Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote awareness of the value of post offices.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Shadow Minister (Defence)
Government is clear that the Post Office should be a valuable social and economic asset for communities and businesses for years to come. The Post Office delivers essential services that are hugely valuable, to both individuals and SME businesses, across the UK. The Minister for Postal Affairs continues to champion the Post Office across Government and to external stakeholders where appropriate, however, Post Office Limited is a commercial business and it is right for the company to lead on promoting post offices and raising awareness of the value they deliver.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the English Cricket Board’s intention not to schedule matches at Old Trafford in Lancashire and Headingly in Yorkshire as part of the next Ashes series held in this country; and what steps, if any, they will take to persuade the ECB to reverse this decision.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Shadow Minister (Culture, Media and Sport)
The hosting of Ashes test matches is a matter for the ECB as the governing body for cricket in England and Wales.
His Majesty’s Government is committed to supporting the hosting of sporting events across the UK and encourages all event organisers to consider not only the economic benefits that their events will generate, but also the wider social benefits they will bring such as volunteering, community engagement, and physical and mental wellbeing.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that COVID-19 vaccines may cause serious side effects, including death; and what steps they taking to collate all evidence on side effects from COVID-19 vaccinations in order that sufferers may be advised how best to respond to symptoms.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
All COVID-19 vaccines deployed in the United Kingdom have been authorised for use following a rigorous review by the independent regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
The MHRA continuously monitors a wide range of data regarding the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, including reports of adverse reactions from the UK and internationally. The MHRA’s position remains that the benefits of these vaccines far outweigh any currently known side effects in the majority of patients.
In the very rare event where an individual may have suffered a severe adverse reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine, care is likely to be best managed by local National Health Service specialist services, augmented as appropriate by national specialist advice.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Kamall on 28 June (HL985), whether Hartismere hospital in Suffolk is under consideration as a community diagnostic centre.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
There are currently no existing community diagnostic centres (CDCs) in Suffolk and potential locations remain under review. NHS England’s discussions with local integrated care systems, diagnostic networks and primary care services have considered Hartismere Hospital as a potential site for a CDC. However, these locations will be determined alongside wider system plans for providing more accessible diagnostics to the local population, including potential sites in Ipswich and Newmarket.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Kamall on 28 June (HL985), which community diagnostic centres have already been identified in Suffolk and which are under consideration.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
There are currently no existing community diagnostic centres (CDCs) in Suffolk and potential locations remain under review. NHS England’s discussions with local integrated care systems, diagnostic networks and primary care services have considered Hartismere Hospital as a potential site for a CDC. However, these locations will be determined alongside wider system plans for providing more accessible diagnostics to the local population, including potential sites in Ipswich and Newmarket.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (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 diagnostic capacity in the NHS; and, further to any such assessment, what immediate consideration they have given to designating the Hartismere Hospital in Suffolk as a diagnostic hub to serve the surrounding rural area.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
The Spending Review 2020 provided £325 million, with a further £2.3 billion in the 2021 Spending Review, for diagnostic services, including the launch of up to 160 community diagnostic centres (CDCs) by March 2025. There are currently 90 CDCs in operation, including supporting sites, which have delivered one million tests and scans since July 2021. CDCs are projected to deliver 17 million tests in the next three years, with an annual capacity for approximately nine million tests by 2025. The National Health Service collects data on 15 diagnostic tests, which shows that 1,850,900 diagnostic tests were delivered in April 2022. This is an increase of 3,400 from April 2021.
The East of England region, including Suffolk, is currently working with integrated care systems, diagnostic networks and primary care services to determine the location and configuration of services for future CDCs, based on the needs of the local population.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to make the PPE that is no longer needed by the NHS available to carers.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
In England, carers are eligible to receive personal protective equipment (PPE) through the online PPE Portal. Carers can register on the Portal to order free PPE until the end of March 2023 or until the relevant guidance is withdrawn or significantly modified. In addition, some local authorities and Local Resilience Forums also distribute PPE to carers in their local areas.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many deaths, confirmed by coroner’s courts, have been directly caused by COVID-19 vaccinations.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the noble Lord’s Parliamentary Question of 31 March is below and attached.
Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician
The Lord Framlingham
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
5 April 2022
Dear Lord Framlingham,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am replying to your Parliamentary Question asking how many deaths, confirmed by coroner’s courts, have been directly caused by COVID-19 vaccinations (HL7550).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for publishing statistics on deaths registered in England and Wales[1]. Mortality statistics are compiled from information supplied when deaths are certified and registered as part of civil registration. National Records for Scotland[2] and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency[3] are responsible for publishing statistics on deaths registered in Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively.
Data on deaths registered due to COVID-19 vaccines causing adverse effects in therapeutic use (ICD-10 code U12.9) are available up to February 2022 and are reported in table 12 of Monthly Mortality Analysis[4]. According to data available up to February 2022, out of 124,132,189 COVID-19 vaccinations given to people in England and Wales[5], there have been 23 deaths registered[6] so far due to this cause. Each of these were certified by a coroner.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
[2]https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/
[5] https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/vaccinations, accessed on the 6th April 2022.
[6]Data for 2021 and 2022 are provisional. There can be a delay between the date a death occurred and the date a death was registered; deaths certified by a coroner are often subject to longer-than-usual registration delays. More information can be found in our Impact of registration delays release.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what links there are (1) legally, (2) administratively, and (3) financially, between the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and pharmaceutical companies.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is an independent regulator working on a nominal fee for licence applications and regulating the industry. The MHRA is funded predominantly by income from fees for both statutory and non-statutory sales of products and services, which includes working with pharmaceutical companies.
As civil servants, all staff are committed to the core values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality. Additionally, staff are not permitted to have any personal financial connections to pharmaceutical companies or medical device manufacturers.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, given the speed with which vaccines against COVID-19 were approved, what are the causes of the delay to the approval of the use of Ivermectin; and what assessment they have made of (1) the approval of Ivermectin by other countries, and (2) the health benefits that would result from approving Ivermectin for use in the UK.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
Ivermectin was entered into the PRINCIPLE clinical trial in the United Kingdom in June 2021. The trial aims to generate robust evidence to determine its effectiveness as a treatment against COVID-19.
To date, there is no conclusive evidence for the efficacy of ivermectin in treating and preventing COVID-19, as there have been no supportive randomised control trials in the United Kingdom. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency and the World Health Organization have concluded that the evidence in support of ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment is insufficient to warrant a marketing authorisation. The FDA has issued warnings against the use of ivermectin whilst it remains in trials, as it can have dangerous interactions with other medicines. Currently, there is no firm deadline set for the publication of trial results. However, the Therapeutics Taskforce continues to monitor any emerging evidence for ivermectin’s use as a treatment for COVID-19.