Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the impact of food price inflation on levels of demand for emergency parcels from food banks.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Tackling inflation is this Government’s number one priority. We continue to support households through our £94 billion package, worth £3,300 on average per household this year and last. We are also providing £100 million of support for charities and community organisations in England targeted at supporting critical frontline services.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
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 implications for his policies of the results of the Special School Eye Care Service trial; and what steps he is taking to support the long-term commissioning of that service.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
I refer the hon. Member to the written statement HCWS861 that I gave to the House on 19 June 2023 regarding Sight Testing in Special Schools. The Department will continue to support NHS England with implementation, including considering whether any regulatory changes may be necessary. The written statement is available at the following link:
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2023-06-19/hcws861
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much and what proportion of the funding for suicide prevention and bereavement services in the NHS Long Term Plan has been spent on a) suicide prevention and b) bereavement services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
A total of £57 million was allocated through the NHS Long Term Plan to enable every area of the country to receive funding for suicide prevention and bereavement services by 2023/24. Approximately two thirds of this £57 million, £38 million, has been spent on suicide prevention and the remainder on suicide bereavement services.
The ‘NHS Mental Health Implementation Plan 2019/20 – 2023/24’ provides a detailed breakdown of this investment and the activity that it is due to fund. This is available at the following link: https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/nhs-mental-health-implementation-plan-2019-20-2023-24.pdf.
The NHS Mental Health Dashboard sets out year by year spending plans for local and national NHS commissioning organisations, which is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/taskforce/imp/mh-dashboard/
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
What steps she is taking to support the commercialisation of science and technology research in the North East.
Answered by George Freeman
Innovation in the North East is supported by significant public investment. For example, universities in the region received £12 million this year through the Higher Education Innovation Fund, and six received a further £5 million from the Connecting Capability Fund to help spinout their research. We have also invested £5 million in the North East Technology Park to attract more science and technology companies, and the North East hosts Catapult centres that de-risk the transition from research to commercialisation, including the Offshore Renewable Catapult (Blyth), the Digital Catapult (Sunderland) and the Satellite Applications Catapult (County Durham).
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to provide stop smoking services in Gateshead.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We continue to provide funding to local authority stop smoking services via the Public Health Grant. The local authority in Gateshead commission a highly effective Stop Smoking Service which is available to all smokers locally.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to consult with (a) patients and (b) the public on the (i) development and (ii) delivery of the SWAN Pilot Programme under the England 2023 Rare Diseases Action Plan.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Several of the actions in the 2022 and 2023 England Rare Diseases Action Plans focus on genomic approaches to provide faster diagnosis for people with undiagnosed rare conditions, including genetic conditions. However, for some people living with extremely rare diseases, the complex and rare nature of their conditions may mean that they never receive a diagnosis. We are committed to ensuring that these people and their families also receive the support and care they need.
In the England Rare Diseases Action Plan 2022 NHS England committed to ‘pilot new approaches for patients with undiagnosed conditions’ (action 5). To address this commitment, during 2022, NHS England developed a proposal for a syndrome without a name (SWAN) Pilot Programme for people whose conditions remain undiagnosed. It will progress through the NHS England finance and governance processes and there will be a clearer plan for delivery in the next few months. If the SWAN Pilot Programme expands such that there is a need for a service specification, the normal processes would be followed in terms of engaging with stakeholders, including consulting with patients and the public on the delivery of the Programme.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on the delivery of the SWAN Pilot Programme as part of the England 2023 Rare Diseases Action Plan.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Several of the actions in the 2022 and 2023 England Rare Diseases Action Plans focus on genomic approaches to provide faster diagnosis for people with undiagnosed rare conditions, including genetic conditions. However, for some people living with extremely rare diseases, the complex and rare nature of their conditions may mean that they never receive a diagnosis. We are committed to ensuring that these people and their families also receive the support and care they need.
In the England Rare Diseases Action Plan 2022 NHS England committed to ‘pilot new approaches for patients with undiagnosed conditions’ (action 5). To address this commitment, during 2022, NHS England developed a proposal for a syndrome without a name (SWAN) Pilot Programme for people whose conditions remain undiagnosed. It will progress through the NHS England finance and governance processes and there will be a clearer plan for delivery in the next few months. If the SWAN Pilot Programme expands such that there is a need for a service specification, the normal processes would be followed in terms of engaging with stakeholders, including consulting with patients and the public on the delivery of the Programme.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support people with undiagnosed genetic conditions.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Several of the actions in the 2022 and 2023 England Rare Diseases Action Plans focus on genomic approaches to provide faster diagnosis for people with undiagnosed rare conditions, including genetic conditions. However, for some people living with extremely rare diseases, the complex and rare nature of their conditions may mean that they never receive a diagnosis. We are committed to ensuring that these people and their families also receive the support and care they need.
In the England Rare Diseases Action Plan 2022 NHS England committed to ‘pilot new approaches for patients with undiagnosed conditions’ (action 5). To address this commitment, during 2022, NHS England developed a proposal for a syndrome without a name (SWAN) Pilot Programme for people whose conditions remain undiagnosed. It will progress through the NHS England finance and governance processes and there will be a clearer plan for delivery in the next few months. If the SWAN Pilot Programme expands such that there is a need for a service specification, the normal processes would be followed in terms of engaging with stakeholders, including consulting with patients and the public on the delivery of the Programme.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on the development of medical alert cards for people with rare and genetic conditions following the commitment made in the Implementation Plan for the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the Second Progress Report from the Rare Disease Policy Board (2018), NHS England proposed to give every patient with a rare disease an ‘alert card’, which would include information about the patient’s rare disease.
This proposal to develop ‘alert cards’ was not progressed at the time due to capacity constraints. This proposal has not featured in the subsequent England Rare Diseases Action Plans (2022 and 2023), and NHS England is now focussing on delivering against the actions identified in these new plans. Under the coordination of care priority this has included developing a toolkit for virtual consultations to help people with complex, multi-system rare diseases access multiple specialists without needing to travel. The England 2023 Rare Diseases Action Plan includes actions to provide the evidence needed to operationalise better coordination of care in the National Health Service and to include the definition of coordination of care in service specifications for patients with rare diseases.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) clinicians and (b) other professionals responded to the Down Syndrome Act 2022 guidance: call for evidence.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We are undertaking analysis of the consultation responses received from the Down Syndrome Act guidance call for evidence and will issue a report in due course. This report will include a detailed breakdown of respondents and information about what capacity individuals or organisations were responding in, and the area they work in, for example healthcare, social care, or local Government.