Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the article "Mitigating the risks of antimicrobial failure", by Dr Wendy Thompson, Callum Wood and Professor Mike Bromley, published by the National Preparedness Commission on 6 September 2024; and what consideration they have given to adding to the national risk register scenarios about specific, acute antimicrobial resistance concerns, including the emergence of resistant strains of the wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 2024 to 2029 United Kingdom antimicrobial resistance (AMR) national action plan sets out challenging commitments and targets to confront the risk of AMR across the breadth of human, animal, and environmental health. The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs works closely with the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, which monitors fungicide resistance development in cereal pathogens, to inform disease management strategies.
Whilst the 2023 National Risk Register classifies AMR as a chronic risk, the Government recognises the potential for AMR to manifest acutely, for example, as an outbreak of a resistant bacterial or fungal infection. The Department of Health and Social Care commissioned the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to produce some realistic worst-case scenarios of the acute risks that AMR poses in the UK. The developed scenarios include bacterial and fungal pathogens and are based upon real-world experience. The UKHSA will now develop plans to use these scenarios to inform incident response and preparedness plans.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what work is being undertaken with the devolved administrations to maintain a central risk management process for antimicrobial resistance.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 2024 to 2029 antimicrobial resistance (AMR) national action plan (NAP) is a United Kingdom-wide plan, setting out the challenging commitments and targets for the next five years to confront AMR.
The NAP programme is made up of eight implementation programmes that are responsible for delivering their implementation plans, which collectively contribute to meeting the commitments within the NAP. Each implementation programme records and manages risks within their own governance structures. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each have their own implementation programmes that they manage.
Risks that are deemed cross-cutting to the NAP are recorded within the programme’s UK-wide risk register, owned by the Department. These cross-cutting risks are monitored and discussed at the two programmes delivery boards, which are responsible for monitoring implementation of the NAP, to determine mitigating actions.
High-level, challenging programme risks can be escalated up to the UK AMR Strategy Board, members of which include senior officials from across the One Health sector and all four nations of the UK, who are responsible for providing strategic direction for mitigating large scale risks that jeopardise overall programme delivery.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportion of COVID-19 home tests which have been sent out have been (1) returned within three days, (2) returned but found to be unusable, (3) found to be positive, (4) found to be negative; and what assessment they have made of the proportion of such tests that deliver a (a) false positive, or (b) a false negative, result. [T]
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the average quantity of personal protective equipment required on a daily basis by (1) the NHS, and (2) the social care sector, broken down by type of equipment; and if they have not made such an assessment, why not.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government published Coronavirus (COVID-19): personal protective equipment (PPE) plan on 10 April. It incorporates guidance on who needs PPE and when they need it, routes to ensure those who need it can get it at the right time and sets out actions to secure enough PPE to last through the crisis. A copy is attached.
We have built models which forecast demand. These models cover a range of possible scenarios and have developed over time as additional information on the prevalence and impact of COVID-19 became available and as guidance on PPE has been updated. We work closely with the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies to ensure they are underpinned by the latest science.
We are working around the clock to give the social care sector and wider National Health Service the equipment and support they need to tackle this outbreak.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Bethell on 14 May (HL3016) and 28 May (HL4613), what assessment they have made of how the answers given “answer all aspects of the question”.
Answered by Lord Bethell
I can only reiterate that Written Answers are drafted by teams who are experienced in their area of work and provide the best available information.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 14 May (HL3016), what criteria were used in determining that the answer given was "excellent", as indicated in Lord Bethell's tweet that same day; and what assessment they have made of which elements of the question were adequately answered.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Written Parliamentary Questions are drafted by policy teams specialised in the subject and cleared at Senior Civil Servant level. As per Departmental guidance, answers must aim to be clear, relevant and informative; answer all aspects of the question; be accurate and not misleading; and phrased in a simple and logical way.
At a time of unprecedented pressure on the Department and a marked increase in the number of Written Questions, I am proud of my officials’ efforts to keep Parliament informed while tackling this immense national challenge.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of, on average, how many items of each type of personal protection equipment are required on a daily basis by (1) the National Health Service, (2) the social care sector, (3) the prison service, (4) the police, and (5) other sectors; and how this compares with the shipment of equipment that was ordered from Turkey on 17 April. [T]
Answered by Lord Bethell
Demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) is currently exceptionally high across these sectors, and the Government is working hard to source new supply to meet that need. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, we have delivered over one billion items of PPE to ensure our frontline is protected. We have also extended our PPE supply route to local resilience forums to help local government distribute stock to social care providers and other vital services where they have been unable to obtain PPE through their usual routes and have an urgent need.
We are not reliant on Turkey for gowns and many more orders are lined up and expected from suppliers in the United Kingdom and overseas.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why there has been a delay in having sufficient kits for (1) antigen testing, and (2) serological testing, for the COVID-19 virus.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Testing is a crucial part of the United Kingdom’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Government is working on multiple fronts to deliver additional testing capacity to the system.
The Government’s Chief Medical Officer has previously said that there is huge global demand for testing supplies. The Government is working with industry to obtain maximum possible supplies for the UK and with the scientific community to explore innovative new options for test kits, working within existing safety standards and regulations.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people a day they expect to be able to receive (1) an antigen test, and (2) a serological test, for the COVID-19 virus (a) one week, (b) two weeks, (c) four weeks, and (d) six weeks, from 25 March 2020; and how such testing will be organised and prioritised.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The information is not available in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cloud services contracts that were previously delivered by British cloud services providers for the Department of Health and Social Care are now delivered by multinational cloud service providers; what is the value of those contracts; and what are the names of the previous providers.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Department's central procurement system does not have a separate category for cloud-hosting contracts nor any central means of consistently identifying cloud-hosting services. To obtain this information would incur disproportionate cost.