Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the R value is for the South West; if he will publish any localised variation in that R value; what estimate he has made of future trends in the R value for the South West; what assessment he has made of the cause of the recent increase in the South West R value; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government Office for Science currently publishes the latest estimates of R in NHS England regions on a weekly basis and these are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-r-number-in-the-uk
Regional R estimates are more uncertain and variability in the data means they are more likely to fluctuate from one week to the next.
Estimates of R for geographies smaller than regional level are less reliable and it is more appropriate to identify local hotspots through, for example, monitoring numbers of cases, hospitalisations, and deaths. Because of this, it is the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies’ view that estimating R for such small geographies would not provide meaningful insight, so the Government does not intend to publish more localised estimates.
We do not produce forecasts of future trends in the value of R at either national or regional level.
The Joint Biosecurity Centre will support local authorities and Public Health Directors to develop local outbreak plans. Working with Public Health England, we will provide an outbreak management toolkit to contain an infection. This will also include agreed triggers and escalation routes to regional or national decision makers if an outbreak is not containable locally.
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to take account of the needs of people with dementia in his long term plans for social care reform.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s number one priority for adult social care is for everyone who relies on care to get the care they need throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are committed to bringing forward a plan for social care to ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect and to find long term solutions for one of the biggest challenges we face as a society.
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with representatives of Public Health England about Fairways Care Home in Chippenham, Wiltshire; what steps his Department is taking to ensure that staff of that home have access to testing for covid-19; where the nearest covid-19 testing centre is to that home; what steps those staff should take to prevent the spread of covid-19 in that home in the event that they are not routinely tested; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The local Health Protection Team undertakes a joint risk assessment with care homes reporting outbreaks of COVID-19, as part of its routine procedures. We have launched the whole care home testing portal which will enable all symptomatic and asymptomatic care home staff and residents to get tested. We have the capacity to deliver up to 30,000 tests a day. For staff who are self-isolating they can book a test online or be referred by their employer through the employer referral portal. Tests can be booked online at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/apply-coronavirus-test
Public Health England has published clear guidance on infection prevention and control within care homes which is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-list-of-guidance#adult-social-care
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the total sleep-in back pay liability for providers in (a) North Wiltshire constituency and (b) Wiltshire County Council.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) on 26 February 2018 to Question 128962.
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the value of his Department's contracts with (a) Amazon Web Services, (b) Oracle Fusion, (c) Microsoft Azure, (d) Vodafone, (e) DXC, (f) SCC and (g) UKCloud was in financial years (i) 2012-2013, (ii) 2013-2014, (iii) 2014-2015, (iv) 2015-2016 and (v) 2016-2017.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Expenditure has been incurred on contracts with two of these suppliers for these financial years. The information is shown in the table below:
Supplier | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 |
Vodafone LTD | £1,327,377 | £20,296,485 | £7,359,960 | £563,826 |
|
UKCloud LTD |
|
|
|
| £3,432 |
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of his Department’s cloud-hosting contracts have been awarded to (a) hyperscale cloud providers and (b) UK SMEs; and what the value of those contracts was in each of the last three years.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department has contracts in place for software as a service for business functionality with suppliers who deliver business solutions and services. These contracts are not solely for cloud-hosting, and software suppliers offer a range of services as part of such contracts. The value of these contracts is for the full service not just for cloud-hosting.
The Department's central procurement system does not have a separate category for cloud-hosting contracts nor any central means of consistently identifying cloud-hosting services. To provide a comprehensive list would mean going back to each business area and Directorate in the Department and consulting with them extensively on which of the contracts they have commissioned are to be considered to be cloud-hosting. This would incur disproportionate cost to produce.
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what security measures his Department has in place relating to the receipt by his Department of incoming post and parcels; and what discussions he has had with the British Forces Postal Office on providing such services.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Department uses an offsite facility to scan incoming mail to Richmond House and 39 Victoria Street for a range of threats. Any packages or mail delivered directly to these buildings is scanned onsite. The Department has not held any discussions with the British Forces Postal Office.
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will offer support to Luke Dicker to allow him to access the Specialist Professor at Bath University, Mark Brosnan; whether Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group or Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Care Partnership is responsible for that treatment; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Referrals of specific individuals, to particular providers would be a matter for local clinicians, in line with local commissioning policy. The responsible commissioning group will be determined by the general practice where the patient is registered.
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with Vertex on the provision of Orkambi to people with cystic fibrosis; when he plans to respond to the Accelerated Access Review; what his policy is on the provision of Orkambi to people with cystic fibrosis; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Brine
Ministers and Government officials have had a number of discussions with Vertex and NHS England in which the availability of Orkambi for the treatment of cystic fibrosis was raised.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that develops guidance for the National Health Service on whether new drugs and treatments represent a clinically and cost effective use of resources.
NICE published final guidance on the use of Orkambi (lumacaftor-ivacaftor) for treating cystic fibrosis homozygous for the F508del mutation in July 2016 that does not recommend this treatment.
Where NICE has not been able to recommend a treatment, funding decisions should be made by the relevant NHS commissioner, based on an assessment of the available evidence.
We are considering the Accelerated Access Review’s recommendations and will respond in due course.
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many TB reactor cattle were taken to each abattoir in the last 12 months.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
There are seven premises that are contracted by the Animal and Plant Health Agency to slaughter TB reactor cattle.
Between 1 November 2015 and 31 October 2016 36,689 TB reactor cattle were slaughtered in England and Wales.
A producer can choose to send cattle to a non-contracted approved slaughterhouse. Between 1 November 2015 and 31 October 2016, 230 TB reactor cattle were slaughtered in non-contracted TB reactor slaughterhouses in England and Wales.