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Written Question
Coronavirus: Vaccination
Wednesday 8th February 2023

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of giving (1) children under five years old, and (2) adults under 50 years old, access to COVID-19 vaccines.

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

The Government continues to be guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on who should be offered COVID-19 vaccinations. On 6 December 2022, the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency approved the COVID-19 vaccine Pfizer infant formulation (Comirnaty 3) for children aged six months to four years old. The JCVI’s advice will be published in due course on whether COVID-19 vaccination should be offered to any children in this age group now that a vaccine is available.

People who were five years old or older as of 31 August 2022 are currently eligible for primary vaccination and those aged 16 or over are also entitled to an initial booster. Those who are at higher risk of serious outcomes from COVID-19 are eligible for a further seasonal booster under the current autumn campaign.

The autumn booster campaign will close in England on 12 February 2023, as will the offer of an initial booster for persons aged 16 to 49 years who are not in a clinical risk group. We encourage everyone currently eligible to come forward before these offers close.

In line with the JCVI’s advice, the primary course offer of COVID-19 vaccination will now move towards a more targeted offer limited to vaccination campaigns for those at higher risk of severe COVID-19. This means that the offer of primary vaccination will end for those aged under 50 who are not in an at-risk group. The Government is considering when during 2023 this recommendation should be implemented. The JCVI continues to review evidence and will provide further advice regarding the 2023 vaccination programmes in due course.


Written Question
Veterans Mobility Fund
Thursday 3rd November 2022

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will reinstate the Veterans Mobility Fund.

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

The Government does not intend to reinstate the Veterans’ Mobility Fund, which was a time-limited fund established in 2015 to provide support for veterans with serious physical injury resulting from their time in service.


Written Question
NHS: Drugs
Monday 21st June 2021

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many planned discontinuation notices for the supply of medicines they have received as of 1 June 2021; and what steps they are taking to mitigate such notices.

Answered by Lord Bethell

We regularly receive notifications of discontinuations and possible discontinuations from suppliers, as well as information about shortages and potential shortages caused by a whole variety of reasons and numbers change daily. We are unable to provide this information as it is commercially sensitive.

The Department has well-established procedures to deal with medicines shortages and discontinuations and works with a range of stakeholders to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when they do arise. Not all notifications will lead to the discontinuation of a medicine or a shortage in the market.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Immigration
Friday 22nd January 2021

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on immigration to the UK.

Answered by Lord Bethell

The Department has made no such assessment.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Screening
Friday 15th January 2021

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether tests undertaken as part of plans to introduce same day mass testing for COVID-19 in England will be free at the point of delivery.

Answered by Lord Bethell

All testing carried out by National Health Service Test and Trace is free at the point of delivery.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Screening
Thursday 17th December 2020

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have held discussions with private sector providers about the delivery of plans for same day mass testing for COVID-19 in England; and, if so, who these providers are.

Answered by Lord Bethell

The Government is committed to rapid and accessible testing. We are working with private sector and are increasing our testing capacity, both through current swab testing and new, rapid lateral flow tests to cut the spread of COVID-19 nationwide. Where contracts with commercial partners have been finalised the Department publishes contract award notices online at GOV.UK Contract Finder service.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Screening
Monday 14th December 2020

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what initial estimate they have made of the cost of plans to introduce same day mass testing for COVID-19 in England.

Answered by Lord Bethell

An evaluation of testing the whole of Liverpool will inform the potential rollout of whole town or city testing to other areas, as part of the Government’s commitment to make mass testing available. Same day testing will involve several different types of technology including lateral flow devices.

A £500 million investment will accelerate the next generation of technologies to support our existing systems and better understand how mass testing could be used.

Our top priorities for testing, as they have been throughout the pandemic, are to allocate testing where it is needed most to save lives, protect the most vulnerable, and enable vital health and care services to operate safely.

In the future, in addition to our existing priorities, we will aim to use new testing technologies to test a higher proportion of the population over time, targeted at where it will have the most impact, and use testing to support the economy and wider society to return to a normal way of life.


Written Question
Written Questions
Monday 2nd November 2020

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Leader of the House what guidance or training is given to Ministers on the requirements to answer written questions from Members of the House comprehensively.

Answered by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

As Leader of the House I take very seriously the responsibility incumbent on all Ministers to provide full, timely and comprehensive answers to Questions for Written Answers (QWAs). My office works closely with all departmental Parliamentary teams to help provide advice on what is expected of them in providing such answers.

Ministers are also reminded regularly of the importance of their obligations to the House.


Written Question
Preventive Medicine: Screening
Monday 7th September 2020

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to make financial resources available to assist in the growth of the UK health care testing industry.

Answered by Lord Bethell

NHS Test and Trace is currently planning to spend in the region of £75 million which will be directed towards the evaluation and adoption of new technologies to ensure that we use the fullest range of innovations to support our testing policy as it develops.

Alongside this, the Government is working with the life sciences sector on proposals to strengthen the United Kingdom diagnostics industry and how the National Health Service market can make better use of innovative diagnostics.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Disease Control
Thursday 20th August 2020

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role played by UK-based companies in addressing COVID-19.

Answered by Lord Bethell

United Kingdom-based companies have played a major role in working with the Department on some of the most challenging healthcare areas of the response to COVID-19. These have included:

- building UK manufacturing of personal protective equipment (PPE) capacity by signing contracts to manufacture over three billion items of PPE with over 30 UK-based companies; and

- at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in March there were more than 8,000 mechanical ventilators in hospitals across the UK. As of the end of July we now have over 30,000 mechanical ventilators available to the National Health Service. 14,679 of these are from new suppliers responding to the Prime Minister’s ventilator challenge and are mostly made in the UK.