Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Prime Minister's Office press release entitled Over two million extra NHS appointments delivered early as trusts handed £40 million to go further and faster, published on 16 February 2025, if he will publish the evidence base for the announcement.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information related to the baseline and methodology for the additional appointments delivered is available at the following link:
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
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 20 January 2025 to Question 23741 on Coronavirus: Vaccination, if he will publish (a) the questions posed to Pfizer/BioNTech and (b) the answers received that do not relate to commercially confidential issues.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) does not intend to publish these questions, or any subsequent responses received from the manufacturers. It is routine practice for regulatory authorities to ask developers of new medicines and vaccines a series of technical questions based on their data submissions. These technical discussions can cover a range of issues, including commercially confidential issues such as manufacturing methods, and as such they are not published. However, the final outcome of the assessment, including a comprehensive summary of evidence for quality, safety, and efficacy, is published in the form of a Public Assessment Report, which has been published on the GOV.UK website, and which is available at the following link:
We recognise that there is a public interest in the disclosure of commercial information
relating to the authorisations of the COVID-19 vaccines following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to the technical context of the 36 questions posed to Pfizer and BioNTech and any response that they may have issued, disclosure of such correspondence would risk compromising an existing competitive market environment, which would harm the reputation of the MHRA amongst pharmaceutical manufacturers and potentially disincentivise them from seeking an authorisation for the United Kingdom for highly beneficial new medicines or medical devices.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
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 20 January 2025 to Question 23741 on Coronavirus: Vaccination, for what reason the MHRA has temporarily withdrawn the collection of minutes from the Commission on Human Medicines' Vaccine Benefit Risk Expert Working Group (meetings between 25 August 2020 and 5 May 2023).
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To ensure the accuracy of redactions within the minutes in question the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has temporarily withdrawn the meeting minutes of the Vaccine Benefit Risk Expert Working Group to ensure accurate and transparent records.
The MHRA anticipates republishing all minutes as soon as possible.
For further transparency, when the minutes are republished, an alert will be sent to all subscribers who have registered for updates to the GOV.UK website for content of this type. I have also asked the rt hon member is alerted.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
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 January 2025 to Question 22602 on Coronavirus: Vaccination, for what reason the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency does not intend to publish this information.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
It is routine practice for regulatory authorities to ask developers of new medicines and vaccines technical questions based on their data submissions. These technical questions can cover a range of issues, including commercially confidential issues such as manufacturing methods, and they are not published.
The final outcome of the assessment, including the comprehensive summary of the evidence for quality, safety and efficacy, is published in the form of a Public Assessment Report, which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 3.6 of the minutes of the Covid-19 Vaccine Benefit Risk Expert Working Group held on 18 November 2020, if he will publish (a) the 36 questions posed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to Pfizer/BioNTech and (b) any response received from that company.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency does not intend to publish these questions, or any subsequent responses received from the manufacturers.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to make the hospital discharge process more efficient.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will improve hospital discharge processes, to tackle delayed discharges, and to make sure people do not spend longer than necessary in hospital, freeing up hospital beds.
We will do so by developing local partnerships, working between the National Health Service and social care, making sure people get the right support from health and social care services to return home as soon as possible. Currently, every acute hospital has access to a care transfer hub, which brings together professionals from the NHS and local authorities to manage discharges for people with more complex needs, and collaboration between integrated care boards and local authorities will continue to be supported by the Better Care Fund framework through 2025/26.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
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 increase the efficiency of supplying medication at hospital discharge to ensure faster discharge.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England recognise the need for patients who are ready to go home to be discharged as quick as possible, both for their benefit and to improve the efficiency of hospitals. Information on the average wait time for hospital patients to be provided with medication at the point of discharge is not held centrally by NHS England, and it is the responsibility of individual trusts to monitor discharge and medication efficiency. To support hospitals on improving processes, guidance has been published, which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/urgent-emergency-care/improving-hospital-discharge/
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average wait time is for hospital patients to be provided with medications at discharge.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England recognise the need for patients who are ready to go home to be discharged as quick as possible, both for their benefit and to improve the efficiency of hospitals. Information on the average wait time for hospital patients to be provided with medication at the point of discharge is not held centrally by NHS England, and it is the responsibility of individual trusts to monitor discharge and medication efficiency. To support hospitals on improving processes, guidance has been published, which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/urgent-emergency-care/improving-hospital-discharge/
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
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 18 November 2024 to Question 12696 on Primodos: Research, when the minutes and outcome of the November Commission on Human Medicines discussion will be published.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), together with the wider Government, have committed to reviewing any new scientific evidence which comes to light.
The new publication by Danielsson et al has been reviewed by the MHRA and advice has been sought from the Government’s independent advisory body, the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM), who have provided their independent expert advice on our assessment of whether the findings of the latest publication justify a further review. The MHRA will consider the recommendations given by the CHM before deciding whether any further action is warranted.
The minutes of the November CHM meeting will be made publicly available through the GOV.UK website at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department issues to hospitals on visiting times for friends and family.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Contact with family and friends is fundamental to the health and wellbeing of residents in care homes and people in hospital. We have worked with NHS England and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to develop the policy options to strengthen the expectation for care providers and hospitals in England to allow visiting. This included introducing secondary legislation to amend CQC regulations. Further information on CQC regulations, specifically Regulation 9A: Visiting and accompanying in care homes, hospitals and hospices, is available at the following link:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/regulations/regulation-9a-visiting-and-accompanying