Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase access to (1) testing, (2) vaccination, and (3) treatment, for Mpox patients (a) in England, and (b) globally.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the National Health Service, and partners have well tested response capabilities to detect, contain, and treat novel infectious diseases, including Mpox.
The United Kingdom has sufficient testing capabilities in place to test for the different types of Mpox, as the UKHSA and some NHS laboratories can do the primary test for Mpox, and the UKHSA has requested that all NHS confirmed Mpox samples are sent to the Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory at the UKHSA, who can provide specialist polymerase chain reaction and genomic sequencing to determine the clade type.
The UKHSA is working closely with NHS England and has developed algorithms, which have been shared across the NHS, to support referrals of suspect cases for assessment. As part of the UKHSA’s well established preparedness plans, we have a supply of vaccines to vaccinate contacts of cases, and to vaccinate those in transmission networks connected to cases, as appropriate.
The Government is committed to helping the international response. The UK is the second largest donor to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, providing £1.65 billion over the 2020 to 2025 period. We are also working closely with them on ensuring sustainable and effective access to Mpox vaccines for low and middle income countries.
Critical to the management of any infections in the UK will be the rapid identification of any possible cases, with appropriate isolation and swift follow-up to trace and support identified contacts. We are placing a strong emphasis on ensuring there are high levels of awareness among clinicians about the risk and the actions they need to take when presented with possible cases. An update on case definitions and a briefing note has been issued.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 5 April (HL3640), when they intend to publish feedback to the licensing of non-surgical cosmetic procedures consultation, which ran from 2 September to 28 October 2023.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is currently considering the work done to date on introducing regulatory oversight of the non-surgical cosmetics sector in England, and will set out its views at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many clinical diagnoses of alcoholism there were for women in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, (4) 2022, and (5) 2023.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Alcoholism is not a clinical diagnosis, instead individuals who use alcohol in a dependent way are diagnosed with alcohol dependence. Whilst we don’t collect this data centrally in the format requested, the Department publishes Estimates of alcohol dependent adults in England: Summary, which can be viewed on the GOV.UK website in an online only format. This is an estimate of the number of adults who are dependent on alcohol, many of whom will never have received a clinical diagnosis of alcohol dependence in the National Health Service or by accessing alcohol treatment. This publication provides estimates covering the years 2015 to 2020 and are shown in the table below:
Year | Estimated number of alcohol dependent adults in England |
2015 to 2016 | 595,856 |
2016 to 2017 | 589,101 |
2017 to 2018 | 586,780 |
2018 to 2019 | 602,391 |
2019 to 2020 | 608,416 |
Source: Estimates of alcohol dependent adults in England: Summary
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many clinical diagnoses of alcoholism there have been for young people aged 20–24 in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, (4) 2022, and (5) 2023.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not hold this data centrally, in the format requested. The Department publishes Estimates of alcohol dependent adults in England: Summary, which can be viewed on the GOV.UK website, in an online only format. This is an estimate of the number of adults who are dependent on alcohol, many of whom will have never received a clinical diagnosis of alcohol dependence by National Health Services, or by accessing alcohol treatment.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many individuals aged 10–19 received treatment for alcohol abuse in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, (4) 2022, and (5) 2023
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information is not available in the format requested. The number of people who have received alcohol treatment is collected and published by the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS), with treatment numbers being published from April to March each year. The following table shows the number of people aged 10 to 19 years old who received treatment for their alcohol use, from 2018/19 to 2022/23:
Year | People between 10 and 19 years old who received treatment for their alcohol use |
2018/19 | 8,220 |
2019/20 | 7,659 |
2020/21 | 6,060 |
2021/22 | 6,955 |
2022/23 | 7,123 |
Source of Data: National Drug Treatment Monitoring System.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many clinical diagnoses of alcoholism there were for persons aged 10–19 in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, (4) 2022, and (5) 2023.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not hold this data centrally, in the format requested. The Department publishes Estimates of alcohol dependent adults in England: Summary, which can be viewed on the GOV.UK website, in an online only format. This is an estimate of the number of adults who are dependent on alcohol, many of whom will have never received a clinical diagnosis of alcohol dependence by National Health Services, or by accessing alcohol treatment.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many clinical diagnoses of alcoholism there were for men in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, (4) 2022, and (5) 2023.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not hold this data centrally, in the format requested. The Department publishes Estimates of alcohol dependent adults in England: Summary, which can be viewed on the GOV.UK website, in an online only format. This is an estimate of the number of adults who are dependent on alcohol, many of whom will have never received a clinical diagnosis of alcohol dependence by National Health Services, or by accessing alcohol treatment.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication of the Hologic Global Women’s Health Index which indicated that British women are sadder and more stressed than their European counterparts, what steps they are taking to improve women's health and wellbeing.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Women’s Health Strategy sets out the Government’s plans for boosting the health and wellbeing of women and girls, and for improving how the health and care system engages and listens to all women.
Achievements since the launch of the strategy include: appointing the first Women’s Health Ambassador for England; investing £25 million of funding into the expansion of women’s health hubs to improve women’s access to services and to create efficiencies for the National Health Service; reducing the cost of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) through the launch of the HRT prescription pre-payment certificate; and creating a women’s health area on the NHS website, to bring together women’s health content and create a first port of call for women seeking information.
We are focused on delivering our priorities for 2024, which include improving care for menstrual problems, including endometriosis, and maternity care, expanding women’s health hubs, tackling disparities and supporting the most vulnerable groups, and boosting research. Recent progress includes launching baby loss certificates to support patients who have experienced a loss of pregnancy before 24 weeks, continuing to roll out women’s health hubs across the country, and running a national media campaign on periods and menopause to encourage women to contact their general practice, if symptoms are affecting their life.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the (1) level, and (2) geographical distribution, of drug shortages in pharmacies.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department monitors and manages medicine supply issues at a national level, so that stocks remain available to meet regional and local demand. We receive notifications of supply issues from United Kingdom medicine license holders. In 2022 and 2023, the number of notifications of supply issues remained broadly stable, at approximately 1,600 per year.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the World Health Organization report A focus on adolescent substance use in Europe, central Asia and Canada, published on 25 April, what plans they have to address the high levels of child alcohol consumption in England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
Guidance from England’s Chief Medical Officer for healthcare professionals is clear that an alcohol-free childhood is the healthiest and best option. The Department promotes this through online platforms such as the NHS.UK website, the Talk to FRANK online resource, and the GOV.UK website. Local authorities promote these guidelines as part of their public health duties. As part of the Government’s 10-year drug strategy, the Department has an ambition to support 5,000 more children and young people in receiving treatment than at the start of the strategy in March 2022.
The Department for Education’s statutory guidance, Relationships education, relationships and sex education and health education, became mandatory in September 2020. Through this, education on drugs, alcohol, and tobacco became compulsory at state-funded primary and secondary schools, teaching children and young people how to manage influences and pressure, and keep themselves healthy and safe. To deter individuals selling alcohol to a person aged under 18 years old, the maximum fine for the offence of persistently selling alcohol to children was increased from £10,000 to £20,000, under section 147A(8) of the 2003 Licensing Act.