Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to implement an NHS workforce plan to support Parkinson's care.
Answered by Will Quince
Local health systems are responsible for planning local staffing levels in line with service priorities, including providing care to people living with Parkinson’s disease.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to increase the uptake of the MMR vaccine.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In February 2022, the Department, the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England launched a new campaign designed to increase awareness and uptake of both doses of the MMR vaccine in children under the age of five years old.
NHS England also implemented an MMR catch up campaign in March 2022, including a central call and recall for children aged one to six years old who are not up to date with their MMR vaccines. This was supported by a communications campaign through the health system and with stakeholders.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policy of routine childhood immunisation statistics published on 29 September 2022.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department is working with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and NHS England to improve coverage, including a recent communications campaign and a polio booster vaccine for children in London; increased public communications from the UKHSA to improve vaccination coverage for children; improved data collection to identify and address vaccination rates in underserved populations; and further training for healthcare professionals.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress she has made on the establishment of a UK wide Predictive Immunology Network.
Answered by Will Quince
The Life Sciences Vision committed to delivering a vaccines healthcare mission which will focus on maximising the opportunities to improve core immunology, vaccinology and clinical trial design and infrastructure. The Government is working with experts in this area to design the most appropriate mechanism for delivery.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will review her department’s decision not to permit the use of Evusheld for patient groups vulnerable to covid-19 this winter.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government has decided not to procure Evusheld for prevention through emergency routes at this time. This is a decision based on independent clinical advice by multi-agency RAPID C-19 and a United Kingdom national expert policy working group which considered the epidemiological context and pandemic response and recovery policies. However, we have referred Evusheld to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for evaluation.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when her Department will publish the Government’s Vaccine Strategy.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
Development of a vaccine strategy remains under review given the evolving understanding from the COVID-19 vaccination programme and the existing flu and routine immunisation programmes.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of (a) podiatry vacancy rates in the NHS in Rother Valley constituency and (b) the impact these vacancies will have on patient treatment for diabetic foot complications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the independent review by Dr Javed Khan OBE on preventing youth access to vaping products, whether his Department plans to provide funding for the implementation of the recommendation on promoting vaping as an effective tool to help people quit smoking tobacco.
Answered by Maggie Throup
We are considering the recommendations made by the Khan Review, including measures to protect children and young people from starting vaping and how vaping can be promoted as an effective tool to help people quit smoking tobacco. We are assessing a range of options, including the potential benefits of banning cartoon characters, images and flavour names which might be appealing to children.
In response to the Review, we will publish a new Tobacco Control Plan in due course, including any potential funding proposals related to vaping.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the independent review entitled the Khan review: making smoking obsolete, published in June 2022, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of that report's recommendations on restricting the use of youth-appealing (a) packaging and (b) flavour naming for e-cigarettes.
Answered by Maggie Throup
We are considering the recommendations made by the Khan Review, including measures to protect children and young people from starting vaping and how vaping can be promoted as an effective tool to help people quit smoking tobacco. We are assessing a range of options, including the potential benefits of banning cartoon characters, images and flavour names which might be appealing to children.
In response to the Review, we will publish a new Tobacco Control Plan in due course, including any potential funding proposals related to vaping.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency conducts physical tests on product samples when it scrutinises notified e-cigarette products.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) do not assess the environmental sustainability of vapes or e-cigarettes when reviewing product notifications. However, producers of vapes placing more than five tonnes of such equipment on the United Kingdom market each year are obliged to register with the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) producer compliance scheme.
If producers do not register with this scheme, the Environment Agency can take enforcement action. We are working with the Environment Agency to remind vape suppliers of the regulations related to the WEEE scheme and encourage registration.
While the MHRA is responsible for assessing data submitted by suppliers through the notification of products, this does not include testing products. Prior to submitting a notification, data must meet the minimum mandatory requirements, including declarations requiring the producer to take full responsibility for the product. Once these automated mandatory checks have been confirmed, the submission can be assessed by the MHRA for compliance with the regulations.