Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Appendix 1 of the guidance by NHS England entitled Improving identification of people with a learning disability: guidance for general practice, published on 11 October 2019, what recent estimate she has made of the number of people that have a learning disability; and how many and what proportion of those people are (a) on the learning disability register and (b) not on the register despite having conditions that would automatically entitle them to be on the register.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are approximately 1.3 million people in England with a learning disability, according to Mencap figures. NHS England data shows that, as of March 2023, there were 347,840 people of all ages with a learning disability on the learning disability register in England. However, this learning disability register is voluntary, and not everyone chooses to register.
It is a statutory requirement under the Equality Act 2010 that public sector agencies make reasonable adjustments to their practice that will make them as accessible and effective as they would be for people without disabilities. NHS England has published guidance aimed at improving the identification of people with a learning disability, which is available at the following link:
General practices should review this guidance and update their registers at least annually, to ensure that they are accurate.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many women with autism were in mental health inpatient care settings in each of the last five years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The following table shows the number of female patients with either autism or autism and a learning disability in mental health care inpatient settings in England, in each of the last five years:
Year | Autism | Learning disability and autism | Total |
March 2020 | 270 | 115 | 390 |
March 2021 | 325 | 110 | 430 |
March 2022 | 375 | 110 | 485 |
March 2023 | 430 | 115 | 545 |
February 2024 | 395 | 90 | 490 |
Source: the data is taken from NHS England’s Assuring Transformation dataset, as of 28 February 2024.
Notes:
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have completed part two of the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism programme.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism is delivered in two tiers of training. Tier 1 is for those that require general awareness for their role, and Tier 2 is for those who may provide care for people with a learning disability or autism. Both tiers consist of two parts, and the first part of both tiers is an e-learning package, which over 1.7 million people have completed.
The second part of the Tier 1 training is an hour long online interactive session co-delivered by a person with a learning disability or an autistic person. The latest NHS England figures from December 2023 show that 12,741 people have completed the second part of the Tier 1 training.
The second part of the Tier 2 training is a full day, in-person training session co-delivered by a person with a learning disability or an autistic person. The latest NHS England figures from December 2023 show that 9,012 people have completed the second part of the Tier 2 training.
The numbers of staff having completed these training programmes is maintained by the NHS England regions, and reported to NHS England on a quarterly basis. These numbers are reported by integrated care boards, and are predominantly National Health Service staff.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to The national strategy for autistic children, young people and adults: 2021 to 2026, published in July 2021, how many additional children have received diagnoses of autism and related support as a result of the expansion of the school-based identification programme.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Through the Opportunity Area scheme, in 2021/22 the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education invested £600,000 into a pilot in Bradford through the Born in Bradford programme, which looked to improve early identification of autism and other neurodiverse conditions. This was subsequently adopted by four other Opportunity Areas as Early Identification of Autism Projects.
Information on how many additional children have received diagnoses of autism, and related support as a result of the programme, is not centrally held. The University of Manchester was commissioned to evaluate the Early Identification of Autism Projects, and their report will be published in due course.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what weighting her department is giving to (a) individual and (b) organisational stakeholder responses to the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010 consultation.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The consultation on the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010 closed in November 2023. As reflected in the published summary of responses, each response was treated equally during analysis, as is the standard approach for consultation response analysis. The Department and the UK Health Security Agency are considering the responses in total, and are grateful for the stakeholders’ engagement on this complex topic. Confirmation of any changes to the regulations will be published in due course.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to consult key sector stakeholders before final decisions are taken on proposed sexual health reporting amendments included in her Department's consultation entitled Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010: proposed amendments which closed on 15 November 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Patient confidentiality is of vital importance in sexual health to retain patients’ trust in services, and to encourage access to advice, testing, diagnosis, and treatment of sexually transmitted infections. A public consultation seeking views on proposals to amend the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations (HPNR) 2010 was held between 12 July and 15 November 2023. This included a commitment that any decision on adding specific sexually transmitted infections to schedule 2 of the regulations would be shaped by consultation responses and engagement with stakeholders.
The Department and the UK Health Security Agency are considering the responses to the consultation and are grateful for stakeholders’ continued engagement on this topic.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to her Department's consultation entitled Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010: proposed amendments which closed on 15 November 2023, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the inclusion of (a) gonorrhoea and (b) syphilis in the list of notifiable diseases on the (i) principle of confidentiality for sexual health service users and (ii) willingness of individuals to access sexual health services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Patient confidentiality is of vital importance to retain patients’ trust in sexual health services, and to encourage access to advice, testing, diagnosis, and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
A public consultation seeking views on proposals to amend the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010 was held between 12 July and 15 November 2023. This included the proposal to add specific STIs to schedule 2 of the regulations to strengthen surveillance. The consultation asked for views on the consequences of this change, including whether it could negatively impact public trust in the confidentiality of sexual health services and data and risk creating a barrier to accessing sexual services.
The Department and the UK Health Security Agency are considering the responses to the consultation and are grateful for stakeholders’ continued engagement on this topic.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many times the National Physical Activity Task Force has met; when those meetings took place; and how many (a) people and (b) women attended each of those meetings.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The National Physical Activity Taskforce (NPAT) was launched in September 2023 as part of the government sport strategy Get Active, to bring together government departments, the sport sector and independent experts to deliver coordinated and innovative policy that will help encourage people to get active.
The NPAT meets quarterly and has held two productive meetings since its launch. The inaugural meeting took place on 27 September 2023, the second on 12 December 2023 with the third scheduled for March 2024.
Each meeting includes standing representatives ex officio, as well as rotating members to ensure diverse representation from across the sport and physical activity landscape. Independent experts are invited on an ad-hoc basis to present key data sets relating to specific meeting topics.
The number of attendees and gender ratio varies at each meeting. The NPAT terms of reference, minutes, and names of attendees are published on gov.uk.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to deliver a national awareness campaign on breast cancer screening to help improve uptake.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is currently exploring opportunities for national campaigns to support positive outcomes on women’s health.
Work is underway to scope the feasibility of running a national campaign to support breast screening uptake, and this will be informed by pilot activity due to run in London in 2024/25.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reasons the NHS missed its target of 70% of invited women to be screened for breast cancer in 2022-23.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to improving uptake in the NHS Breast Screening Programme. NHS England has commissioned evaluative projects to understand why women are not coming forward for screenings, and ways to improve uptake, these include:
- actively following up with women who have missed an appointment or not engaged with the service;
- looking at the reasons why women do not attend screenings, to address any barriers; and
- assessing the impact on screening uptake using different invitation methodologies with reference to factors such as age, previous screening history including attendance at first invitation and subsequent invites, and deprivation.
These projects are expected to report by April 2024.