Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospital admissions were there for (a) scurvy, (b) rickets and (c) vitamin D deficiency in England in the latest period for which data is available, broken down by age groups (i) 0-5 years, (ii) 5-10 years, (iii) 10-16 years and (iv) over-16 years.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The following tables show activity in National Health Service hospitals and NHS-commissioned activity in the independent sector in England. NHS England has provided a count of Finished Admission Episodes with a “primary” or “primary or secondary diagnosis” of scurvy, rickets, vitamin D deficiency and malnutrition by age group for 2022/23.
| Primary Diagnosis | |||
Patient Age (years) | Scurvy | Rickets | Vitamin D Deficiency | Malnutrition |
0-4 | 1 | 29 | 47 | 12 |
5-9 | 3 | 4 | 21 | 8 |
10-16 | 1 | 2 | 60 | 24 |
17 or over | 9 | 2 | 752 | 741 |
Primary or Secondary Diagnosis | ||||
Patient Age (years) | Scurvy | Rickets | Vitamin D Deficiency | Malnutrition |
0-4 | 5 | 317 | 2,052 | 71 |
5-9 | 5 | 30 | 1,757 | 45 |
10-16 | 5 | 56 | 5,251 | 153 |
17 or over | 151 | 77 | 176,317 | 10,301 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS England
The root causes of malnutrition may be clinical (for example disease-related), social and/or economic. These problems often interact in a complex cycle. Some health conditions can lead to malnutrition including eating disorders, although malnutrition itself is not an eating disorder.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospital admissions for malnutrition in England were there in the latest period for which data is available, broken down by age groups (a) 0-5 years, (b) 5-10 years, (c) 10-16 years and (d) over-16 years.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The following tables show activity in National Health Service hospitals and NHS-commissioned activity in the independent sector in England. NHS England has provided a count of Finished Admission Episodes with a “primary” or “primary or secondary diagnosis” of scurvy, rickets, vitamin D deficiency and malnutrition by age group for 2022/23.
| Primary Diagnosis | |||
Patient Age (years) | Scurvy | Rickets | Vitamin D Deficiency | Malnutrition |
0-4 | 1 | 29 | 47 | 12 |
5-9 | 3 | 4 | 21 | 8 |
10-16 | 1 | 2 | 60 | 24 |
17 or over | 9 | 2 | 752 | 741 |
Primary or Secondary Diagnosis | ||||
Patient Age (years) | Scurvy | Rickets | Vitamin D Deficiency | Malnutrition |
0-4 | 5 | 317 | 2,052 | 71 |
5-9 | 5 | 30 | 1,757 | 45 |
10-16 | 5 | 56 | 5,251 | 153 |
17 or over | 151 | 77 | 176,317 | 10,301 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS England
The root causes of malnutrition may be clinical (for example disease-related), social and/or economic. These problems often interact in a complex cycle. Some health conditions can lead to malnutrition including eating disorders, although malnutrition itself is not an eating disorder.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to make available audited data on the cost of operating the Healthy Start scheme in the 2022/23 financial year.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Audited financial information for the Department is due to be published in November 2023 as part of the Annual Review of Accounts (ARA). Specific information related to the costs of the Healthy Start scheme may not be explicit within the ARA due to the size of the programme but will be available from that point.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 13 June 2023 to Question 188559 on Healthy Start Scheme, for what reason Departmental forecasts on numbers of beneficiaries and uptake of the Healthy Start scheme are not available.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
While the Department forecasts the numbers of beneficiaries on the Healthy Start scheme, the forecasts are updated frequently and are not centrally validated. As a result, these internal forecasts are not released in the public domain.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 May 2023 to Question 185900 on Healthy Start Scheme, what the forecasted number was of (a) beneficiaries or (b) families in percentage format of the Healthy Start Scheme for (i) 2023-24 and (ii) 2022-23.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Healthy Start Scheme is a demand-led scheme and spending on the scheme varies each year. Departmental forecasts on numbers of beneficiaries and uptake of the Healthy Start scheme are not available. The cost of operating the Healthy Start scheme in 2021/22 was £78,148,555.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 May 2023 to Question 185900 on Healthy Start Scheme, on what timescale his Department measures forecasted uptake of the Healthy Start Scheme.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Healthy Start Scheme is a demand-led scheme and spending on the scheme varies each year. Departmental forecasts on numbers of beneficiaries and uptake of the Healthy Start scheme are not available. The cost of operating the Healthy Start scheme in 2021/22 was £78,148,555.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much money was (a) allocated to and (b) spent on the Healthy Start Scheme in the 2021-22 financial year.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Healthy Start Scheme is a demand-led scheme and spending on the scheme varies each year. Departmental forecasts on numbers of beneficiaries and uptake of the Healthy Start scheme are not available. The cost of operating the Healthy Start scheme in 2021/22 was £78,148,555.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Heathy Start Scheme applications were rejected due to the form being filled out incorrectly in (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23 and (c) March 2023; and how many applications to that scheme were rejected in that period in total.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The NHS Business Services Authority does not collect this data.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 May 2023 to Question 185900 on Healthy Start Scheme, how much funding was provided to his Department for the Healthy Start scheme in 2021-22; and what was the forecasted number of families on the scheme during this time.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The cost of operating the Healthy Start scheme in 2021/22 was £78,148,555. Departmental forecasts of the number of families on the scheme during this time are not available.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of recipients of Healthy Start paper vouchers who have not re-enrolled via the online registration system as of 1 June 2023.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The NHS Business Services Authority estimates that as of 1 June 2023 there were 34,020 households which previously were in receipt of paper vouchers which have not successfully applied to the NHS Healthy Start prepaid card scheme.