Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance and sanctions are in place in the event a clinical trial is found to have been mishandled.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The National Institute for Health Research funds independent research. The sponsor is responsible for ensuring that appropriate guidance and sanctions are in place should any issues or concerns arise concerning the conduct of a study.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will investigate the potential conflict of interest within the Health Technology Assessment Programme whereby some people responsible for awarding funding for the CLOTHES clinical trials were simultaneously heading the Nottingham Clinical Trials Unit to which such funding was granted.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Healthcare Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme has a clear conflict of interests procedure to ensure that each application is judged on merit.
Any panel member on the NIHR HTA Commissioning Board with a conflict of interest is asked to leave the room during any discussion or decision on these projects or issues.
Any conflicts are recorded in the minutes and made public after the meeting.
The NIHR HTA Commissioning Board agreed to fund the CLOTHES trial at the Board’s July 2012 meeting and the public minutes can be found online here:
http://www.nets.nihr.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/13525/minutes-jul-2012.pdf
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the peer review system for (a) the CLOTHES trial at Nottingham Clinical Trials Unit and (b) other clinical trials.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Healthcare Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme follows a process of expert review through which research briefs, research applications and final reports are critically assessed by relevant individuals unconnected to both the decision making body and those who have prepared the material being assessed.
The practice of peer review is very commonly used to inform decision making for scientific publications and grant funding. It involves colleagues in a relevant field of expertise, including patients, members of the public, subject experts, clinical staff, service managers and public health professionals. The reviewers are selected by the NIHR.
Expert review was undertaken for the CLOTHES trial, in accordance with NIHR HTA policy. This included one public and four expert representatives. Checks were carried out to ensure that all reviewers were suitably qualified and were not conflicted.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to introduce (a) plain packaging for and (b) graphic warnings on alcohol sold in supermarkets.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Government has no plans to introduce plain packaging for or graphic warnings on, alcohol products.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of recommending newly created synthetic alcohols as safer and healthier alternatives to regular drinking when such alcohols reach the market.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
We will consider the evidence if and when those products come to market. Where new forms of alcohol are also novel food, they would be subject to premarket assessment to evaluate their safety.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the potential benefits of repealing provisions in UK law derived from the EU Tobacco Directive on to e-cigarettes in order to incentivise safer and healthier alternatives to conventional tobacco.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Department is committed to a full review of the functioning of the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations, which implement the European Union Tobacco Products Directive, within five years of entering into force. The impact of these regulations on the use of e-cigarettes is one of the many areas that the Government will want to consider carefully as part of the process of leaving the EU.
The Department has also committed to commissioning Public Health England to update their evidence report on e-cigarettes annually until the end of this Parliament and to include within its quit smoking campaigns consistent messaging about the safety of e-cigarettes.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress the Government has made on reducing the time taken to publish UK suicide statistics.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Office for National Statistics holds mortality data for England and Wales and is responsible for publishing information related to suicides. It works with coroners to improve the timeliness of collating and publishing registered deaths by suicide. For example, the Office for National Statistics published the deaths by suicide registered in 2015 for England and Wales earlier than usual on 7 September. The statistics are published on the Office for National Statistics’ website:
To improve the timeliness of statistical evidence the Office for National Statistics has recently began publishing provisional quarterly data on deaths by suicide for England and Wales and plans to do this in each and every quarter.
Suicide statistics for Scotland are produced by National Records of Scotland and in Northern Ireland by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. When all data is available, the Office for National Statistics collates this information to produce United Kingdom suicide statistics.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the implications are for his Department's guidance to local authorities on Gypsy and Traveller Assessments of the recommendations of the report by the Traveller Movement, Impact of insecure accommodation and the living environment on Gypsies' and Travellers' health, published in January 2016.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
This report was commissioned by the Department to inform the work of the inclusion health programme and the local and national bodies which address the health needs of Gypsies and Travellers, and it provides support to the Department for Communities and Local Government guidance on local Gypsy and Traveller accommodation needs assessment.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken under the National Roma Integration Strategy to enhance the health integration of Gypsy Traveller Roma people.
Answered by Jane Ellison
We have taken steps to improve the health of Gypsies, Travellers and Roma people as part of our broader social inclusion policies. The inclusion health programme sought to identify and promote good practice across the National Health Service and elsewhere. It has included: developing practical guidance on the commissioning of more inclusive services to help ensure the needs of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups are taken into account in shaping local plans and priorities; working with primary health care professionals and others to improve access to services for these groups; and supporting the education and training of health professionals to enable them to work more effectively with these groups. This work is being carried forward across the health system.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department took specialist health research into account when undertaking its equality impact assessment on the draft guidance to local housing authorities on the periodical review of housing needs: caravans and houseboats; and what steps his Department is taking to fulfil the UK's international obligations under the National Roma Integration Strategy on addressing the effect of accommodation insecurity on the health of Gypsies and Travellers in Britain.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department for Communities and Local Government published the draft guidance to local housing authorities on the periodical review of housing needs: caravans and houseboats. We understand from officials in that department its Ministers had due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty as set out by the Equality Act 2010. Accordingly, the Department of Health did not advise on this guidance.
We published earlier this year an independent report as part of this wider approach and as part of inclusion health, which seeks to address the health needs of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. A copy of the report is available at: