Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on recruitment and retention of NHS staff.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
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 3 July 2023 to Question 191671, what data his Department holds on ambulance call-outs for hypothermic conditions in the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not hold the data requested.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many ambulance call outs for hypothermic conditions have been made by each health authority in each quarter since the start of 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
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) remit, (b) budget for 2021-22 and 2022-23 and (c) projected budget for 2023-4 of the UK Health Security Agency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has published the UK Health Security Agency's (UKHSA) annual Remit Letter for 2021/22 and 2022/23 on GOV.UK. These publications are available at the following links:
The Department has also published UKHSA's budget for 2021/22 and 2022-23 as part of the Parliamentary Estimates Process along with the Department’s group position. These are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-main-estimates
The projected budget allocations for 2023/24 are currently being reviewed through the Departmental business planning process, once agreed these will be published as part of the annual Parliamentary Estimates Process.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
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 health risks to vulnerable families and households arising from (a) the forced installation of prepayment meters and (b) the practice of self-disconnection by those households unable to afford to load credit onto prepayment meters.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
No specific assessment has been made. However, the Government recognises that rising energy prices can make it more difficult for people to heat their homes and that cold homes can have an adverse impact on the health of vulnerable population groups.
We are providing a £37 billion package of cost-of-living support to help households and businesses this winter, including the Energy Price Guarantee. Prepayment meter customers will automatically receive the same discount per unit of energy as other customers through the Energy Price Guarantee. Prepayment meter customers are also receiving the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme discount which is being provided in instalments from October to March.
The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets requires energy suppliers to offer solutions for customers in, or at risk of, debt or disconnection. This includes emergency credit to all pre-payment meter customers and additional support credit to customers in vulnerable circumstances.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the agreed aims are of the 100 Days Mission established by the UK Government to address the UK's ability to deploy effective diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines within 100 days of a future pandemic threat; if he will publish the amount of public funding spent in relation to that mission; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
100 Days Mission to Respond to Future Pandemic Threats is a global public-private effort to harness scientific innovation to have safe and effective diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines ready to be deployed within the first 100 days of a future pandemic threat being identified and be ready to do so equitably by 2026.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) shares the commitment and vision for the 100 Days Mission (100DM). UKHSA aim to, drive the momentum and coordinate reporting across government and partners, coordinate UKHSA’s contribution to the 100DM domestically and internationally and work across UKHSA to ensure we have the right tools to respond to new pandemic threats on behalf of the United Kingdom.
The UK Government has not allocated a specific amount of funding to the 100DM, however, public funding spent by the organisation relate to ensuring capabilities which include pandemic preparedness.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government has taken following the Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit 2022 to increase preparedness for the next Disease X, including on making safe and effective vaccines within 100 days; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The United Kingdom hosted the Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit on 8 March 2022. $1.5 billion was raised for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Working with CEPI is part of UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) international approach to future pandemic preparedness.
The Centre for Pandemic Preparedness (CPP) has been established in the UKHSA, to ensure the UK’s future pandemic response is faster, more effective and more efficient and to reduce the negative impacts of health threats to the UK. UKHSA has also established a new Vaccine Development and Evaluation Centre, which will lead on developing and evaluating new and existing vaccines in collaboration with partners across government, industry and academia, ensuring we have the tools we need to protect health.
The UK is a proud supporter of the G7 100 Days Mission. Our work across the health family to contribute to this ambition will increase preparedness in the event of a next Disease X.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what further steps he will take to ensure that the UK has sufficient surveillance capability to identify and monitor potential variants of covid-19.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The United Kingdom has surveillance systems in place to detect the prevalence and spread of new COVID-19 variants. We continue to test symptomatic patients in hospitals using PCR tests, which can then be genomically sequenced to check for new variants. The Office for National Statistics’ COVID-19 Infection Survey and other surveillance studies, also check for variants.
The surveillance arrangements we recently put in place in response to the COVID-19 surge in China, and the risk of new variants emerging there, are an example of the UK’s ability to respond to new threats and play our part in global surveillance arrangements. We now test a sample of adult passengers arriving on direct flights from China into Heathrow airport, so we can sequence positive results.
The UK’s sequencing data is shared rapidly to help support global awareness and health security. In the last 90 days our sequencing programmes have enabled almost 50,000 uploads of sequenced COVID-19 samples onto the international GISAID database. The UK’s COVID-19 surveillance programme remains amongst the largest in the world.
These measures will ensure we can work with partners across the UK and globally to identify and respond if a dangerous variant of COVID-19 emerges.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with (a) Cabinet colleagues, (b) Public Health England, (c) health professional organisations and (d) other relevant stakeholders on the potential impact of the (i) forced installation and (ii) self-disconnection of prepayment meters on household health.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
There have been no recent discussions. The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department of Health and Social Care work collaboratively on such areas of crosscutting policy. The Government recognises that rising energy prices can make it more difficult for people to heat their homes and that cold homes can have an adverse impact on the health of vulnerable population groups.
We are providing a £37 billion package of cost-of-living support to help households and businesses this winter, including the Energy Price Guarantee. Prepayment meter customers will automatically receive the same discount per unit of energy as other customers through the Energy Price Guarantee. Prepayment meter customers are also receiving the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme discount which is being provided in instalments from October to March.
The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets has strict rules in place that mean whenever suppliers install a prepayment meter, they must verify that it is safe and reasonably practicable to do so. This should include consideration of whether a customer’s vulnerability would make a prepayment meter inappropriate, for example where medical equipment is required.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
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 when the Committee on Toxicity of Food, Consumer Products and the Environment will publish its final position on the toxicological risks associated with oral nicotine pouches.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT) is currently reviewing the evidence on the use of oral nicotine pouches and assessing the risk to users. The COT has already published a draft statement in July 2022 and will publish a final position statement once the review is complete, in early 2023.
The draft statement is available at the following link: