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 finding in The Lancet Public Health Commission on gambling, published on 24 October, that the harms to health and wellbeing that result from gambling are more substantial than previously understood.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to reducing gambling-related harm, and recognises the far-reaching negative impact gambling can have not only individuals who gamble, but also on those close to them and wider society.
We are committed to reviewing the best available evidence from a wide range of sources, and we have noted the Lancet Public Health Commission’s report.
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 referrals were made to NHS gambling clinics in (1) 2022, (2) 2023, and (3) 2024.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on referrals to National Health Service gambling clinics for treatment is collected by financial year. In 2021/22, there were 1013 referrals, while in 2022/23, there were 1389, and in 2023/24, there were 2,284.
Data for the first two quarters of the 2024/25 financial year will be available soon.
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 young people aged 13 to 18 have been treated by the NHS for problem gambling in the past year.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The most recent data available shows that between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, eleven young people aged 13 to 18 years old were referred to National Health Services for treatment related to their gambling.
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 Baroness Merron on 6 August (HL534), 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 what steps may need to be taken in relation to the safety of the non-surgical cosmetics sector, and will set out its position 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, further to the British Medical Journal article Scurvy—a re-emerging disease with the rising cost of living and number of bariatric surgical procedures, published on 22 September, what steps they are taking to ensure those in lowest socioeconomic brackets have access to fresh fruit and vegetables.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Healthy Start scheme was introduced in 2006 to encourage a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies, and young children under four years old from very low-income households. It can be used to buy, or put towards the cost of, fruit, vegetables, pulses, milk, and infant formula. Healthy Start beneficiaries have access to free Healthy Start Vitamins for pregnant women and children aged under four years old.
Scurvy results from the prolonged absence of vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, from the diet and is rare in the United Kingdom. Most cases of scurvy, and malnutrition, will be secondary to another health condition which may impact on nutritional needs or impact on a person’s ability to eat and drink, rather than it solely being caused by poor or inadequate dietary intake.
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 will take to ensure that children with social work involvement are able to access a dedicated pathway to mental health support.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the distinct issues faced by this group and local authorities and the National Health Service should be reflecting the high level of mental health needs amongst looked-after children in their strategic planning of services.
As part of our mission to build an NHS that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, the Government will recruit 8,500 additional staff across children and adult mental health services, introduce a specialist mental health professional in every school and roll out Young Futures hubs in every community.
We are also working to develop a new 10-Year Health Plan which will have a focus on transforming health services and we will engage with the public and relevant organisations on the development of the plan.
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 plans they have to improve survival rates for those who have out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to improving out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. As part of this commitment, we want to increase access to Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in public spaces and reduce inequalities in access to these life saving devices. We have made a further £500,000 available from August 2024 to fulfil existing applications to the Department’s Community AED Fund. The criteria specified for the original grant continues to apply and will go to applications for AEDs in areas where there is the greatest need, including in areas of high footfall, hot spots for cardiac arrest, and areas that already have low access to AEDs.
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