Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
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 that people with diabetes are not impacted by the shortage of Ozempic.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has worked intensively with pharmaceutical industry, NHS England, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and others in the supply chain to largely resolve the supply issues with GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), including Ozempic (semaglutide). Currently all strengths and presentations of Ozempic are available. We continue to monitor the supply of GLP-1 RA’s closely to ensure these medicines remain available for patients. Any patient concerned about their condition, or access to these medications, should speak to their prescriber in the first instance.
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what measures his Department is taking to (a) monitor and (b) regulate care home fees.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes commissioning a diverse range of care and support services that enable people to access quality care.
Section 4.31 of the Care and Support Statutory (CASS) guidance states that when commissioning services, local authorities should assure themselves and have evidence that the contract terms, conditions, and fee levels for care and support services are appropriate to provide the delivery of the agreed care packages with the agreed quality of care. Further information on the CASS guidance can be found at the following link:
Fee rates are set by providers of adult social care, the majority of which are in the independent sector. The Department does not have powers to set or recommend the level of fees that care homes charge.
As part of our monitoring of the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund grant conditions, and to understand fee rates more generally, local authorities are required to provide an annual return to the Department which includes data on the fee rates they pay care providers. The Government publishes this data annually, with the latest being available at the following link:
Please note this does not include data on fee rates for those that pay for their own care, known as self-funders.
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has any plans to introduce legislation requiring alcoholic beverages to display (a) full ingredient lists and (b) nutritional information in line with the labelling requirements for other food and drink products.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is mandatory for alcohol labels to state the product’s strength, namely alcohol by volume, and whether the product contains any of the 14 main allergens. There is also voluntary guidance on communicating the UK Chief Medical Officers' low risk drinking guidelines. There are no current plans to change mandatory labelling requirements on alcoholic products.
A National Institute for Health and Care Research-funded study on alcohol calorie labelling is underway to assess the impact of alcohol calorie labelling on product selection, purchasing, and consumption, which will report in 2026.