obstructions.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Vaccination
Tuesday 8th November 2022

Asked by: Baroness Walmsley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the COVID-19 vaccine programme is (1) resilient, and (2) stable, in terms of vaccine supply and product diversity; and whether they will avoid overreliance on one COVID-19 vaccine technology.

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

The United Kingdom has received sufficient supply of vaccines to meet the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s current advice for the autumn booster vaccination programme. This includes Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, with Novavax where no other UK-approved COVID-19 vaccine is deemed clinically suitable. These vaccines, which the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has approved for use in the UK, are currently in deployment.

The majority of the Government’s contracts with developers contain flexibilities to ensure that the UK can receive updated vaccines being produced, including the recently regulated bivalent mRNA vaccines, which provide broader protection against variants and variant-specific vaccines. We remain in regular contact with the vaccine manufacturers to ensure the future supply of vaccines to the UK.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Vaccination
Tuesday 8th November 2022

Asked by: Baroness Walmsley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the timeline for future Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (1) deliberations, and (2) decisions, on the COVID-19 vaccine booster programme; and whether those decisions will be published in full.

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

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) continues to monitor COVID-19 epidemiology and evaluate data from the United Kingdom and globally in order to provide advice to the Government on potential vaccination programmes. However, as this is an ongoing process, we are unable to confirm a specific timetable.

The minutes of the JCVI’s meetings, where advice to the Government is discussed, is published in an online only format at GOV.UK.


Written Question
Vaccination
Tuesday 8th November 2022

Asked by: Baroness Walmsley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to maximize the use of vaccines that are ready to be deployed in England and Wales this winter.

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

The United Kingdom’s national immunisation programmes are co-ordinated to improve access at general practices, clinics and pharmacies through working with stakeholders. NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) are working with regional teams on communications to support higher vaccine uptake, including under-served communities; people with long term health conditions; and pregnant women. Those eligible for COVID-19 and flu vaccines include people over 50 years old, health and social care workers and those aged from six months for flu and five years old for COVID-19 in the relevant clinical risk groups. The flu vaccine is also being offered to healthy children aged two to 11 years old and some secondary school children.

From 5 September to 17 October 2022, over 8.5 million COVID-19 autumn booster doses have been administered in England. We are ensuring that COVID-19 vaccination appointments being offered 3,100 sites, including more than 1,680 community pharmacies and 80 hospital hubs.


Written Question
Choirs: Coronavirus
Monday 7th June 2021

Asked by: Baroness Walmsley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the (1) evidential, and (2) statutory, basis for the recent guidance that amateur choirs should be restricted to six socially-distanced singers indoors.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

We know that the restrictions on singing are frustrating to large numbers of amateur choirs and performance groups across the country and that many people have made sacrifices in order to drive down infections and protect the NHS over the last year.

It is important that we take a cautious approach in easing restrictions. We have followed the views of public health experts on singing. We are aware, through the NERVTAG and PERFORM studies that singing can increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission through the spread of aerosol droplets. This was backed up by a consensus statement from SAGE, resulting in the suggested principles of safer singing being published.

We will continue to keep guidance and restrictions under review, in line with the changing situation. Further detail on step 4 will be set out as soon as possible.


Written Question
Government Assistance
Tuesday 16th February 2021

Asked by: Baroness Walmsley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the UK's departure from the EU, what system has been put in place to scrutinise illegal state aid complaints in the UK.

Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

EU State aid rules no longer apply to subsidies granted from 1 January 2021 in the UK, except for aid within scope of the Withdrawal Agreement, including aid under Article 10 of the Northern Ireland Protocol. However, public authorities must comply with our international commitments on subsidies in the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation agreement (TCA), and other trade agreements, as well as the World Trade Organisation rules on subsidies.

Since the 1 January 2020, subject to any applicable exemptions, a subsidy in scope of the TCA must follow and apply the principles and prohibitions in the agreement before it can be awarded. The TCA also requires certain information about the subsidy award to be made publicly available. The Department has developed a new publicly accessible transparency database for public authorities to record subsidies, which will be launched shortly. An interested Party can take steps for the award of the subsidy to be Judicially Reviewed if they consider that the public authority has not complied with its duties under the TCA or acted in a way that is inconsistent with general public law principles (for example, if the public authority acted unlawfully, irrationally, or with procedural unfairness).

On 3 February, the Government published a consultation on the design of the future UK subsidy regime. This consultation invites views from stakeholders on a number of areas, including oversight and enforcement in the subsidy control regime. Subject to the outcome of the consultation, the Government will bring forward legislation in due course and before the end of the year.


Written Question
Competition: EU Law
Tuesday 16th February 2021

Asked by: Baroness Walmsley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that UK complaints to the European Commission under the Competition Directive made prior to the UK's departure from the EU are scrutinised by the EU in a timely fashion.

Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Until the end of the Transition Period, the European Commission could investigate the effect on UK markets of a breach of EU competition law. To avoid a delay to enforcement, the Withdrawal Agreement gave the European Commission jurisdiction to complete its investigations that relate to UK markets if they began before the end of the Transition Period. The Competition and Markets Authority can work with the European Commission on these cases in the way it could before the end of the Transition Period.


Written Question
Obesity: Health Services
Thursday 8th October 2020

Asked by: Baroness Walmsley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 20 August (HL7568), what the format of the planned stakeholder engagement will be; which stakeholders will be involved; and whether there will be a public consultation as part of that process.

Answered by Lord Bethell

We will set out further details about measures on weight management later in the year.


Written Question
Obesity
Thursday 20th August 2020

Asked by: Baroness Walmsley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how they will (1) measure, and (2) report on, the success of the policies outlined in their strategy Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives, published on 27 July.

Answered by Lord Bethell

We are committed to reducing obesity. The National Child Measurement Programme and Health Survey for England provide prevalence data which will be important in understanding the levels of obesity in England. Importantly, alongside reports such as the National Diet and Nutrition Survey which enables us to measure changes to the population’s diet, we will also be putting in place evaluation of our legislative action so we can understand its impact.

Government departments work very closely on reducing obesity and have shared responsibility in delivering these policies.