Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether public health funding grants to local authorities will be increased to meet the specific demands and needs of each local area.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Local authority spending through the public health grant will be maintained, meaning local authorities can continue to invest in prevention and essential frontline health services. Local authority public health grant allocations for 2021-22 will be subject to a detailed financial planning exercise and finalised in due course.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to announce further details of public health funding announced in the Spending Review 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Local authority spending through the public health grant will be maintained, meaning local authorities can continue to invest in prevention and essential frontline health services. Local authority public health grant allocations for 2021-22 will be subject to a detailed financial planning exercise and finalised in due course.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
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 effect of the formation of the National Institute for Health Protection on the allocation of public health grants to local authorities.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We do not expect the formation of National Institute for Public Health to have an impact on 2021-22 local authority public health grant allocations. Local authority public health grant allocations for 2021-22 will be subject to a detailed financial planning exercise and finalised in due course.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many applications there have been for the covid-19 Test and Trace Support Payment; and how many of those applications have been successful.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working closely with all 314 local authorities in England to collate information on the number of applications and successful applications for the Test and Trace Support Payment. We will publish this information in due course.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
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 ensure that the covid-19 testing system is accessible to people who do not have access to (a) the internet, (b) a mobile phone and (c) an email address.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
An email address and phone number are currently required to book a test. Individuals who do not have an email address can ask someone they trust, for example a family member, to receive their results.
Individuals who are not comfortable using the digital booking systems, can use 119 in England and Wales and 0300 303 2713 in Scotland and Northern Ireland to book a test.
As a priority, we are working on a non-digital solution. We expect to update further on this in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the new National Institute for Health Protection will take on Public Health England’s responsibilities in relation to the Wellbeing for Education Return programme.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Alongside the transition process to support full and formal establishment of the National Institute for Health Protection in 2021, we are considering the best future arrangements for Public Health England’s wider public health and health improvement functions. We will bring forward proposals in due course but are not envisaging any changes to where those responsibilities will sit before spring 2021.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Public Health England’s Every Mind Matters webpage and signposting to support will be transferred over to the new National Institute for Health Protection website.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Alongside the transition process to support full and formal establishment of the National Institute for Health Protection in 2021, we are considering the best future arrangements for Public Health England’s wider public health and health improvement functions. We will bring forward proposals in due course but are not envisaging any changes to where those responsibilities will sit before spring 2021.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many care homes will be involved in the pilot trialling the use of covid-19 tests to allow care home visits to take place.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The trial began on 16 November across 20 care homes in three local authorities: Cornwall, Devon and Hampshire. The care homes taking part in the trial were chosen from areas of low COVID-19 prevalence.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
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 implications for his policies of the report by the Teenage Cancer Trust entitled Cancer x Coronavirus: The Impact on young people.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The NHS Long Term Plan includes a number of commitments for improving the outcomes and experience of children, teenagers and young adults with cancer.
The revised service specifications outline how NHS England plans to deliver these commitments which includes implementing networked care, simplifying pathways and transitions between services, ensuring that every patient has access to specialist care and by increasing participation in clinical research.
It is expected that each network will agree the configuration of services within the first 12 months of publication.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the NICE technology appraisals for upcoming non-malignant haemoglobinopathy therapies will be rescheduled.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Two topics for non-malignant haemoglobinopathy therapies were affected by the COVID-19 pause. However, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is working to reschedule multiple appraisals back into its work programme to recover as quickly as feasibly possible.
Information regarding the current timeline for each appraisal topic is published on the individual topic webpage on the NICE website.