Covid-19 Update
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Matt Hancock(3 years, 10 months ago)
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Matt Hancock
The onshoring of vaccine manufacturing is an incredibly important part of our strategy. We were previously very, very good at the research and at the regulation of vaccines, but onshore manufacturing was sparse. We have built that manufacturing capability, including at Wockhardt on the Wrexham industrial estate, as my hon. Friend mentioned, and also now with production in Scotland, Teesside and elsewhere, with more to come. It is a strategic choice that this country should make that we should bring onshore the manufacturing in critical industries and of critical products such as vaccines, not least because there is not going to be a global glut of vaccine manufacturing capability for a long time to come. We are at the forefront of the science, and we should be at the forefront of the manufacturing and production.
Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP) [V]
Dr Wendy Jones, who operates the drugs in breastmilk helpline, is continuing to get queries from people who have been told that they cannot get the vaccination if they are breastfeeding, so could I ask the Secretary of State to make it absolutely crystal clear that there is not a contraindication and that those who are breastfeeding should get the covid vaccination?
Matt Hancock
I will ensure that the chief medical officer writes to the hon. Lady setting out the precise clinical details of this point, because while she is right, I do not want to opine on the clinical points; I want to make sure that that comes from the top doctor in the land.
Vaccine Roll-out
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Matt Hancock(3 years, 10 months ago)
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Matt Hancock
Yes. That last point is very important and we published extensive analysis that supports that view. On the broader point, we are going to look at the effectiveness in the real world of the vaccine as it is being rolled out and make sure that we look at who has been vaccinated and who is then testing positive in future to see the real-world effectiveness of the vaccine roll-out. Once we can see that effectiveness in the real world, we will then be able to consider all the different restrictions that are in place. Visiting care homes is obviously one of the restrictions that we had to bring in, but I entirely understand its consequences and the impact that it has on the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in society.
Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP) [V]
The UK has acquired the rights to vaccinate more than the entire population multiple times over, as have many other developed nations. Will the Secretary of State tell us what steps the UK Government are taking to make sure that surplus doses of the vaccine are shared with less developed countries around the world, and will he encourage other countries to do likewise?
Matt Hancock
We have put more money into the international effort to ensure that everybody around the world can be vaccinated than any other country. That is not just more as a proportion of our GDP; it is more cash that has gone into these international efforts across the UK. We can do that because of the strength of our international commitment as a country, so I am very pleased that we have been able to do that. Turning that money into vaccinations is important and a huge amount of work is being done by COVAX to make that happen. The UK can be proud of the work that we have done to support access for the most vulnerable, both in terms of the cash that we have put in and because it is UK research, backed by the UK Government, that has led to the Oxford vaccine, which is one of the two most appropriate for use in the developing world.
HIV Commission
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Matt Hancock(4 years ago)
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The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Matt Hancock)
Just a few minutes ago at this Dispatch Box, I was here to update the House on the national effort to fight the new pandemic of our times. As we grapple with this one pandemic of coronavirus, so too we need to look today at both the progress we have made and the progress still needed, to mourn the loss of those who have been taken from us, and to redouble our efforts in our fight against another killer pandemic, HIV.
Just like coronavirus, HIV was a challenge for humanity that, at times, especially early on, seemed almost impossible to surmount, but thanks to the ingenuity of scientists, the compassion of healthcare professionals and the determination of people living with HIV and their loved ones, we have made so much progress against this disease. So today, on World AIDS Day, let us all commit, across the House and in all parts of our country, to stand firm against the disease that threatens us and commit that we will give it no ground.
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Winchester (Steve Brine) for securing this debate. He worked tirelessly on this issue when he was a ministerial colleague—a brilliant Public Health Minister—and I want to tell the House in all honesty that he was absolutely pivotal to so many of the achievements and aspirations that we are discussing today. Without him, I wonder whether the 2030 commitment could have been made. We should all be grateful to him for his dedicated work in office and his continued powerful advocacy. He mentioned the “Don’t Die of Ignorance” campaign and I can tell him and the House that the early messaging in the coronavirus pandemic, including “Stay at Home”, was explicitly inspired by that campaign, which was so successful and so brave.
Every day when I walk into my Department, I walk past a list of my predecessors on the wall, and I feel honoured to follow in the footsteps of Lord Fowler, who did so much to tackle this pernicious virus and who, in particular, took a view and a judgment that we must face it on the basis of compassion and science. That was central to the decision that this country took all those years ago, and I am glad to say that we have followed it ever since.
We have made significant progress since those dark days when, as my hon. Friend said, HIV was a death sentence for so many. Now, if diagnosed early and with access to appropriate treatments, the majority of people with HIV in this country can have a life expectancy that is close to normal. I am so proud that, here, the overall number of people with a new HIV diagnosis has fallen by over a third over the past five years and that the number of gay and bisexual men with newly diagnosed HIV has fallen to its lowest point in 20 years. I am also really proud that, through the efforts of so many people, we have met our UNAIDS 90-90-90 target for the third consecutive year and that we were one of the first countries in the world to do so. That means more than 90% of people who live with HIV being diagnosed, more than 90% of those diagnosed getting treatment, and more than 90% of those who are treated having quantities of HIV that are so small that it is undetectable.
Alison Thewliss
The Secretary of State is talking about the excellent progress that has been made, and I acknowledge that that is true, but one area where there is still significant difficulty is among intravenous drug users, particularly in the city of Glasgow. We want the public health intervention of a supervised drug injection facility, but the Home Office is blocking this. Does he agree that there needs to be a public health approach to this, otherwise we will not be able to treat those remaining percentages of people who still have the virus?
Matt Hancock
I was immediately going to turn to say that despite the successes, there is further to go and we would all agree on that. We need to follow the evidence of what works and, crucially, we need to work together. I know that the Home Secretary has been working with the Administration in Scotland on the approach to be taken. The attitude that we should have is that every new case of HIV is one case too many.
That brings me to the commitment that we were able to make two years ago. At the suggestion of my hon. Friend the Member for Winchester, I announced the commitment to ending new HIV transmissions by 2030. I remember being told at the time that this was an ambitious target, but I know that we can get there. This year, we have been making PrEP routinely available across England to those who need it, and have backed that with funding for local authorities. None the less, it is really this report from the HIV Commission that shows us the way. I want to thank all those who have been involved: the Terrence Higgins Trust, of course; the National AIDS Trust; the Elton John AIDS Foundation; Public Health England; and work across the devolved Administrations. I also take this opportunity to thank Sir Elton for his exceptional personal advocacy for people living with HIV and the sterling work that he has done to raise money for HIV prevention and treatment across the world, and to thank all those who have played their part in getting us to where we are.
Let me turn now to the work of the commission itself. I know that colleagues across the House have played an active role in it. The report that the commission has published today makes many important recommendations for how we can progress on our path to zero. I pay tribute to all the commissioners for their hard work and thank each and every one of them. I wish to put on record my thanks and praise for Dame Inga Beale for her expert leadership.
My hon. Friend set out the core recommendations, which include the interim milestone of an 80% reduction in new HIV transmissions by 2025, early diagnosis at the core of the approach we should take and the default assumption of test, test, test—that sounds familiar, and we know that it works—as well, of course, as the expansion of testing.
The reason I wanted to come to the House personally tonight was so I could say this: we will use the excellent report of the HIV Commission as the basis of our upcoming HIV action plan, which I commit to publishing next year. I want that to be as early next year as is feasible to ensure that the work is high-quality, can be delivered and can set us fair on a credible path to zero new transmissions in 2030. I look forward to working with Members from all parts of the House in making that happen.
Covid-19 Update
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Matt Hancock(4 years, 1 month ago)
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Matt Hancock
The answer is yes, and I will add a third: visitors to care homes. I would like the testing regime to work for those people, to make visiting easier. When it comes to agency workers, we want to stop altogether people working in more than one care home, because that risks transmission. When it comes to carers who are unpaid but who go in regularly, we want to find a way for them to be added to the regular testing regime.
Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)
There was nothing in the Secretary of State’s statement about VAT on personal protective equipment, so will he update the House on what discussions he has had with the Treasury about scrapping the mask tax?
Matt Hancock
That is a matter for the Treasury, as the hon. Lady indicates. The truth is that we have made PPE freely available to health and social care and other public services until the end of this financial year.
Coronavirus
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Matt Hancock(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Matt Hancock
I like my right hon. Friend very much and wish that that were true. The reason why the Office for National Statistics does the surveillance testing is to ensure that we are constantly looking, on a national representative sample, at what the case rate is, as well as, of course, using the tests, and as we increase the testing numbers, we will inevitably find more of the cases that are there. The ONS survey published on Friday shows a rise in the numbers commensurate with the rise in the numbers of tests that have come back positive, and that does take into account the point about false positives, which is an important one.
Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)
Work is under way to set up a walk-through testing centre at Glasgow Caledonian University in my constituency, but with universities now returning, what additional capacity is being put in place to deal with what could be an additional surge of tests that need to be processed?
Matt Hancock
We are working with universities to try to ensure that testing is available as appropriate. Of course, that has to follow the wider prioritisation, but it is very important that universities right across the UK are ready for the return of students, including with testing, where that is appropriate, and we are working on that right now.
Covid-19 Response
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Matt Hancock(4 years, 6 months ago)
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Matt Hancock
I am delighted to say that the statistics published by the Office for National Statistics this morning show that the proportion of covid deaths in social care is falling, and that is very good news. I am very grateful to all those working in social care, and those working in local authorities to support those in social care, in Dudley and throughout the country. We have put in billions of pounds of extra funding, including £600 million just 10 days ago. We have to make sure that we support those working in social care, who look after some of the most vulnerable.
Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)
A growing number of constituents are getting in touch with me to express their concerns about the Public Health England report and the impact of coronavirus on ethnic minorities. The death rates of black and minority ethnic people are in many ways connected to people who have no recourse to public funds; people who are forced out to work when it is less safe for them to do so, because they are not entitled to statutory sick pay; and people who are in lower-paid jobs and, as in the case of Belly Mujinga, are less able to complain to their employers about their circumstances. Does the Secretary of State agree that it is one thing to say that black lives matter but quite another when he forces them out to work with no alternative?
Matt Hancock
It is very important that we look all the risk factors, including ethnicity, that have an impact. Indeed, that is what our broad approach has been, led by our shielding programme, whereby we have said that those who are most vulnerable should not leave the house at all until we were able to say this weekend—I am pleased to say—that it is safe for them to go, as long as they stay two metres apart from others.
Covid-19
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Matt Hancock(4 years, 8 months ago)
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Matt Hancock
The shielding measures, where we insist on the lowest possible social contact, are for people who have existing conditions and will be contacted by the NHS. For those over 70 who are healthy and, for instance, in work, as my hon. Friend says, we strongly advise them to minimise their social contact.
Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)
To prevent people from stockpiling and panic buying infant formula, will the Secretary of State speak to supermarkets and perhaps insist that they limit sales to two per family? In the event that breastfeeding support groups are unable to meet, will he direct people to the national breastfeeding helpline, which runs from 9.30 am to 9.30 pm every day?
Matt Hancock
I will look into the second point. On the first point, those conversations are happening.
Coronavirus
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Matt Hancock(4 years, 9 months ago)
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Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)
Last week I asked the Secretary of State about the advice given about coronavirus to DWP decision makers. We were not particularly reassured by the answers given by Department for Work and Pensions Ministers this morning, and that advice has still not appeared in our inboxes. Can he please follow that up?
Coronavirus
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Matt Hancock(4 years, 9 months ago)
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Matt Hancock
In the first instance, the best thing to do if you think you have coronavirus is not to go to a hospital or GP surgery but to ring 111, wherever you are in the UK. My hon. Friend is quite right on the other point he made.
Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)
I am strongly in favour of getting the habitually clarty to wash their hands, so I am glad that the Secretary of State is reinforcing that message. May I ask him specifically about the advice to Department for Work and Pensions decision makers? What advice has been circulated within the DWP, and can all elected Members get a copy of it, just in case any of our constituents find that that advice is not being followed through?
Matt Hancock
I will take that issue up with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Matt Hancock(5 years, 4 months ago)
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Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)
The prevention Green Paper talks about the risk of an opioid epidemic. In Scotland, we feel that that is already here, with 1,187 deaths in Scotland last year, 394 of them in Glasgow. Will the Secretary of State work with the Scottish Government and Glasgow health and social care partnership and support the opening of a medically supervised drug consumption room in Glasgow?
Matt Hancock
Yes, the risk of an opioid epidemic across the UK is a serious one. We have seen that risk materialise in the United States. I was as shocked as anyone to see the recent figures for the growth in opioid addiction in Scotland. While public health and the NHS are devolved to the Scottish Government, and they must lead on tackling this issue, for the UK elements of my responsibilities, we in England will do absolutely everything we can and put aside all party politics to tackle this serious problem.
Social Media and Health
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Matt Hancock(5 years, 7 months ago)
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Alison Thewliss
Thank you, Mr Speaker. My tactic of wearing a dress so big I can hide a colleague behind it is working.
Will the Secretary of State look at the harm that celebrity endorsements on social media can do to young people? The Empowered Woman project in Scotland highlighted how Marnie Simpson of “Geordie Shore” had been plugging Thermosyn diet pills, which are marketed as “skinny caffeine”. When I asked the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport about that, he said that the UK Government were looking at
“user-generated content, not necessarily commercial activities”—[Official Report, 8 April 2019; Vol. 658, c. 73.]
Celebrity endorsement veers into the commercial area, however, and has a very significant effect on young people in terms of body image and eating disorders.
Matt Hancock
My colleague the suicide prevention Minister is looking at this area, particularly endorsements of cosmetics, and I am sure she would be very happy to talk to the hon. Lady.
Access to Medical Cannabis
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Matt Hancock(5 years, 8 months ago)
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Matt Hancock
Yes. My heart goes out to the hon. Lady’s constituent and her family. One of the purposes of the evidence gathering that we are doing, and of the calls of the national institute for trials, is to provide the evidence on which the NHS could routinely provide those medicines. At the moment, we have the ability for specialists to prescribe in the interim, but I want to get the evidence base in place for the longer term.
Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)
One of my constituents—one of many who has been in touch with me about this issue—has multiple sclerosis and found previously that cannabis helped his symptoms immensely, but he does not want to break the law and he cannot get a prescription. What would the Secretary of State advise him to do?
Matt Hancock
If the hon. Lady will write to me with the case, we will get a second opinion from a clinician who may be able to make that prescription.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Matt Hancock(5 years, 8 months ago)
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Matt Hancock
Yes, of course, I would be very happy to meet my hon. Friend and talk about her constituent’s concerns.
Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)
I am wearing purple today for Epilepsy Day. What assessment has the Secretary of State made of the causes of ongoing shortages of epilepsy medications? What action is being taken to address those problems and what impact will Brexit have on the supply of those medicines?
Matt Hancock
I, too, am wearing purple—purple socks in my case—to support this important campaign. Of course, we have done enormous amounts of work across the NHS. I pay tribute to the NHS and to suppliers for working to ensure that, whatever the Brexit outcome, there will be the continued supply of medicines, but there is one thing that the hon. Lady can do if she really wants to make sure that we put this issue to bed once and for all—vote for the deal.
Eurotunnel: Payment
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Matt Hancock(5 years, 9 months ago)
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Matt Hancock
The settlement is £33 million. Of course, there are lawyers, and legal time was also needed inside the Department. That happens all the time in order to try to make sure that we can keep people safe, which is the whole purpose of this exercise.
Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)
The reality is that the Secretary of State is engaged in deflection. We are now in a situation where this country risks running out of vital medicines for each and every one of our constituents because of this Government’s relentless pursuit of a no-deal hard Brexit that will ruin this country. Is it not the case that this money that we are having to pay out is emblematic of the chaos in this Government and the incompetence of this Government and that our constituents will go without medicine because they cannot get their act together?
Matt Hancock
If the hon. Lady really, really believes what she just said, it is incumbent on her to vote for the deal.
NHS Long-term Plan
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Matt Hancock(5 years, 11 months ago)
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Matt Hancock
I entirely understand the hon. Gentleman’s argument. He is a reasonable man who makes reasonable arguments, and I will take it up with Mike Richards, who is running the screening review. I will ask Mike to write to him specifically on that point and to take it into account.
Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)
As the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on infant feeding and inequalities, I am glad that the long-term plan has a commitment to improving maternity services in England. The announcement on 30 December said that the UK Government are
“asking all maternity services to deliver an accredited, evidence-based infant feeding programme in 2019 to 2020, such as the UNICEF Baby Friendly initiative”.
What does the Secretary of State mean by “such as”? UNICEF Baby Friendly is the gold standard, as recognised by Scotland and Northern Ireland, which have 100% accreditation, but England has only 60% accreditation. Does he also acknowledge the need for community-based infant feeding support, such as peer supporters and health visitors, because it cannot just stop at the hospital door?
Matt Hancock
I pay tribute to the hon. Lady’s work as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on infant feeding and inequalities. She makes a strong and passionate case for breast feeding. I do not want to let the best be the enemy of the good. The proposal she cites is a proposal from the NHS. Of course, if other such services come forward, why should we be against it? I want to be clinically led in this area, but I very much support the thrust of her argument.
Prevention of Ill Health: Government Vision
Debate between Alison Thewliss and Matt Hancock(6 years, 1 month ago)
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Matt Hancock
There is such an important role here for employers. It is not part of the culture of the UK, except in some excellent examples, that employers take a proactive view of the health of their employees. Other countries around Europe do that much, much more systematically. I am attracted to the Dutch model, but there are others, too, and I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her support in doing that.
Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)
Breastfeeding has a significant preventive effect, and babies who are not breastfed are at greater risk of eczema, asthma, obesity, diabetes and sudden infant death syndrome, among other conditions. Scotland has invested in breastfeeding support and seen rates at six to eight weeks rise, whereas in England the rates have fallen for the second year running. Will the Secretary of State invest to bring all maternity and community services up to UNICEF’s baby-friendly standard, and will he act to make sure that women who wish to breastfeed are not being failed by the cuts in England?
Matt Hancock
The earlier that we can start with this sort of strategy of preventing ill health the better, and there is a lot of merit in a lot of what the hon. Lady said.