Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (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 current supplies of vaccines for Monkeypox; and whether they are anticipating any future supply problems.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Over 150,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine have been procured with the final deliveries of vaccine expected by the end of October 2022.
As endorsed by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) expert advice is to offer two vaccine doses to a defined high-risk cohort of 111,000 individuals in the United Kingdom. Since August 2022, the use of safe and equally effective fractional dosing allows one vial of vaccine to provide three doses. This is the default method of vaccination in some areas of the country.
The UKHSA has procured sufficient vaccine to deliver the current vaccination strategy in full and is monitoring the occurrence, distribution and control of monkeypox.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many prisoners in England and Wales have tested positive for HIV while in prison in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many new donors who identify as MSM (men who have sex with men) have (1) registered to donate, or (2) donated, blood since the introduction of the current individualised risk-based policy of blood donation.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The information requested is not collected. The work of the For Assessment of Individualised Risk steering group and subsequent policy change was carried out to improve inclusivity in the blood donor selection criteria so that more people could be eligible to donate based on their health, travel and sexual behaviour.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (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 report by the Commission on Human Medicines Public Assessment Report: Recommendations to support the effective and safe use of adrenaline auto-injectors, published on 11 November; and what steps they will take in response.
Answered by Lord Kamall
This report was commissioned by the Commission of Human Medicines (CHM), which is an independent advisory group to Ministers. The report and suggested actions, endorsed by the CHM, was accepted by Ministers ahead of the implementation of its recommendations.
While some recommendations have already been implemented, others are underway including changes to product labelling and improvements in adverse event reporting. Other recommendations, such as the availability of adrenaline auto-injectors, will require legislative amendment preceded by public consultation, to ensure that stakeholders are engaged and prepared before deployment.