Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the current absence of an NHS provider of phalloplasty surgery, what steps the Government is taking to ensure the resumption of NHS phalloplasty surgery for trans men.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The contract for phalloplasty services is currently out to tender with a view for rapid contract award.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will (a) publish the criteria used to determine whether to place countries on the red list of travel ban countries; and (b) provide financial support to low-income families returning from newly added red list countries to cover costs incurred whilst self-isolating in Government-approved hotel quarantine facilities.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Decisions to place countries on the ‘red list’ are taken by Ministers informed by evidence including the Joint Biosecurity Centre’s analysis as well as other relevant information about the risk of the spread of variants. The methodology for risk assessments that inform ministerial decisions is available at the following link:
For those facing significant financial hardship as a result of the managed quarantine charge, there is an opportunity to apply for a deferred repayment plan when booking.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, will the Minister confirm, with reference to the Answer of 29 April 2021 to Question 188073, for what reasons his Department's guidance, Testing for coronavirus: privacy information confirms that personal details are passed to a company not in charge of delivery of polymerase chain reaction tests for home testing.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The reference to names and addresses being shared with Amazon is now out of date. Royal Mail Group have held the contract for the delivery of COVID-19 home test kits since 14 December 2020.
We follow best practice to help protect personal information and comply with the law on the use of data, including the Data Protection Act 2018 and also require our suppliers to do so.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
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 support the rollout of covid-19 vaccines to people who are not registered with a GP surgery.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Department has introduced the General Practice COVID-19 vaccination programme 2020/21 Enhanced Service Specification, which enables practices to vaccinate unregistered patients within their eligible priority cohort, therefore increasing accessibility.
National Health Service regional teams, working with various partners, will contact those individuals not registered with a general practitioner to ensure that they are offered appropriate support to receive the vaccine and avoid inequalities in access.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what delivery supplier is being used for the delivery of covid-19 PCR tests; and whether that contract was put out to tender.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The delivery supplier of polymerase chain reaction tests for home testing is Royal Mail Group. This contract was put out to tender.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether covid-19 lateral flow testing swabs are coated in any chemical or other substance; and what assessment his Department has made of the safety of those testing swabs.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to support (a) women's health issues and (b) women with womb related health concerns including fibroids and endometriosis.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government has embarked on the first Government-led Women’s Health Strategy for England. To ensure the strategy reflects what women identify as priorities, we launched a call for evidence on International Women’s Day which will run for twelve weeks.
The call for evidence seeks to examine women’s experiences of the whole health and care system, including conditions that affect women, female-specific issues such as pregnancy and postnatal support and gynaecological conditions such as endometriosis and fibroids.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to (a) support trans people and (b) reduce the waiting time for trans people to access treatment provided by the NHS.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
To address waiting times and support trans people, a new service specification has been developed to deliver services in local health settings. Three new clinics, operating under this specification, have been established in London, Manchester and Cheshire and Merseyside. These clinics are subject to ongoing evaluation with the ambition of further clinics being established.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the two-monthly report on the status of the provisions of the Coronavirus Act 2020 published on 28 January 2021, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of maintaining powers under (a) s 52 and (b) Schedule 22 of the Coronavirus Act 2020.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
As part of the one-year review of the Act, the Government has conducted a thorough review of the non-devolved provisions to check they are necessary and proportionate and has considered whether there is a robust justification for keeping those powers we propose to retain.
Section 52 and Schedule 22 confer powers to issue directions in relation to events, gatherings and premises. These will be important powers to maintain when the current lockdown regulations expire as they will continue to provide the mechanism for a targeted approach to potential local outbreaks.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that (a) emergency support and (b) specialised guidance on (i) covid-19 and (ii) covid-19 vaccines are provided to (A) disabled people and (B) people with a learning disability during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have provided over £1 million funding to learning disability and autism charities to support their COVID-19 response. We have advised people with specific health conditions, who are deemed to be clinically extremely vulnerable to COVID-19, to shield and providing direct support to the shielded population by enabling access to the NHS Volunteer Responders programme, which is available to anyone self-isolating.
We are implementing the national Adult Social Care Winter Plan to ensure that high-quality, safe and timely care is provided, whilst protecting people from COVID-19 and increasing access to testing in care homes, launching regular retesting in high risk supported living settings and publishing new guidance on regular testing for domiciliary care staff. We published a range of tailored guidance to help protect people with a learning disability and autistic people during the pandemic. We have also ensured that important health communications are available in alternative, accessible formats.
We have also ensured that support and guidance about getting a COVID-19 vaccine have been made available to disabled people, including people with a learning disability. We have prioritised people with a learning disability who are on a general practitioner learning disability register in priority group six for vaccination, in line with guidance from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and made available a wide range of accessible and easy read resources on the COVID-19 vaccine.