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Written Question
Measles: Children
Wednesday 13th December 2023

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

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 reduce children’s exposure to measles.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is working closely with NHS England, the Department and wider health system partners at the national, regional and local levels to ensure the health system is prepared and can respond to outbreaks. Briefing notes and letters have been sent to the National Health Service and health professional organisations to remind them of existing guidance and ask them to seek assurance of their preparedness to manage measles cases and prevent outbreaks in their settings. National Measles guidance has been updated, and a range of resources have been published including posters and training resources, which are all available at the following links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-measles-guidelines

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-information-and-poster-for-health-professionals

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/measles-guidance-data-and-analysis

In January 2024, a national multi-agency exercise is planned to assess the system-wide preparedness to respond to a large measles outbreak at a regional and national level.

UKHSA, NHS England, the Department and wider health system partners are also working to raise public awareness of the risks and increase measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination coverage, including through national and regional call-recall exercises, communication campaigns and targeted outreach for underserved communities. NHS England has agreed with general practices to focus their annual campaign on local call recall for MMR to ensure that consistent efforts are made to contact those eligible who have not taken up a vaccine offer between November 2023 and March 2024. A national call recall for individuals aged six years old up to and including 25 years old who are not up to date with their MMR vaccine is planned for 2024.


Written Question
Vaccination: Children
Wednesday 13th December 2023

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

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 adequacy of children’s access to vaccination services.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The Government is committed to improving vaccination uptake rates to fully protect the public from vaccine preventable diseases. The Department works with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and NHS England to improve children’s access to vaccination services through diverse delivery methods, making getting vaccinated easier for all, including those in traditionally under-served groups. NHS England has rolled out additional programmes such as NHS England London’s new drive to increase measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine uptake last summer to improve immunisation coverage for children and catch-up missed vaccinations due to the pandemic.

The Department is working with NHS England and UKHSA to encourage high uptake of all childhood vaccinations, including the polio vaccine, with NHS England London launching the next phase of their polio campaign, delivering a school-based catch-up for children aged between one and 11 years old. This will also provide opportunities to catch up children for other important childhood vaccines, including MMR.


Written Question
Smoking
Wednesday 18th October 2023

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement of 17 April 2023 on Achieving Smokefree 2030: cutting smoking and stopping kids vaping, HCWS710, whether his Department has made an assessment of modelling on the potential effectiveness of each of the proposed steps in helping reduce smoking rates to 5% or less by 2030.

Answered by Neil O'Brien

Annex 1 of ‘Stopping the start: our new plan to create a smokefree generation’ sets out the modelling used to forecast changes in smoking prevalence over time based on legislating for a smokefree generation. This modelling is preliminary and will continue to be further refined ahead of publication of a full impact assessment.

Annex 1 is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/stopping-the-start-our-new-plan-to-create-a-smokefree-generation/annex-1-modelling-assumptions


Written Question
Mental Illness: Community Care
Wednesday 21st June 2023

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many crisis houses are managed by the NHS as of June 2023.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

There are currently around 600 different types of crisis alternatives services operating across the country, including around 70 crisis houses, providing an alternative to accident and emergency or psychiatric admission. This number will continue to grow with further investment over the remaining NHS Long Term Plan period to March 2024. NHS England has advised that the number of crisis houses which are National Health Service commissioned but not managed by NHS staff is not held centrally.


Written Question
Mental Health Services
Wednesday 21st June 2023

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many crisis houses are commissioned by the NHS but not managed by its staff.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

There are currently around 600 different types of crisis alternatives services operating across the country, including around 70 crisis houses, providing an alternative to accident and emergency or psychiatric admission. This number will continue to grow with further investment over the remaining NHS Long Term Plan period to March 2024. NHS England has advised that the number of crisis houses which are National Health Service commissioned but not managed by NHS staff is not held centrally.


Written Question
Electronic Cigarettes: Passive Smoking
Monday 12th June 2023

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the impact on public health of second-hand vapour from e-cigarettes in public spaces.

Answered by Neil O'Brien

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, previously Public Health England (PHE), has published detailed evidence updates on vapes (e-cigarettes) since 2014.

The last report, published in 2022, assesses the impact on public health of second-hand vapour from e-cigarettes in public spaces. This can be seen in Chapter 7 ‘Biomarkers of Secondhand exposure’. The full report is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1107701/Nicotine-vaping-in-England-2022-report.pdf

In summary, there is limited published evidence of harm to bystanders from exposure to e-cigarette vapour and the available evidence indicates that any risk of harm is extremely low, especially when compared with tobacco smoke. PHE also published advice on the use of vapes in public places and workplaces in 2016 which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/use-of-e-cigarettes-in-public-places-and-workplaces


Written Question
Fats
Monday 15th May 2023

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

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 prevalence of trans fats in food in the UK.

Answered by Neil O'Brien

No estimate has been made. The most recent data from the United Kingdom National Diet and Nutrition Survey, collected between 2016 and 2019, show that average trans fat intakes in the UK are 0.5-0.6% of total energy intake for adults, and 0.5% for children. This is well within the UK recommended maximum of no more than 2% of total energy.

Trans fat intakes in the UK have declined substantially since the 1980s and 1990s due to the voluntary removal of artificial trans fats from processed foods by the food industry, with some additional work to reduce levels of trans fats in food being undertaken between 2011 and 2013.


Written Question
Autism: Children
Tuesday 7th March 2023

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - 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 help ensure that adequate mental health care is available for children with autism and those awaiting autism diagnoses.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The transformation of Children and Young People’s Mental Health services is a priority for the National Health Service. We are increasing access to support for those that need it, including autistic children and children with a learning disability with mental health needs. The NHS Long Term Plan, includes a commitment that an additional 345,000 children and young people aged 0 to 25 years old will have access to NHS-funded mental health support, including in new Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges, by 2024.

For people and families who are waiting to have an autism assessment, we know that this is a challenge. NHS England is currently developing a national framework to support partners in local areas to commission and deliver autism assessment services for children, young people and adults. The aim of this work is to improve access to and the quality of these assessment processes and to reduce the time that people wait for an assessment. The framework will be published in due course.


Written Question
Dental Services: Enfield Southgate
Monday 20th February 2023

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

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 the availability of NHS dentists in Enfield Southgate constituency.

Answered by Neil O'Brien

NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population. Many of the dentistry commissioning functions undertaken by NHS England will transfer to integrated care boards (ICBs) from April 2023. ICBs will be responsible for meeting the needs of their local population of all ages, working with patient groups. NHS England has made available to commissioners an Assurance Framework to provide assurances on commissioning.

In circumstances where a patient is unable to access an urgent dental appointment directly through a National Health Service dental practice, they are advised to contact NHS 111 for assistance.

In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’ which sets out how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to NHS dental care whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices. These changes have been implemented, including through regulations that came into effect on 25 November 2022.

NHS England is holding further discussions with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders for additional reforms of the NHS Dental System planned to take place in 2023.


Written Question
NHS: Pay Settlements
Friday 13th January 2023

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the criteria are for selecting members of the NHS pay awards body; and what steps his Department is taking to help ensure the independence of that body.

Answered by Will Quince

Members of the NHS Pay Review Body are appointed following an open recruitment process which is run in accordance with the Governance Code on Public appointments and is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Job description and person specifications setting out the essential criteria for the role vary slightly depending on the member vacancy advertised. The Office of Manpower Economics provides an independent secretariat to the pay review bodies separately from the Department.