Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
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 assess the healthcare needs of disabled people with (a) neurodivergence, (b) learning disabilities and (c) other conditions during menopause.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No assessment has been made. The Department and the National Health Service are implementing a programme of work to improve menopause care so all women can access the support they need.
Under the Equality Act 2010, public sector organisations are already required to make changes in their approach or provision to ensure that services are accessible to disabled people as well as to everybody else. To make it easier for people with a learning disability and autistic people to use health services, NHS England is working to improve the use and recording of reasonable adjustments to ensure care is tailored appropriately.
All organisations that provide NHS care are required to follow the Accessible Information Standard which aims to ensure that people who have a disability, impairment or sensory loss are provided with information that they can easily read or understand and can communicate effectively with services. People over the age of 14 with a learning disability can receive an annual health check to maintain their health. This can identify undetected health conditions early and ensure the appropriateness of ongoing treatments.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department is taking steps to provide tailored information about menopause for (a) autistic people and (b) people with learning disabilities.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We have launched a women’s health area on the National Health Service website, alongside new and updated pages which includes a menopause page and a hormone replacement therapy (HRT) medicines hub. The NHS England Menopause Improvement Programme has created ‘The Menopause’ factsheet which will help individuals understand and manage their perimenopause and menopause and direct them to further sources of information.
NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers must comply with the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) to meet the communication needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss. NHS England has completed a review of the AIS to help ensure that everyone’s communication needs are met in health and care provision. The revised standard will be published in due course.
Following publication, NHS England will continue work to support implementation with awareness raising, communication and engagement and updated e-learning modules on the AIS to ensure NHS staff are better aware of the standard and their roles and responsibilities in implementing it.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she has taken to ensure that her policies on the menopause take into account the experiences of autistic people.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Menopause is a priority area within the Women’s Health Strategy, and the Department and the National Health Service are implementing a programme of work to improve menopause care so all women, including those who are autistic, can access the support they need. The NHS England National Menopause Care Improvement Programme is working to improve clinical menopause care in England and reduce disparities in access to treatment. The programme aims to ensure that individuals receiving menopause care are listened to and heard, including autistic people and women who are neurodiverse.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will hold discussions with relevant stakeholders in the beauty and aesthetics sector on developing a licensing scheme for non-surgical cosmetic procedures.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government intends to publish a public consultation on proposals for the scope of the treatments to be included within the licensing scheme for non-surgical cosmetic procedures later this summer. The Department continues to meet regularly with stakeholders to discuss the scope and development of the licensing scheme. As part of this work, I held a roundtable discussion with a broad range of stakeholders on 14 June. The Department will also work with stakeholders to determine the education and training requirements that practitioners will have to meet, alongside hygiene, cleanliness and indemnity requirements, to demonstrate that they can practise safely.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish a consultation on a licensing scheme for non-surgical cosmetic procedures.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government intends to publish a public consultation on proposals for the scope of the treatments to be included within the licensing scheme for non-surgical cosmetic procedures later this summer. The Department continues to meet regularly with stakeholders to discuss the scope and development of the licensing scheme. As part of this work, I held a roundtable discussion with a broad range of stakeholders on 14 June. The Department will also work with stakeholders to determine the education and training requirements that practitioners will have to meet, alongside hygiene, cleanliness and indemnity requirements, to demonstrate that they can practise safely.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of developing an aesthetics licensing scheme to provide (a) education, (b) training and (c) progression routes into the sector for (i) medical and (ii) non-medical practitioners.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government intends to publish a public consultation on proposals for the scope of the treatments to be included within the licensing scheme for non-surgical cosmetic procedures later this summer. The Department continues to meet regularly with stakeholders to discuss the scope and development of the licensing scheme. As part of this work, I held a roundtable discussion with a broad range of stakeholders on 14 June. The Department will also work with stakeholders to determine the education and training requirements that practitioners will have to meet, alongside hygiene, cleanliness and indemnity requirements, to demonstrate that they can practise safely.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
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 number of D150 applications for women's health products that have taken more than 150 days to be assessed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Will Quince
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) offers a 150-day assessment timeline for all high-quality marketing authorisation applications.
A total of 1,016 medicinal products have been waiting for MHRA marketing authorisation approval for more than 150 days. Of these, 36 are for women’s health.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
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 number of D150 applications that have taken more than 150 days to be assessed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Will Quince
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) offers a 150-day assessment timeline for all high-quality marketing authorisation applications.
A total of 1,016 medicinal products have been waiting for MHRA marketing authorisation approval for more than 150 days. Of these, 36 are for women’s health.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
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 causes of the time taken by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to process D150 applications.
Answered by Will Quince
Delays to the processing of marketing authorisation applications have resulted from a combination of factors, including implementation of new licensing pathways and the need to divert resource to deal with urgent and unforeseen public health issues like the COVID-19 pandemic. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is changing its assessment processes to speed up the processing of submitted applications. Resource issues are being addressed as a matter of priority with targeted recruitment. The MHRA is also implementing a new IT system to manage licensing applications and improve processing times.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
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 criteria used by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in granting licences for medicines.
Answered by Will Quince
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) together with the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) and its expert advisory groups (EAGs) operates procedures to support the development, evaluation and granting of licences of medicinal products. In the United Kingdom, all medicinal products for human use are subject to a system of licensing laid down by the UK Human Medicines Regulations (HMRs). Medicines licensing procedures protect public health by ensuring that harmful products do not get licensed and that products are licensed with appropriate indications, dosage, precautions and warnings. For a marketing authorisation to be granted, medicinal products have to meet pre-defined and stringent criteria on efficacy, safety and quality. A marketing authorisation can only be granted when the benefit-risk in relation to quality, safety and efficacy is found to be positive.
The MHRA has a number of licensing pathways available, with the aim of ensuring the products can be made available for patients in the UK in the shortest time possible and to support and protect public health. Common for all these procedures, is the focus on the quality, safety and efficacy of the product. The review is conducted by a multidisciplinary team of assessors, to ensure a thorough and broad assessment of the product. Independent advice from the CHM and its EAGs is sought for any complex issues or those that may pose a risk to patients or public health by the identification of Major Objections. Pharmaceutical companies are required to provide a risk management plan outlining known safety concerns, pharmacovigilance activities and risk minimisation measures. In addition, for novel products, additional safety monitoring is put in place for the early stages of the lifecycle.