Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of imported foreign ambulances in use by the NHS in England.
Answered by Will Quince
No such estimate has been made by the Department. The procurement of ambulances is an operational matter for the National Health Service. Each new ambulance is required to meet strict technical specifications to ensure consistency in quality and safety across the fleet.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of ambulances in service are fully compliant with the latest British standards: CEN BS EN1789:2020.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held centrally. The procurement of ambulances is an operational matter for the National Health Service. Each new ambulance is required to meet strict technical specifications to ensure consistency in quality and safety across the fleet.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to update its guidance on surrogacy for (a) professionals, (b) surrogates and (c) people seeking to become parents through surrogacy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We have no current plans to update the guidance on surrogacy.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it remains his Department's policy to support surrogacy law reform; and what steps he will take to (a) consider and (b) give parliamentary time to the recommendations of the Law Commission on surrogacy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Law Commissions of England and Wales, and Scotland currently intend to publish a full report of their review of surrogacy legislation, with a draft bill, in Spring 2023. The Government will consider the report and legislative proposals upon the publication.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to bring forward legislative proposals on surrogacy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Law Commissions of England and Wales, and Scotland currently intend to publish a full report of their review of surrogacy legislation, with a draft bill, in Spring 2023. The Government will consider the report and legislative proposals upon the publication.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of offering the hepatitis A and B vaccinations as routine vaccinations rather than for high-risk groups.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The approach of vaccinating high-risk groups for both hepatitis A and B vaccination programmes is based on the government expert immunisation advisors, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The JCVI keeps the eligibility criteria of all vaccination programmes under review and considers new evidence as it emerges.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of making the yellow fever vaccine available on the NHS.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Yellow fever occurs in tropical and sub-tropical regions of Africa and South and Central America. There is no risk of transmission in the United Kingdom (UK) from imported cases of yellow fever since the mosquito vector does not occur in the UK. Therefore, there are no current plans make this vaccine available on the National Health Service.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to make up for the shortfall of NHS staff who may leave the NHS after refusing to take the covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We continue to encourage all health workers to make the positive choice to take up the COVID-19 vaccine to help protect the people they care for, themselves and their colleagues. We have implemented a 12-week grace period, allowing time for both workforce planning, and for those colleagues who are not yet vaccinated who may now wish to do so. The enforcement date of 1 April 2022 will assist providers over the winter and help to minimise workforce pressures. We are also increasing the range of opportunities for staff to receive the vaccine through walk-in and pop-up sites as part of the booster vaccination campaign.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have written to all providers providing early guidance on vaccination as a condition of deployment to ensure smooth implementation and have provided guidance to assist providers in preparation and planning. Guidance has also been provide on the use of one to one conversations for all unvaccinated National Health Service staff with line managers. We are also increasing engagement with targeted communities where uptake is lowest, including with ethnic minority and faith networks to encourage healthcare workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
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 patients are fully informed about the risks of procedures involving implanted materials and provide fully informed consent to those procedures.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The General Medical Council’s revised guidance ‘Decision making and consent’ came into effect in November 2020. The guidance specifies that doctors must give patients the information, time and support needed to make an informed decision about their treatment.
As part of its consultation on the reform of medical device regulation in the United Kingdom, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is currently considering what information should be provided to the patient at the point of consent and on receipt of the implant. The new regulatory approach is not yet finalised but the information considered includes warnings, precautions or measures to be taken by the patient or a healthcare professional and a caution that risk may emerge during use of an implantable device, including, where appropriate, on autoimmune disease and fibromyalgia. More information on the outcome of the consultation is expected to be published in early 2022.
The Department is putting in place mechanisms to ensure that the patient voice is routinely heard. This includes the creation of a statutory role of the Patient Safety Commissioner.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
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 prepare for a future pandemic caused by non-flu and non-coronavirus family viruses.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the new public health body focused on health protection and security, became fully operational on 1 October 2021 and includes the Centre for Pandemic Preparedness (CPP). Working with the CPP, the UKHSA will focus on protection from all future health threats, including pandemics, building on the enhanced capabilities deployed to tackle COVID-19 and other infectious disease outbreaks.
The UKHSA and the CPP will work across Government through the newly established Pandemic Diseases Capability Board to identify critical capabilities across the United Kingdom for pandemic disease preparedness which should be maintained, developed or initiated.