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 reduce perineal injury during vaginal deliveries.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Integrated care boards are rolling out the Perinatal Pelvic Health Services (PPHS) across England, to reduce the rates of perineal tears and improve outcomes for women.

A national service specification was published in October 2023 that set out the expected standards of care for prevention, identification, and access to physiotherapy for pelvic health issues during pregnancy and at least one year after birth. This includes the implementation of the Obstetric Anal Sphincter Injuries (OASI) care bundle to reduce perineal injury in childbirth, which is a significant factor for pelvic health problems. This included perineal training and a new best practice framework for healthcare professionals, covering prevention and care under the OASI pathway. Further information on the service specification is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/PRN00147-Service-specification-perinatal-pelvic-health-services.pdf

PPHS’ also work with maternity and physiotherapy services to provide quality information about the risk of developing pelvic health problems, key signs of pelvic floor dysfunction, and preventative measures like pelvic floor exercises.

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 adequacy of the uptake of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine among eligible infants.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Official vaccine coverage estimates for the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine are measured for eligible children at three months and 12 months old, and are published quarterly by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), and annually by NHS England. The UKHSA’s quarterly figures and NHS England’s annual figures are available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cover-of-vaccination-evaluated-rapidly-cover-programme-2024-to-2025-quarterly-data

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-immunisation-statistics/england-2023-24

The latest data captures BCG coverage at the age of three months old for children born 1 January to 31 March 2024, and at 12 months old for children born 1 April 2023 to 30 June 2023. Measured at three months, coverage in England was 77.4%, and measured at 12 months, it was 84.5%.

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 adequacy of NHS preparedness for a pandemic.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Ensuring the United Kingdom is prepared for a future pandemic is a top priority for the Government, and the Department continuously reviews and updates our pandemic preparedness to reflect the latest scientific information, lessons learned from exercises, and our response to previous emergencies.

The Department is working with NHS England, the UK Health Security Agency, and its partners across the health and care system to maintain a flexible and scalable set of capabilities which can be adapted to respond to any future threats, across all routes of infectious disease transmission. The Department’s approach to pandemic preparedness also takes into account the underlying resilience of the health and care system.

NHS England is an active participant in this work and has made several improvements that will help resilience in a future pandemic, including on the coordination and escalation of a national healthcare response, high consequence infectious disease and infectious disease capacity, and critical care capacity, surge and transfer plans.

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 the uptake of routine childhood immunisations.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

In England, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) works closely with NHS England, the Department, and wider health system partners at the national, regional, and local levels to improve uptake of the routine childhood immunisations and catch-up children who missed out.

The first UKHSA Childhood Immunisation communication campaign, encouraging parents to ensure their child’s vaccinations were up to date, ran from 4 March until mid-April 2024. The most recent campaign ran from 26 August until 4 October 2024.

To raise awareness of potential vaccination benefits and increase awareness of the programmes the UKHSA also provides a comprehensive suite of public facing resources, including information leaflets in multiple languages and accessible formats, for instance easy read, British Sign Language, and braille, and provides comprehensive clinical guidance, including e-learning programmes and training, for healthcare professionals.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his planned timetable is to bring forward legislation to regulate NHS managers.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

This Government recognises the importance of ensuring that the NHS has strong and effective leadership in place, and we are committed to introducing professional standards for, and regulation of NHS managers. On 26 November 2024 we published a consultation seeking views from stakeholders on options for regulating NHS managers. The consultation will close on 18 February 2025. We will carefully consider responses to the consultation and set out next steps in due course.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to the minimum wage announced in the Autumn Budget 2024 on the cost of childcare.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Autumn Budget 2024 confirmed £1.8 billion in the 2025/26 financial year to support the expansion of the early years entitlement offer for eligible working parents from 15 hours to 30 hours from September 2025. This £1.8 billion will mean the budget for childcare entitlements next year will be over £8 billion, reflecting the additional money needed for the 30 hour expansion, and ensuring funding for the entitlements reflects the national living wage.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact of the increases to employers national insurance contributions on the cost to parents of pre-school childcare.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

I refer the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham to the answer of 11 November 2024 to Question 12804.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information his Department holds on the number of vape (a) distributors, (b) importers, (c) manufacturers and (d) producers that are registered with (i) the Environment Agency and (ii) a producer compliance scheme under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations (WEEE) 2013.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Environment Agency maintains a public register of registered producers and approved compliance schemes under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013. There are currently 34 registered vape producers in the UK.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009, how many times his Department has taken enforcement action in relation to vape (a) distributors, (b) importers, (c) manufacturers and (d) producers that have not registered with an appropriate authority in (a) 2023 and (b) 2024 to date.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

No enforcement action has been taken against vape producers or distributors under the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009 in either 2023 or 2024 to date.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009, what information his Department holds on the number of vape (a) distributors, (b) importers, (c) manufacturers and (d) producers registered with (i) the Environment Agency and (ii) a producer compliance scheme.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Environment Agency (EA) holds a public register of battery producers and approved battery (producer) compliance schemes. Only battery producers that qualify as large producers are required to join a battery compliance scheme. Large producers are those that place more than one tonne of batteries on the UK market during a year.

There are currently 25 vape producers that are also registered as battery producers, 21 of which have joined a battery producer compliance scheme.

There is no regulatory requirement for battery distributors to register with the EA or a producer compliance scheme.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of elderly people have received their (a) influenza, (b) RSV and (c) covid-19 vaccination in the last six months.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

As of 17 November 2024, 68.7% of those aged 65 years old and over had been vaccinated for influenza, whist 54.2% had been vaccinated for COVID-19.

The respiratory syncytial virus adult vaccination programme in England began on 1 September 2024, however only data for the catch-up cohort, adults aged 75 to 79 years old before the programme start date, has been published. As of 30 September, 22.6% of the catch-up cohort had been vaccinated. Further data will be published in due course.

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 there is an adequate supply of (a) donated blood and (b) blood products.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for the collection, manufacture, and supply of blood and blood products to National Health Service hospitals.

The Department provided seed funding in 2023 to support NHSBT to increase its collection capacity. New donor centres will open in Brixton and Brighton in 2025 to increase and diversify the donor base.

Since July 2024, NHSBT has been responding to an Amber Alert for O group blood. NHSBT is now meeting the demand for blood and blood products, thanks to increased donations and better management of stock.

With respect to blood products, the Department, in conjunction with NHSBT and NHS England, has led a programme to increase self-sufficiency and resilience in life-saving plasma-based medicines, in response to the lifting of the ban on United Kingdom donor plasma in 2021. The first of these medicines will be given to NHS patients in early 2025.

NHSBT runs campaigns throughout the year, partners with trusted brands, and funds community groups to promote both donation of blood and blood products, stem cells, and organs.

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 rates of tuberculosis in (a) adults and (b) children in each of the last ten years.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The following table shows the total number and rate of tuberculosis (TB) notifications in England, each year from 2012 to 2024:

Notes:

1. for 2023, the provisional data rate is awaited; and
2. for 2024, data is only available up to September.

Data on rates of TB in adults alone is not published. In line with the reporting to the World Health Organisation, children are defined as those aged under 15 years old. The following table shows the number and rate of TB notifications in children in England from 2012 to 2022:

Provisional data is not subdivided by age, hence the data in the tables is presented up to 2022, where age specific rates are available. TB rates in children have been declining since 2012 and remained stable at 1.3 per 100,000 in 2021 and 2022.

TB data for England is published by the UK Health Security Agency, and is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tuberculosis-in-england-2023-report-data-up-to-end-of-2022

Provisional TB data for England is published quarterly, with the latest quarterly reports available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tuberculosis-in-england-national-quarterly-reports

Detailed data for 2023 will be published in the TB in England 2023 annual report.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013, how many times the Office for Product Safety and Standards has taken enforcement action in relation to vape (a) distributors, (b) importers, (c) manufacturers and (d) producers that have not registered with an appropriate authority in (a) 2023 and (b) 2024 to date.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Distributors are not required to register under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2013. There are takeback obligations on vape distributors which are enforced by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS). OPSS regulates in a proportionate, evidenced and risk-based manner, that utilises a range of regulatory interventions to promote compliance. OPSS has taken no enforcement action, such as prosecutions, on vape distributors in either 2023 or 2024. OPSS has, however, been working closely checking compliance with distributors through 2024 to build the takeback network with some 10,500 points added so far this year.

Importers and manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment are required to register with their appropriate environment regulator, with companies based in England registering with the Environment Agency. OPSS does not have an enforcement role under the WEEE regulations in respect of importers and manufacturers, whether registered or not.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) people and (b) children are living with long covid.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The most recent data from the Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study, a joint study carried out by the Office for National Statistics and the UK Health Security Agency, shows that, for the period between 6 February 2024 and 7 March 2024, an estimated 1.8 million people across all ages, or 3.3% of the population, in private households in England, reported experiencing long COVID symptoms more than four weeks after a COVID-19 infection.

The data shows that for the same period, an estimated 111,816 or 1% of those aged between three and 17 years old, in private households in England and Scotland, reported experiencing long COVID symptoms more than four weeks after a COVID-19 infection.

The data is available at the following link:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/datasets/

Found: the meeting Members present: Helen Hayes (Chair); Jess Asato; Mrs Sureena Brackenridge; Dr Caroline Johnson

Submit Evidence (by 30 Jan 2025)

A number of recent reports have set out in detail the extent of the crisis in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system, which is letting down children and their families, creating intense pressure on local authority funding and on schools.