Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - 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 the programme of flu vaccinations is delivered successfully for this autumn and winter.
Answered by Lord Bethell
NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with local areas to ensure that regional teams have plans in place to increase coverage of the flu vaccination programme this winter. New models of delivery have been shared with regional commissioning teams to encourage innovation, such as mobile and mass vaccination models, and allow for increases in uptake safely, whilst observing social distancing and personal protective equipment requirements.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have introduced an enhanced call and recall system, so that those who are eligible are reminded to attend a vaccination session.
Alongside this, additional trained workforce is being made available to local providers to help them vaccinate more eligible people. Public Health England have also launched new marketing campaign to encourage uptake of flu vaccination amongst eligible groups.
Additional flu vaccine has been purchased by the Department, which will be available to providers from November to increase uptake in existing groups and facilitate expansion of the programme.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that women are able to attend breast screening appointments, following reports from Breast Cancer Now that up to 986,000 women in the UK missed their mammograms due to breast screening programmes being paused as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Bethell
All National Health Service breast screening providers are operational and working to ensure that all eligible women are invited and attend breast screening appointments. Services have been advised to prioritise women aged 53 who have not yet been screened and women aged 71 or over awaiting a breast screening invitation, together with women assessed as being at very high risk of developing breast cancer.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have also made funding available to trusts to support the adaptation of mobile breast screening units in order to enhance their safe use and so maximise the number of units available to screen women.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to announce the Comprehensive Spending Review; and what plans they have to put in place a programme of support to mitigate financial pressures on local authorities while that Review is undertaken.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Chancellor launched the Comprehensive Spending Review in July and it will be published this autumn. To date, the Government has provided a comprehensive package of support for Councils to help them respond to financial pressures resulting from Covid-19. This includes over £3.7bn in additional grant funding to be used across all services. The Government continues to engage with Councils to understand the pressures that they are facing and assess the need for further support.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - 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 the NHS has secure access to Priadel for the treatment of bipolar disorder.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Supplies of Priadel (lithium carbonate) are currently available.
Ensuring patients have access to the medicines they need is vital. The Department brought the supply of Priadel to the attention of the Competition and Markets Authority which has now opened an investigation.
Essential Pharma has now agreed to continue supplying Priadel to the National Health Service whilst we work to agree a fair and appropriate price for this medicine.
We continue to work closely with the supplier and wholesalers to maintain the availability of Priadel and to ensure supply remains available for patients. We are aware that Essential Pharma have quotas in place with wholesalers to reduce the risk of stockpiling but have confirmed that ordering mechanisms are in place to ensure all prescriptions for Priadel can access this treatment.
We have also added lithium carbonate to the parallel export restriction list (8 September 2020) to ensure supplies remain available for the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to keep public health functions within local government responsibilities; and how they plan to ensure that such functions are sustainably funded.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Local government has a vital role in improving the public’s health, both through securing services and through promoting local policies that act on the wider determinants of health. Future funding for local government public health responsibilities will be considered as part of the 2020 Spending Review.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that cancer survival rates are not adversely impacted by the cancellation or delay in cancer screening, diagnostic testing, and cancer treatments.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Although some appointments for cancer screening, diagnostics and treatments have been rescheduled during the COVID-19 pandemic to protect vulnerable patients, NHS England and NHS Improvement have taken a robust approach to ensuring that people at highest risk are seen as a matter of priority. NHS England and NHS Improvement have minimised the impact on those most at risk of dying of cancer by ensuring that urgent and essential cancer treatments continue throughout the pandemic.
Restoring full operation of all cancer services is a key commitment and is well underway, as set out in NHS England’s letters dated 10 June and 31 July 2020. The number of people waiting in screening pathways is reducing and there is a continued focus on sending out invites for routine screening appointments that were previously delayed.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure the successful operation of the 2021 BTEC, GCSE, and A-Level examinations and the subsequent publication of results.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
We are clear in our intention for exams and assessments to proceed next year. The department will continue to work with school and college stakeholders, Ofqual and the awarding organisations, to ensure that BTEC, GCSE, AS and A level exams and assessments in 2021 are fair and proceed smoothly.
Ofqual has already consulted on a range of possible adaptations to GCSE, AS and A level exams and assessments next year on a subject-by-subject basis, and has announced some changes that will reduce pressure on teaching time, and help ensure those young people taking exams next year have the same opportunities to progress as the students before them. Ofqual has also consulted and engaged with awarding organisations to agree revisions to its Extraordinary Regulatory Framework for vocational and technical qualifications (which include BTECs) and its associated guidance on how awarding organisations can adapt assessments in 2020/21. We will continue to discuss these issues with school and college stakeholders, Ofqual and the awarding organisations, to ensure that exams and assessments in 2021 are fair.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the governance of the National Institute for Health Protection will include representatives from both national and local government.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We are currently developing the transition process to support full and formal establishment of the National Institute for Health Protection. Future governance arrangements will be determined as part of this process over the coming months.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether employment programmes could be targeted to support the economic recovery of local authority areas from COVID-19.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The economic recovery package will have a number of components, at both national and local levels. Although contracted provision is often delivered more effectively at national level, we recognise the key role local areas will have in supplementing that provision with the best possible support offer, tailored more specifically to local needs.
The Department offers significant support to unemployed people across Great Britain, through our network of Jobcentres. Our Jobcentres are using digital technology to host virtual jobfairs, working with employers to deliver online mentoring circles and facilitating sector based work academies. In addition, Work Coaches are conducting customer support calls with new Universal Credit and New Style Jobseekers Allowance claimants, providing support with finding a job, help with retraining or skills advice, CVs and job applications, and access to the new vacancies.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to give councils long-term, devolved infrastructure and public transport budgets.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government is committed to levelling up the country and giving communities more control over how investment is spent so that they can decide what is best for them. The forthcoming White Paper on devolution will set out the framework for future local growth funding, ensuring budgets are devolved to the right spatial level to unleash the potential of our regions and deliver on levelling up. In 2020/21, the Government is allocating over £1.7 billion for local highways maintenance and improvements to local highways authorities in England, outside London, through the Transport Infrastructure Investment Fund. We will also provide £4.2 billion from 2022-23 for five-year funding settlements for eight Mayoral Combined Authorities, building on the success of the Transforming Cities Fund, as set out in the Budget earlier this year.