Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of approving pharmacists to administer the covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
No such assessment has been made.
Pharmacists are healthcare professionals who undertake the training specified by NHS England and NHS Improvement as the commissioners of National Health Service pharmaceutical services, can administer the COVID-19 vaccine.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to protect people from fraudulent advertising online of untested or misleading covid-19 vaccines.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Human Medicines Regulations 2012 place strict regulatory controls on the manufacture, distribution, retail sale / supply and advertising of medicinal products for human use. Medicinal products, including vaccines, must hold a Marketing Authorisation (product licence) for legal sale and supply in the United Kingdom.
The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has responsibility for the regulation of medicinal products, blood and medical device and has a role as the law enforcement authority in respect of these products. The MHRA’s first priority is the protection of public health and any medicinal product or vaccine identified as being offered for sale without the appropriate authorisations will be investigated as a potential breach of the Human Medicines Regulations and a clear threat to health and safety of UK citizens.
Offences against the Human Medicines Regulations are criminal and non-compliance can and does result in prosecution through the criminal courts. Officials at the MHRA are actively assessing the nature and extent of such a threat and are working with partners in UK and elsewhere across the globe to provide an appropriate and effective response.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to introduce a form of proof for people who have received a covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The careful and accurate recording of vaccination status is incredibly important both in terms of ensuring priority cohorts are offered the two doses of a COVID-19 vaccination, and to ensure robust surveillance systems are in place to support patient safety.
The National Health Service’s National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) will be used as the national register of COVID-19 vaccinations. At the point that someone receives their COVID-19 vaccine, the vaccinating team will record it and this information will go onto the NIMS system and onto a patient’s general practice record.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the present capacity limits in place for weddings in Tiers 1 and 2 of the proposed local lockdown restrictions; and whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing these capacity limits in line with relaxed restrictions in areas located in Tiers 1 and 2.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government are committed to publishing data that has informed its decision making, including the tier allocations. The Department publishes a weekly watchlist giving epidemiological COVID-19 data for each lower-tier local authority in England. This is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-cases-by-local-authority-epidemiological-data
Detailed data on hospital activity can be found at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-hospital-activity/
The public dashboard on the progress of the virus across a range of metrics is updated daily at the following link:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk
The Contain framework sets out how national and local partners work with the public at a local level to prevent, contain and manage outbreaks, this includes the allocation of areas to the appropriate tier, which is available at the following link:
Epidemiological data and projection models on local restriction tiers, including commentary on individual tier allocation decisions is available at the following link:
This provides further information and context beyond the headline metrics as to why areas are in particular tiers currently.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of extending the 30 day time period for patients to find a new GP surgery having left the catchment area of their old service.
Answered by Jo Churchill
No assessment has been made.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether enforcing the local covid-19 lockdown in Leicester will require the introduction of additional legislation.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
With effect from 5 November until the start of December new national measures restrictions will be introduced. We hoped that by strong local action, and with strong local leadership, we could get the rates of infection down where the disease was surging. But it is now clear that we need to take action immediately to protect the National Health Service and to get ‘R’ decisively below 1. We must do this to curtail the exponential growth in hospitalisations and deaths. At the end of the period, we will look to return to a local and regional approach, based on the latest data.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the cost of personal protective equipment incurred by dental surgeries are not being passed on to patients.
Answered by Jo Churchill
NHS England and NHS Improvement are responsible for commissioning National Health Service dental services to meet local needs.
Dental practices may not levy any charge in respect of a NHS course of treatment except one of the three fixed patient charges. There is no ability to charge for personal protective equipment (PPE) for NHS treatment and NHS England and NHS Improvement will investigate any claims of fraudulent behaviour as a result of a patient having paid for PPE for any NHS treatment.
For private treatment charges are a matter between dentist and patient.