Found: Baroness Pinnock, Member, Public Services Committee to Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord

Found: Baroness Pinnock, Member, Public Services Committee to Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord

Found: Baroness Pinnock, Member, Public Services Committee to Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Lord Kamall on 16 November (HL Deb, cols. 158–160), how many doctors were employed by the NHS in (1) 2019, and (2) 2021.

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

In August 2019, there were 115,469 full time equivalent (FTE) Hospital and Community Health Service (HCHS) doctors working in National Health Service trusts and clinical commissioning groups in England and 126,625 in August 2021. There were 34,433 FTE doctors in general practice in England as at 30 September 2019 and 36,275 in September 2021.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Lord Kamall on 16 November (HL Deb, cols. 158-160), what assessment they have made of the number of NHS doctors who are likely to retire between 2021 and 2024.

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

An assessment of future expected retirement rates for National Health Service doctors is complex. Retirement is a personal choice and an individual may choose to retire for a range of reasons. While it is not possible to isolate a single factor which motivates retirement, we continue to monitor retirement patterns of doctors in the NHS.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Kamall on 12 October (HL2767), why the direct costs of an at-home PCR test are commercially sensitive.

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

The direct cost of an NHS Test and Trace polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test is commercially sensitive as the release of this information would be detrimental in future negotiations with individual suppliers of PCR tests.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Kamall on 2 November (HL3083), what changes have been made to the information required from approved suppliers of COVID-19 PCR tests since 2 November.

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

From 12 November, all private providers are required to maintain the Government’s minimum standards for the international arrivals services they offer. The changes ensure that the standards of service of private providers are consistent with the quality expected, from initial application to throughout the lifetime of the service, to support public health. Any organisation involved in carrying out the end-to-end testing service cannot sell tests until the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has written to the appropriate organisation to confirm that the testing service meets the standard. Additionally, there have been amendments to the daily sales reporting, which as a mandatory legal requirement for all providers of international arrivals testing, must now include details in relation to tests that were cancelled that day.

Following the recent changes to international travel, from 30 November 2021, it became a legal requirement to report S-gene target failure and particularly failure for the S-gene deletion 69-70 where the diagnostic laboratory is able to identify it. The minimum standards have been updated to reflect this.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Kamall on 2 November (HL3362) and 16 November (HL3662), why “information on the number of embryos produced, transferred, and confirmed pregnancies cannot be disclosed” for reasons of patient confidentiality, when the Written Answer from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care on 15 April 2019 (241389) provided figures on the number of applications made, and approved, for mitochondrial donation techniques and the number of embryos discarded; whether there has been a change of policy regarding information about outcomes of pronuclear transfer or spindle-chromosomal complex transfer since 15 April 2019; and if so, (1) when that policy change was made, and (2) what were the reasons for that change.

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

In our Written Answer of 2 November 2021 to HL3362, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that the information provided was incorrect. We have corrected the record through Written Ministerial Statement HLWS503 on 5 January 2022.

The HFEA advise that there has been no change of policy regarding information about outcomes of pronuclear transfer or spindle-chromosomal complex transfer. The HFEA publishes information which does not compromise patient confidentiality. All counts of less than five are not released as there is a significant possibility that when combined with other information which may be reasonably accessed, it could lead to the identification of a person to whom the HFEA owes a duty of confidentiality.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the Written Statement by Lord Kamall on 11 October (HLWS298), what progress is being made in introducing mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid.

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

Officials from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland are working to implement folic acid fortification, as part of the review on the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 and the Bread and Flour (Northern Ireland) Regulations 1998.

The UK Government and the devolved administrations have engaged industry on the decision to fortify non-wholemeal wheat flour with folic acid and are now developing draft legislation and an impact assessment for future consultation.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks made by Lord Kamall on 29 November (HL Deb, col 1223), what discussions they have held to ensure that countries are not disincentivised from transparent reporting of variants to the World Health Organisation.

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

On 29 November 2021, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care chaired a meeting of G7 Health Ministers to discuss the spread of the Omicron variant. G7 Health Ministers praised the exemplary work of South Africa in detecting the variant and alerting other countries. Health Ministers committed to working with other nations to share information and ensure transparent reporting of variants.

It was encouraging to hear the Minister @DHSCgovuk , Lord Kamall, stress the need to be aware of unintended consequences for people with or at risk of eating disorders in any measures targeted at addressing the obesity challenge. https://t.co/Ls4wBnXjMA