Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment his Department has made of the R value of (a) covid-19, (b) seasonal influenza and (c) measles.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The latest value of ‘R’ for COVID-19 is estimated each week and published by the Government Office for Science and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-r-number-in-the-uk
The ‘R’ value for seasonal influenza and measles are not assessed regularly as rates of infection and are measured in a different way. A variety of data sources are collated to provide information on circulating influenza strains. In-season and end-of-season monitoring of seasonal influenza vaccine uptake and vaccine effectiveness is undertaken. Public Health England’s (PHE) ‘Flu annual report: winter 2019 to 2020’ is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-flu-reports
PHE have published the ‘Measles and rubella elimination UK strategy’ which includes information on transmission of measles and how to reduce transmission rates. This report is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-and-rubella-elimination-uk-strategy
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the (a) studies and (b) other research reports that his Department holds on the presence of viable covid-19 virus in the air in (i) supermarkets and (ii) other large retail settings.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and is the largest public funder of health research in the United Kingdom. Companies and research institutes are welcome to submit proposals to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and NIHR research calls. Government support is available to prioritise, coordinate and deliver studies which qualify as urgent public health research.
As part of the NIHR-UKRI rolling call for rapid research proposals research, a £0.3 million project has been commissioned to investigate how long SARS-CoV-2 can survive in air and on different surfaces, which is being led by Public Health England. In addition, a highlight notice was issued in May inviting COVID-19 research proposals on transmission. Whilst the research is not specific to supermarkets and other large-scale retail settings it is hoped that the research is applicable to these and many other scenarios.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the efficacy of routinely available, non-clinical face masks in preventing aerosol spread of viruses.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In June 2020 Public Health England conducted a rapid evidence review on the efficacy of different types of face coverings designed for use in community settings, and the effectiveness of face coverings to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV2 in the community.
The review found evidence from eight laboratory studies that materials commonly used in non-medical masks such as cotton and polyester may block droplets with a filtering efficiency similar to medical masks when folded in two or three layers. This evidence was limited by variations in materials, study design and testing methods, and judged to be weak.
The review identified evidence from epidemiological and modelling studies that mask wearing in the community may contribute to reducing the spread of COVID-19, but again the evidence was limited by study design and quality.
‘Face coverings in the community and COVID-19: a rapid review’ is available to view at the following link:
https://phe.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-retrieve-file.pl?id=5f043ca658db1188ffae74827fa650d9
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the criteria according to which the legal requirement to wear face masks in retail settings will be ended; and how frequently a review of that policy will take place.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of Friday 24 July, members of the public must wear a face covering when visiting a shop or supermarket in England.
In addition, the Government is running a major proactive communications campaign on face coverings to alert the public where they are now required to wear face coverings and educate the public on how to correctly wear one.
The Government will keep the regulations under review and will continue assessing if measures need to be put in place for other settings going forward.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the role of food hygiene in spreading covid-19.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has carried out a detailed risk assessment which considered the probability of food or food contact materials and surfaces being a source or transmission route for SARS-CoV-2. Their advice is that the overall probability that United Kingdom consumers will receive potentially infectious exposures of SARS-CoV-2 via the consumption of food or the handling of food contact materials or packaging is Very Low (“very rare but cannot be excluded”). Further risk assessments will be carried out as needed to inform FSA policy.
Food businesses should continue to follow good food hygiene standards.
The full qualitative risk assessment has been published on the FSA’s website at the following link:
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will amend the guidance for allowable expenses under the Infection Control Fund to include the purchase of (a) specialist infection control equipment and (b) specialist infection control services from contractors.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 15 May we published details of an additional £600 million Infection Control Fund for Adult Social Care. This funding is to support adult social care providers in England reduce the rate of transmission in and between care homes and to support workforce resilience. A small percentage of it may be used to support domiciliary care providers and support wider workforce resilience to deal with COVID-19 infections.
Given the evidence of the prevalence of asymptomatic transmission, Public Health England strongly recommends that care homes do all they can to restrict staff movement wherever feasible. The specific purpose of this fund is to support the implementation of a new set of measures, identified in the Care Home Support Package published alongside the fund. This includes measures such as ensuring, as far as possible, that members of staff work in only one care home and helping to limit their use of public transport – steps that we believe not all providers would ordinarily be taking without specific support.
We published further information on the use of this funding on 9 June. This can be found at the following link:
The Government has already provided local government with £3.2 billion of unringfenced additional funding to help deal with the pandemic and has committed to keeping future funding under review.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
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 residential places in therapeutic communities available in each (a) clinical commissioning group and (b) local authority area; and what the average waiting time is for those places in each area.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The information requested is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
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 efficacy of different methods of testing for lower urinary tract infections; and if he will make it his policy to encourage the establishment of clinics for lower urinary tract infections in each Health Authority.
Answered by Steve Brine
In England, it is the responsibility of National Health Service commissioners to make decisions on individual treatments and methods of testing for urinary tract infections on the basis of the available evidence, taking into account guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) where available. NICE guidance is always evidence based, adhering to the latest clinical thinking and research to determine the best treatment for patients.
The majority of large teaching hospitals in England do have specialist urology centres embedded within which provide effective assessment and management advice for people with urinary symptoms. Such centres have the advantage of the ability to check for a range of conditions, and are best placed to ensure an accurate diagnosis so that appropriate treatment can be offered.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will set out the percentage of funds distributed through the National Institute for Health Research broken down by region in the most recent year for which figures are available.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Most (88.6%) National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funding is awarded to organisations that are geographically based, but some funding is awarded to national bodies and organisations (11.4 %). The Department does not hold information on a geographical basis about how this funding is then distributed. The figures provided in the table below shows gross NIHR spend which includes contributions from the devolved administrations and other bodies to NIHR funded research programmes. Net spend was £1,035.7 million.
NIHR Funding of Research by Region 2016-17
Region | Regional Total £ million | Percentage |
East Midlands | 49.4 | 4.6% |
East of England | 84.9 | 7.9% |
London | 311.1 | 29.1% |
North East | 46.0 | 4.3% |
North West | 78.3 | 7.3% |
South East | 139.1 | 13.0% |
South West | 66.9 | 6.3% |
West Midlands | 74.4 | 7.0% |
Yorkshire and Humber | 76.9 | 7.2% |
| ||
Scotland | 14.9 | 1.4% |
Wales | 3.9 | 0.4% |
Northern Ireland | 2.8 | 0.3% |
| ||
National | 121.6 | 11.4% |
| ||
Grand Total | 1,070.3 | 100.0% |
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will publish the funding allocated by the National Institute of Health Research to each region for the most recent year for which figures are available.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Most (88.6%) National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funding is awarded to organisations that are geographically based, but some funding is awarded to national bodies and organisations (11.4 %). The Department does not hold information on a geographical basis about how this funding is then distributed. The figures provided in the table below shows gross NIHR spend which includes contributions from the devolved administrations and other bodies to NIHR funded research programmes. Net spend was £1,035.7 million.
NIHR Funding of Research by Region 2016-17
Region | Regional Total £ million | Percentage |
East Midlands | 49.4 | 4.6% |
East of England | 84.9 | 7.9% |
London | 311.1 | 29.1% |
North East | 46.0 | 4.3% |
North West | 78.3 | 7.3% |
South East | 139.1 | 13.0% |
South West | 66.9 | 6.3% |
West Midlands | 74.4 | 7.0% |
Yorkshire and Humber | 76.9 | 7.2% |
| ||
Scotland | 14.9 | 1.4% |
Wales | 3.9 | 0.4% |
Northern Ireland | 2.8 | 0.3% |
| ||
National | 121.6 | 11.4% |
| ||
Grand Total | 1,070.3 | 100.0% |