Asked by: Josh Simons (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the report by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hormone Pregnancy Tests, published in March 2024.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are hugely sympathetic to the families who believe that they or their children have suffered because of using hormone pregnancy tests (HPTs). The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, together with the wider Government, have committed to review any new scientific evidence which comes to light since the conclusions of the 2017 independent Expert Working Group (EWG), convened by the Commission on Human Medicines. In line with this commitment, we will be seeking independent expert advice on Professor Danielsson’s publication from the Commission on Human Medicines in due course.
On the other recommendation in the HPT All Party Parliamentary Group February 2024 report, we currently have no plans to set up an independent review to examine the findings of the EWG. In the interests of transparency, all evidence collected, and papers considered by the EWG, were published in 2018, along with full minutes of its discussions. Details of conflicts of interests and how these were managed were also published.
Asked by: Josh Simons (Labour - Makerfield)
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 people being removed from dentist registries due to (a) missing appointments and (b) failing to make timely appointments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients in England are not registered with a National Health Service dental practice, although many NHS dental practices do tend to see patients regularly. NHS dental practices are contracted to deliver a course of treatment to an individual irrespective of where they live, allowing patients the choice of where they would like to receive care.
NHS dentists are required to keep their NHS.UK website profiles up to date, so that patients can find a dentist more easily. This includes information on whether they are accepting new patients. In circumstances where patients are unable to access an urgent dental appointment directly through an NHS dental practice, they should contact NHS 111.