Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much NHS employers paid in Immigration Skills Charge (a) in 2017-18, (b) in 2018-19, (c) in 2019-20, (d) in 2020-21, (e) in 2021-22 and (f) to date in 2022-23.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve his Department's response times to correspondence from members of the public.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government recognises the importance of responding to members of the public in an effective and timely manner. The Cabinet Office published an updated ‘Guide to Handling Correspondence’ for Government Departments and agencies in July 2021.
The guidance reasserts the standards for handling correspondence, including a 20 working day deadline for Departments to respond to members of the public, criteria outlining when a response to a member of the public is required and when correspondence from a member of the public should be transferred to another Department. Following publication of the updated guidance, all Departments have been reminded that they must follow the processes outlined in the guidance.
To 17 October 2021, the Department has replied to 85% of cases from the public within its target of 18 working days. We aim to reply to 90% within this timeframe. We are deploying additional resource to improve this performance.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the legal basis is for the use of Covid Status Certification for attendance at domestic events as set out in the wording on the NHS App Covid-19 Status privacy policy.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Steps) (England) Regulations 2021 the Secretary of State may by direction disapply any relevant restriction or requirement in relation to specified premises, a specified event or a specified gathering, for the purposes of a research programme to evidence the potential transmission of coronavirus in controlled environments. The Government is running the Events Research Programme, as announced in February, and will use this research to trial a number of potential mitigations, including certification.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
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 NHS users are aware of the upcoming 23 June 2021 deadline to opt-out of patient data sharing plans.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS Digital proactively promoted the new collection approach with all media outlets, using social media channels to promote information including an animation which describes what is a complex area in easy to understand terms. Patient facing materials have been developed by NHS Digital for general practitioners to use.
Following the announcement that the data collection will be delayed until 1 September 2021, NHS Digital intends to use the next two months to continue to enhance communications and further raise awareness with the public about the new collection and its benefits.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what contingency planning has been undertaken by his Department to ensure the maintenance of reciprocal health care arrangements between the UK and the EU in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
On Friday 26 October, the Government introduced The Healthcare (International Arrangements) Bill which will provide the Government with the powers that are needed to fund and effectively implement arrangements for United Kingdom nationals to obtain healthcare abroad after the UK exits the European Union.
The Bill is part of the Government’s preparations for EU Exit and will ensure that whatever the outcome of EU Exit, we can take the necessary steps to continue reciprocal healthcare arrangements or otherwise support UK residents to obtain healthcare when they move to or visit the EU.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to promote continued UK co-operation and collaboration with (a) EUROCAN and (b) other European Reference Networks.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government has noted the importance of continued collaboration with European partners in the 2017 policy paper ‘Collaboration on Science and Innovation: A Future Partnership Paper’. The paper expressly cited European Reference Networks (ERNs) as an example of collaboration that the United Kingdom and European Union should discuss in the negotiations, given the mutual benefits.
The Government published the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases in 2013, which set out a vision to 2020 covering five areas including patient empowerment, identification and prevention of rare diseases, diagnosis and early intervention, coordination of care and the role of research. ERNs are a key way to deliver the five themes of the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases Strategy. The UK participates in 23 of 24 ERNs across a total of 113 separate Healthcare Providers in England and the devolved nations, including in ERN-EURACAN.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
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 developed to continue the UK’s participation in the European Reference Networks after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government has noted the importance of continued collaboration with European partners in the 2017 policy paper ‘Collaboration on Science and Innovation: A Future Partnership Paper’. The paper expressly cited European Reference Networks (ERNs) as an example of collaboration that the United Kingdom and European Union should discuss in the negotiations, given the mutual benefits.
Recently, the Europe-wide ERN community and EURODIS have written to the European Commission and UK Government to “call upon the European Commission and the UK Government to ensure that a solution is found so that the UK healthcare providers can continue to participate in the ERNs and all our patients can benefit from our collaboration”. The Government’s response signalled its commitment to act in the best interest of rare diseases patients – an area of mutual interest between the UK and EU27 - in the negotiations with EU partners.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number of people who work in the NHS who were born in Commonwealth countries and arrived in the UK before 1971.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Department does not hold the information centrally.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy that when revised UK Chief Medical Officers' Guidelines on keeping health risks from drinking alcohol to a low level, published in January 2016, are communicated to the public they are placed in the context that moderate alcohol consumption can be part of a healthy lifestyle for people that choose to drink.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The UK Chief Medical Officers’ alcohol guidelines give the public the latest and most up to date scientific information so that they can make informed decisions about their own drinking.
It is however important that the new guidelines are clear and understandable and take into account the responses to the consultation.
We will publish the final guidelines and the government response to the consultation as soon as possible.