Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of racism on mental health among the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
No recent assessment has been made. We launched a public call for evidence to support the development of a new cross-Government 10 year plan for mental health, which closed on 7 July 2022. We will review the responses received to the call for evidence, including on the causes of poor mental health, as the plan is developed.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of poverty on mental health among the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
No recent assessment has been made. We launched a public call for evidence to support the development of a new cross-Government 10 year plan for mental health, which closed on 7 July 2022. We will review the responses received to the call for evidence, including on the causes of poor mental health, as the plan is developed.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the mental health needs of Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities in the UK.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
No recent assessment has been made. We launched a public call for evidence to inform the development of a new cross-Government 10 year plan for mental health, which closed on 7 July 2022. We will review the responses received, including on the causes of poor mental health, as the plan is developed.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
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 7 June 2022 to Question 8030 on Dementia: Drugs, whether the plans for dementia in England for the next 10 years referred to in that answer will deliver on the Government's manifesto commitment to double dementia research funding.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The strategy will include ambitions for dementia research and plans to increase research funding for dementia.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to take steps in response to Alzheimer's Research UK's proposal for the establishment of a Dementia Medicines Taskforce.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
There have been no specific discussions with the devolved administrations. Officials have met Alzheimer’s Research UK to discuss this proposal and considered routes for accelerating access to such medicines for patients with NHS England and NHS Improvement.
The Accelerated Access Collaborative and the Department’s Commercial Medicines Directorate continually review the development of new medicines, including those for dementia. This provides early indication of such innovative treatments, engaging with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and industry to identify challenges in delivering medicines to patients. The Innovative Licencing and Access Pathway accelerates patient access to medicines. The Innovative Medicines Fund supports early access to the most clinically promising treatments where further data is needed to support NICE’s recommendations for use in the NHS. These initiatives will apply to dementia drugs.
We will set out plans for dementia in England for the next 10 years later this year, including on diagnosis, risk reduction and prevention and research. The strategy will include ambitions for research to develop new disease-modifying treatments.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with the devolved Administrations on the proposal by Alzheimer's Research UK for the establishment of a Dementia Medicines Taskforce.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
There have been no specific discussions with the devolved administrations. Officials have met Alzheimer’s Research UK to discuss this proposal and considered routes for accelerating access to such medicines for patients with NHS England and NHS Improvement.
The Accelerated Access Collaborative and the Department’s Commercial Medicines Directorate continually review the development of new medicines, including those for dementia. This provides early indication of such innovative treatments, engaging with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and industry to identify challenges in delivering medicines to patients. The Innovative Licencing and Access Pathway accelerates patient access to medicines. The Innovative Medicines Fund supports early access to the most clinically promising treatments where further data is needed to support NICE’s recommendations for use in the NHS. These initiatives will apply to dementia drugs.
We will set out plans for dementia in England for the next 10 years later this year, including on diagnosis, risk reduction and prevention and research. The strategy will include ambitions for research to develop new disease-modifying treatments.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the (a) full time equivalent headcount and b) outturn expenditure on communications for his Department was in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The number of Departmental staff delivering communications functions was 80.4 full time equivalent (FTE) in 2019/20, 112.2 FTE in 2020/21 and 117.4 FTE in 2021/22. Expenditure on communications staffing was £4,336,000 in 2019/20, £4,941,000 in 2020/21 and in 2021/22, forecasted spend is approximately £5,200,000.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
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 26 November 2021 to Question 77467 on the Health and Social Care Levy, under what legislative provision is assessment of the financial impact of the Social Care Levy on (a) private and (b) voluntary sector employers in the social care sector in the UK a devolved matter.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
In the previous answer to Question 77467, it was incorrectly stated that the Health and Social Care Levy is devolved, when it is in fact reserved. We have arranged for the record to be corrected through the Written Ministerial Statement of 1 March 2022 (HCWS647).
The Government has made many assessments of the overall impact of the introduction of the Health and Social Care Levy, which were published alongside its announcement. These include the distributional analysis of the impact of the combined tax and spending announcements, a technical annex in the Government’s plan for health and social care and a Tax Information and Impact Note.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to increase funding for research into mental health.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department funds mental health research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR supports a wide portfolio of mental health research through various funding streams. In 2020/21, the NIHR spent £109 million on mental health research. We are also funding the Mental Health Research Initiative to expand mental health activity and build the capacity and capability of mental health research in regions which are currently under-represented. It is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. The NIHR’s funding is available through open competition for mental health and we encourage researchers to submit applications in this area.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities on the higher number of perinatal deaths among the Asian and Asian British community in the UK.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities have had discussions on considering the evidence for the higher number of perinatal deaths in the Asian and Asian British community.