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Written Question
Dental Services: Houghton and Sunderland South
Friday 20th October 2023

Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)

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 improve access to NHS dental services in Houghton and Sunderland South constituency.

Answered by Neil O'Brien

We are currently working on a plan for dentistry to improve access to dental care across England, including in Houghton and Sunderland South constituency. There are several fronts where we need to take further action to support and recover activity in National Health Service dentistry, to improve access to care for all ages.

Our dentistry recovery plan will build upon the first package of reforms agreed in July 2022, which included changes to banding and the introduction of a minimum Units of Dental Activity value. Our plan will include addressing how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients, and how we make NHS work more attractive to ensure dentists are incentivised to deliver more NHS care.

It is now a legal requirement for dentists to update their information on the NHS website to improve the information available to patients. These regulations came into effect in November 2022. Patients who are struggling to find a local dentist can contact NHS England’s Customer Contact Centre for assistance or contact NHS 111 if seeking urgent care.

NHS England has recently provided guidance for integrated care boards (ICBs) that requires dental funding to be ringfenced, with any unused resources re-directed to improve NHS dental access in the first instance. This includes in Houghton and Sunderland South constituency.

Additional funding has been made available by ICBs to local practices, including in Houghton and Sunderland South constituency, which have the capacity to deliver additional clinical sessions outside of their normal opening hours. This is to provide treatment to patients with urgent dental care needs, as well as for the prioritisation of looked after children and unscheduled care patients with dental complaints and complex high care needs. This pilot scheme is in place until the end of March 2024.


Written Question
Department of Health and Social Care: Electronic Messaging
Wednesday 9th November 2022

Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the previous Minister for Care shared, sent or received information relating to her Ministerial duties using a personal (a) device, (b) email address and (c) mobile phone number.

Answered by Will Quince

The Cabinet Office has published guidance to Departments on the use of private email covering how information is held for the purposes of access to information and how formal decisions are recorded for the official record. Departmental Ministers are aware of the guidance and Government business is conducted in line with this. Ministers will have informal conversations from time to time, in person or remotely and relevant content from such discussions is passed back to officials.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Vaccination
Tuesday 25th October 2022

Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children who were aged (a) 5-11, (b) 12-15, (c) 16-17 years old; at the start of the 2021-22 academic year had received (i) one dose, (ii) two doses and (iii) three or more doses of a covid-19 vaccination as at 1 October 2022; and if she will make a statement.

Answered by Caroline Johnson

The following table shows doses administered by the age groups requested as of 1 October 2022

Age group

First doses administered

Second doses administered

Three or more doses administered

5 to 11 years old

557,221

288,360

974

12 to 15 years old

1,516,736

1,126,864

25,708

16 to 17 years old

903,910

714,702

192,913

Source:

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/vaccinations?areaType=nation%26areaName=England#card-vaccination_uptake_by_vaccination_date_age_demographics


Written Question
Coronavirus: Schools
Monday 17th October 2022

Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 30 June 2022 to Question 22411 on Coronavirus: Schools, (a) when in October 2022 she expects to receive the findings of the Rapid Covid-19 Air Disinfection Study; (b) whether she will place in the Library of the House of Commons copies of such presentations as she or the Secretary of State for Education intend to share with school leaders and teachers; and (c) what arrangements she has made to share the findings with trade unions representing teachers and also trade unions representing other school staff.

Answered by Caroline Johnson

The Rapid Covid-19 Air Disinfection Study plan to share interim results with the UK Health Security Agency and the Department for Education shortly. The results will subsequently be published in peer reviewed journals. While there are no current plans to share findings with any third parties at present, results will be made available to school leaders, teachers, trade unions and all other interested parties in due course.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Schools
Thursday 30th June 2022

Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 6 January 2022 to Question 94344 on Schools: Coronavirus, whether the trial of ventilation technologies taking place in primary classrooms in Bradford has concluded; between which dates the trial was actively collecting data; when he expects to publish the results of that trial; how he plans to disseminate the results of that trial; what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on that trial; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Maggie Throup

The Rapid Covid-19 Air Disinfection Study (RCADS) is due to report in October 2022. The trial commenced data collection in September 2021 and is ongoing. The results will be published in due course following the end the of the trial and disseminated through peer reviewed journals, presentations at conferences for members of the scientific community, school leaders and teachers and across the Government. Delivery of the study is overseen by the RCADS Working Group, which includes officials from Department for Education.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Schools
Friday 28th January 2022

Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2022 to Question 94344 on Schools: Coronavirus, what engagement he has had with representatives of businesses (a) manufacturing and (b) fitting air purification technology in the UK (i) before the tender was published, (ii) after the tender was published but before the contract was awarded and (iii) since the contract was awarded.

Answered by Maggie Throup

This tendering was undertaken initially by NHS Test and Trace who explored the market with a variety of representatives of businesses involved in manufacturing and fitting air purification technologies prior to issuing the tender. There was no engagement with businesses involved with this technology between issuing the tender and awarding the contract. The UK Health Security Agency followed public procurement policy, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/public-sector-procurement-policy

Officials have ongoing discussions with successful suppliers as part of setting up the study and the ongoing management of the contract(s).


Written Question
Coronavirus: Vaccination
Thursday 27th January 2022

Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, by what date he estimates all eligible (a) 12 to 15 year olds and (b) 16 to 17 year olds will have received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine; whether he has set any targets for particular percentages of each of those age groups to have received at least one dose; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Maggie Throup

The Government met its target of offering a first dose of the Pfizer vaccine to all 16 and 17-year-olds in England on 23 August 2021.

NHS England and NHS Improvement do not have estimated timescales or associated targets for ensuring individuals will have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, including for (a) 12 to 15-year-olds and (b) 16 to 17-year-olds.


Written Question
Schools: Coronavirus
Tuesday 18th January 2022

Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2022 to Question 94344 on Schools: Coronavirus, whether he plans to publish the full results of the trial as soon as possible.

Answered by Maggie Throup

The results of the trial will be published in due course, following the end of the school year.


Written Question
Schools: Coronavirus
Tuesday 18th January 2022

Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2022 to Question 94344 on Schools: Coronavirus, what assessment he made, before commencing that trial, of relevant evidence from research into the use of similar equipment for similar purposes (a) in the UK and (b) overseas.

Answered by Maggie Throup

The trial was selected from an environmental innovations workshop in January 2021, where several technologies were presented by experts to an evaluation panel. The assessment was supported by advice from the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies’ Environmental Modelling Group in their paper ‘Potential application of air cleaning devices and personal decontamination to manage transmission of COVID-19’ and the Royal Academy of Engineering.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Schools
Tuesday 18th January 2022

Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2022 to Question 94344 on Schools: Coronavirus, on what date discussions were first held between his Department and the the Department for Education on the trial’s (a) design, (b) funding and (c) timeline.

Answered by Maggie Throup

Officials from the Department for Health and Social Care and the Department for Education first held discussions on 6 November 2020.