Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce the licensing of non-surgical cosmetic procedures in England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to taking action to address concerns about the safety of the cosmetics sector and is exploring options for further regulation in this area. We will set out the details of our approach in due course.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to regulate the cosmetic surgery industry.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to taking action to address concerns about the safety of the cosmetics sector and is exploring options for further regulation in this area. We will set out the details of our approach in due course.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to regulate the sale and marketing of overseas cosmetic surgery procedures in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is working closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office and with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to tackle inappropriate advertising of overseas cosmetic surgeries in the United Kingdom. The ASA is taking enforcement activity against any company which contravenes UK advertising standards.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost to the NHS of treatment of individuals returning from overseas having undergone cosmetic surgery.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not have data on the overall costs to the National Health Service for treating complications from cosmetic procedures conducted overseas. We are exploring ways to improve our understanding of the scale of the cost to the NHS.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support she plans to provide to help retailer workers implement a generational ban on the sale of cigarettes.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
Smoking is responsible for around 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom and causes around one in four cancer deaths in the UK. It also costs our country £17 billion a year and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service.
This is why the Government is planning to create a smokefree generation by bringing forward legislation so that children turning 14 years old or younger this year will never be legally sold tobacco products. On 12 October 2023, we launched a UK-wide consultation to gather views on these proposals and their implementation. This, alongside regular engagement with the retail sector, will help to shape the proposals and ensure we provide support to retail workers to implement the future legislation.
We are also providing £5 million this year and £15 million thereafter to support new national marketing campaigns. These campaigns will help to explain the legal changes of the smokefree generation, and prepare the public, retailers, and other relevant stakeholders for the future changes.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions the Government has had with Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers on the introduction of a generational ban on the sale of cigarettes.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
Smoking is responsible for approximately 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom and causes around one in four cancer deaths in the UK. It also costs our country £17 billion a year and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service.
This is why the Government is planning to create a smokefree generation by bringing forward legislation so that children turning 14 years old or younger this year will never be legally sold tobacco products. On 12 October 2023, we launched a UK-wide consultation to gather views on these proposals and their implementation.
Whilst we have not met specifically with the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, we have, and will continue to, speak to the retail sector and their associations to help develop our policies.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will provide additional funding to replace the funding for suicide prevention allocated under the NHS Long Term Plan which ends in March 2024.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Funding beyond 2024/25 is subject to future spending decisions through which we will consider further opportunities to build upon our £57 million investment for suicide prevention under the NHS Long Term Plan. In addition, the Government’s £10 million Suicide Prevention Grant Fund will run to March 2025 to support voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations in meeting demand for their services supporting people experiencing suicidal thoughts or approaching a mental health crisis. We expect to start making this funding available to successful applicants as soon as possible in the New Year.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of Government policies on ending cigarette sales to those born on or after 1 January 2009 on the sale of tobacco products in the black market.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Education)
No assessment has been made. History shows whenever we introduce new tobacco control legislation and regulations, illicit tobacco has decreased, due to strong enforcement. Consumption of illegal tobacco has gone from 17 billion cigarettes in 2000/1 to three billion cigarettes in 2022/23.
As part of the smokefree generation announcement on 4 October 2023, the Government is also providing £30 million additional funding per year to support enforcement agencies such as trading standards, Border Force, and HM Revenue & Customs.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the unavailability of testing kits free of charge on the accuracy of national Covid-19 surveillance reports.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The data in the national COVID-19 and flu surveillance reports are accurate based on the data reported to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
The changes in the availability of free COVID-19 testing have not affected the accuracy of data presented within UKHSA’s national COVID-19 and flu surveillance reports. Changes to testing policies over time have changed the volume and breadth of data included in the reports, and this needs to be considered when interpreting that information.
However, there continues to be a range of useful and accurate data available within the national COVID-19 and flu surveillance reports taken from other sources, including our ongoing surveillance programmes.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people are accessing type one diabetes services in each Integrated Care System; and how many specialist health and care workers are trained to onboard patients onto diabetes technology in each Integrated Care System in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The following table shows the number of people accessing type one diabetes services in each Integrated Care Board (ICB). It is not possible to provide data on how many specialist health and care workers are trained to onboard patients onto diabetes technology in each ICB.
ICB | Patients with Type 1 Diabetes who attended specialist services |
NHS Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB | 1,815 |
NHS Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB | 1,870 |
NHS Birmingham and Solihull ICB | 290 |
NHS Black Country ICB | 1,475 |
NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB | 140 |
NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB | 4,225 |
NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB | 2,340 |
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB | 5,275 |
NHS Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly ICB | 60 |
NHS Coventry and Warwickshire ICB | 1,470 |
NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB | 2,990 |
NHS Devon ICB | 355 |
NHS Dorset ICB | 1,990 |
NHS Frimley ICB | 1,070 |
NHS Gloucestershire ICB | 85 |
NHS Greater Manchester ICB | 4,385 |
NHS Hampshire and the Isle of Wight ICB | 2,740 |
NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB | 1,970 |
NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB | 3,385 |
NHS Humber and North Yorkshire ICB | 3,555 |
NHS Kent and Medway ICB | 3,540 |
NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB | 1,250 |
NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB | 2,620 |
NHS Lincolnshire ICB | 2,125 |
NHS Mid and South Essex ICB | 1,340 |
NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB | 3,335 |
NHS North Central London ICB | 2,000 |
NHS North East and North Cumbria ICB | 8,440 |
NHS North East London ICB | 890 |
NHS North West London ICB | 3,005 |
NHS Northamptonshire ICB | 220 |
NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB | 1,975 |
NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB | 135 |
NHS Somerset ICB | 1,100 |
NHS South East London ICB | 3,930 |
NHS South West London ICB | 2,095 |
NHS South Yorkshire ICB | 2,445 |
NHS Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB | 795 |
NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB | 3,320 |
NHS Surrey Heartlands ICB | 2,155 |
NHS Sussex ICB | 4,685 |
NHS West Yorkshire ICB | 3,855 |
Notes: