Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to work with (1) the Northern Ireland Executive, (2) the Scottish Government, and (3) the Welsh Government, to ensure cooperation between the COVID Pass Services in each constituent part of the UK; and in particular to coordinate arrangements for people who have had one dose of the vaccine in one constituent part of the UK and the other dose in another.
Answered by Lord Kamall
We regularly engage with the devolved administrations to ensure NHS COVID Pass interoperability. Bi-directional live vaccine data flows have been established by NHS Digital with Wales and Scotland, which update both general practitioner records and NHS COVID Pass status. There is currently no data sharing process in place with Northern Ireland, although we are aiming to put this in place as soon as possible.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to allow GP surgeries to issue COVID Passes to those who are unable to use the website, app or telephone services.
Answered by Lord Kamall
We have no plans to do so. However, we are exploring interoperability with third-party general practitioner apps which comply with our robust data protection and security commitments.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much was spent on diabetes services in England in 2019/20.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Information on total diabetes spend is not collected or held centrally as most services for people living with diabetes is commissioned locally.
To date NHS England has invested approximately £120 million of transformation funding into local services to target variation and improve performance in the treatment and care of people living with diabetes since 2017/18.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that those designated as clinically extremely vulnerable do not have to travel more than 115 miles to receive their COVID-19 vaccine.
Answered by Lord Bethell
In England, more than 98% of the population are currently within 10 miles of a vaccine site. Many of those who are designated as clinically extremely vulnerable are able to receive their vaccines at these sites. This is informed by advice from their general practitioner and community teams and agreement with their family and/or carer to facilitate this process.
In a small number of highly rural areas, vaccines are provided by mobile units and those who are housebound or in a nursing home would receive their vaccines from roving vaccination teams.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder they have supported in 2020.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The data requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what research they have commissioned into the UK's success rate at treating breast cancer compared with other countries, namely in Europe.
Answered by Lord Bethell
It is difficult to compare data in England to other countries, including countries in Europe, in a meaningful way due to time lag on data being published, and issues with data completeness.
Despite this, a 2019 CONCORD study shows that breast cancer deaths are falling faster in Britain than in the rest of Europe as diagnosis and treatment improves. Death rates this year will be below the European Union average after a 18% drop in little more than half a decade, according to comparisons that suggest the National Health Service’s focus on better organisation, screening and care has paid dividends.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to safeguard young people by preventing the use of controlled drugs.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government’s Drug Strategy is clear that we are committed to reducing the number of young people using drugs. Our approach combines universal action with targeted action for those most at risk or already misusing drugs and includes investing in a range of evidence-based programmes. This includes developing its ‘Talk to FRANK’ service, continuing to develop and promote the ‘Rise Above’ digital hub and developing school-based prevention resources to support the roll out of Relationship, Sex and Health Education from September 2020. This material uses evidence-based approaches to give children and young people the resilience and critical thinking skills needed to support decisions around drug use.
One of the themes of part two of Dame Carol Black’s review of drugs will be preventing drug use by young people, in addition to supporting their treatment and recovery.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have for future (1) funding, and (2) planning, arrangements in the health and social care sector.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government is delivering on its historic five-year National Health Service settlement. The NHS budget will increase by £33.9 billion a year in cash terms by 2023-24 (compared to 2018-19), reflecting that the NHS is this Government’s top domestic spending priority and helping to fund the NHS Long Term Plan.
As regards social care funding, the Government provided councils with access to an additional £1.5 billion for adult and children’s social care in 2020/21 on top of maintaining £2.5 billion of existing social care grants. This was to support local authorities to meet rising demand and continue to stabilise the social care system. In addition, we have now made £3.7 billion available to local authorities so they can address pressures on local services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, including in adult social care.
On 21 July the Chancellor launched the 2020 Comprehensive Spending Review which will set out the Government’s spending plans for health and social care for future years.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the treatment of young people with mental health conditions.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We remain committed to investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year into mental health services by 2023-24 through the NHS Long Term Plan. This funding underpins our aim for an additional 345,000 children and young people able to access support through National Health Service-funded services or school and college-based mental health support teams.
We also remain committed to delivering the core proposals of Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision: a green paper, including the introduction of senior leads in mental health and mental health support teams in schools and colleges, as well as the piloting of a four-week waiting time for specialist NHS services, so that there is swifter access for those children and young people that need it.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that those who care for a family member with Alzheimer’s disease are fully supported.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We recognise the crucial role that unpaid carers play in supporting people with Alzheimer’s disease.
The Government published the Carers Action Plan 2018 – 2020: Supporting carers today which sets out a cross-Government programme of targeted work to support all carers in England over two years until the end of this summer.
The Action Plan puts a focus on practical actions to support carers, recognising and supporting unpaid carers to provide care in a way that protects their own health and wellbeing, employment and other life chances. A copy of the Action Plan is attached.
A final report on the Action Plan will be produced later this year and, alongside this report, the Government will consider next steps.