Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 18 November (HL11324), how many reports they have received via the HSA4 abortion notification form of women who have died within 14 days of taking at-home abortion medication prescribed by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service in each of the past four years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is unable to provide this information as to do so would risk identifying individuals due to the small numbers involved.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many women have died after taking six misoprostol tablets that were prescribed (1) by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service after a telephone consultation, and (2) after a face-to-face consultation.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In accordance with the Abortion Act 1967, registered medical practitioners must notify the Chief Medical Officer of abortions within 14 days. The Department collects information on abortions via the HSA4 abortion notification form. The form does not record the number of misoprostol tablets prescribed by the abortion provider nor whether they received a telephone consultation, therefore the Department does not hold this information.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the one-time analysis published on 23 November 2023, Complications from abortions in England: comparison of Abortion Notification System data and Hospital Episode Statistics 2017 to 2021, which discussed the limitations of the HSA4 form, what steps they are taking to improve data collection on complications from at-home tablet-induced abortions.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In accordance with the Abortion Act 1967, registered medical practitioners must notify the Chief Medical Officer of abortions within 14 days. The HSA4 abortion notification form is provided to collect the required information, including details of any known complications, up until the time of the patient’s discharge from the abortion service. The HSA4 form is a statutory instrument, the content of which cannot be changed without legislation.
The Department continues to work with abortion providers to ensure that abortion complications known up until the time of discharge from the abortion service are recorded on the HSA4 form. There are no plans to require the notification of complications that occur after discharge from the abortion service.
Abortion continues to be a very safe procedure, for which major complications are rare at all gestations. Home use of early medical abortion pills is recognised to be a safe procedure by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the World Health Organisation.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the criteria for determining whether an in-person consultation is required following a request for at-home abortion tablets.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In March 2022, Parliament voted to amend the Abortion Act to allow women in England and Wales to take one or both pills for early medical abortion at home at up to 10 weeks’ gestation. The legislation came into force on 30 August 2022.
Women should be given the choice to either have an in-person consultation with a clinician or to have a virtual consultation and, if eligible, will be able to take both pills for early medical abortion at home. If there is any uncertainty about the gestation of the pregnancy, or if the doctor has any concerns, the woman will be asked to attend a clinic. If she does not attend the clinic, the doctor would not be able to form an opinion in good faith that the pregnancy is below ten weeks, and would therefore not be able to proceed with prescribing abortion pills for home use.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that medical complications and associated risks arising from at-home tablet-induced abortions are accurately monitored, recorded, and reported.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a legal requirement in England and Wales that all terminations must be notified to the Chief Medical Officer within 14 days of the procedure. The Department provides the HSA4 form for this purpose. Information is collected on the abortion and the woman that had the abortion, including the method of the abortion, whether any abortion pills were taken at home, the gestation, or number of weeks, and details of any known complications.
The Department publishes data from these notifications in annual abortion statistics reports, which include data on complications up until the time of discharge from the abortion service.
In November 2023, the Department published a one-time analysis comparing data from the Department’s Abortion Notification System and the Hospital Episode Statistics, which are produced and controlled by NHS England.
Abortion continues to be a very safe procedure for which major complications are rare at all gestations. The complication rates for the Abortion Notification System and the Hospital Episodes Statistics data remains similar to both before and after the introduction of the home use of early medical abortion pills.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the forthcoming NHS workforce strategy will include specific projections of workforce needs with respect to (1) health visiting, (2) school nursing, (3) sexual health services, and (4) drug and alcohol treatment.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has commissioned NHS England to deliver a high-level National Health Service Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP).
This plan is currently being developed and we have committed to publishing it this year.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much public health funding per head was allocated to each local authority in England in (1) 2020–21 and (2) 2021–22.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The information requested is set out in the attached spreadsheet.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to strengthen regulatory powers in respect of the sale of vaping products to children.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is clear that vaping should only be used to help people quit smoking and vapes should not be used by people under the age of 18 or non-smokers.
We have regulations in place to discourage underage vaping. The law protects children through restricting sales of vapes to people over the age of 18 only, limiting nicotine content, refill bottle and tank sizes, labelling requirements and through advertising restrictions. The Department continues to work with enforcement agencies to ensure these regulations are enforced in England. There are no current plans to strengthen the regulatory powers in respect of the sale of these products to children, but we will keep this under review.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether, as was announced in the 2021 Spending Review, the public health grants for 2023–24 and 2024–25 will increase in line with inflation.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
We will announce the 2023/24 Public Health Grant allocations to local authorities shortly.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with local authorities regarding the £250 million of funding allocated to speed up hospital discharge.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Minister of State for Social Care (MS(C)) (Helen Whately MP), and Department officials engage regularly with local authorities (LAs) and their representative organisations. This has included calls hosted by MS(C) and Lee Rowley MP, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The Chief Executives and Directors of Adult Social Services of all LAs were invited to these calls to discuss the latest situation on hospital discharge into adult social care; and to share insights on the challenges facing different local authorities and how these challenges are being addressed. This has included discussions of the funding where relevant.