Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to fund capital investment in new hospitals and health centres.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government has committed to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030, backed by an initial £3.7 billion. Together with eight existing schemes, this will mean 48 hospitals by the end of the decade, the biggest hospital building programme in a generation.
In addition to this, multi-year funding to 2024/25 of £1.7 billion has been secured for over 70 hospital upgrades, including health centres, to improve health infrastructure across the country over the long term. The aim of this investment is to modernise and transform the NHS’s buildings and services by funding physical upgrades across the country. We have already completed 65 upgrade schemes since 2017.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What steps he is taking to help protect the mental health of NHS staff.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The NHS People Plan will develop a new offer for our people through which they will have voice and support including a focus on improved mental health.
This will build on progress implementing mental health standards in ‘Thriving at Work – a review of mental health and employers’, which have been included in NHS Standard Contracts and embedded in the National Health Service staff health and wellbeing framework.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 7 January 2019 to Question 203928 and the Answer of 8 January 2019 to Question 205307, on Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000: Fines, if the Speaker's Committee will undertake a review of whether it is an appropriate and proportionate enforcement policy practice by the Electoral Commission for a political party to be fined £6,000 for submitting a quarterly reporting one day after the deadline.
Answered by Bridget Phillipson - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
It is not the remit of the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, as set out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, to scrutinise the Electoral Commission’s enforcement policies.
Parliament made it an offence to deliver, without reasonable excuse, donation reports that are inaccurate or miss the statutory deadline. Parliament gave the Commission investigation and sanction powers for these, and other, offences. Parliament also set out a legal right of appeal for those sanctioned by the Commission, including on the grounds that the amount of the penalty is unreasonable.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps the Government has taken to ensure that (a) negotiations between Vertex Pharmaceuticals and NHS England on access to Orkambi for people with cystic fibrosis proceed without further delay and (b) an agreement is reached between the two parties.
Answered by Steve Brine
It is crucial that patients have access to the most effective and innovative medicines at a price that represents value to the National Health Service. While Ministers are keeping a very close eye on negotiations, it is the responsibility of NHS England as the commissioner and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as the independent body that is responsible for making recommendations on whether drugs and other treatments represent a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources, to work with Vertex to agree a deal to secure the best outcome for patients and a price for Orkambi that is fair and responsible.
NHS England has proposed its best offer ever for a drug. This offer, in the region of £500 million over five years, is the largest ever commitment of its kind in the 70-year history of the NHS. This would guarantee immediate and expanded access to both Orkambi and the drug Kalydeco for patients who need it. Whilst it is disappointing that Vertex has not taken up NHS England’s offer, we are pleased to hear that it has responded positively to NHS England’s and NICE’s latest offer to meet. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Lord O’Shaughnessy), the Secretary of State for Health (Rt. hon. Matt Hancock MP) and I have and continue to urge Vertex to reconsider this fair offer.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care of 17 July 2018, Official Report, column 384, what progress the Government has made on access to Orkambi in England since Vertex Pharmaceuticals was called on to accept NHS England’s proposal to make that drug available to people with cystic fibrosis.
Answered by Steve Brine
It is crucial that patients have access to the most effective and innovative medicines at a price that represents value to the National Health Service. While Ministers are keeping a very close eye on negotiations, it is the responsibility of NHS England as the commissioner and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as the independent body that is responsible for making recommendations on whether drugs and other treatments represent a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources, to work with Vertex to agree a deal to secure the best outcome for patients and a price for Orkambi that is fair and responsible.
NHS England has proposed its best offer ever for a drug. This offer, in the region of £500 million over five years, is the largest ever commitment of its kind in the 70-year history of the NHS. This would guarantee immediate and expanded access to both Orkambi and the drug Kalydeco for patients who need it. Whilst it is disappointing that Vertex has not taken up NHS England’s offer, we are pleased to hear that it has responded positively to NHS England’s and NICE’s latest offer to meet. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Lord O’Shaughnessy), the Secretary of State for Health (Rt. hon. Matt Hancock MP) and I have and continue to urge Vertex to reconsider this fair offer.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether ensuring access to Orkambi for people with cystic fibrosis is a priority for his Department.
Answered by Steve Brine
It is a key commitment of this Government to ensure that people with comparatively rarer conditions, like cystic fibrosis, get the same quality, safety and efficacy in medicines as those who have more common conditions.
However, it is also necessary that Vertex prices Orkambi fairly and responsibly. That is why we must go through the right process with Vertex and NHS England, not the Government, working together to secure the best outcome for patients. NHS England has been in intensive discussions with Vertex to encourage it to price Orkambi at a level that would allow NHS England to fund its use without adversely impacting other patients. I and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Lord O’Shaughnessy) have been keeping an extremely close eye on these discussions and wrote to Vertex in April, urging it to commit to pricing that is responsible and proportionate. I also re-iterated this message in the adjournment debate on 17 July, Official report, columns 383-4.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
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 ensure his Department continues to engage and meet with NHS England and Vertex to discuss access to Orkambi.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England has been in intensive discussions with Vertex to encourage it to price Orkambi at a level that would allow NHS England to fund its use without adversely impacting other patients. I and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Lord O’Shaughnessy) have been keeping an extremely close eye on these discussions and wrote to Vertex in April, urging it to commit to pricing that is responsible and proportionate. I also re-iterated this message in the adjournment debate on 17 July, Official report, columns 383-4.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether a date has been set for the next meeting between NHS England and Vertex to discuss access to the drug Orkambi.
Answered by Steve Brine
We are informed by NHS England that at the last meeting on 4 July, it was agreed that both parties would take time to reflect before a further meeting was arranged. NHS England has subsequently made a substantially increased proposal to Vertex and has offered to meet to discuss and clarify any aspects as required by the company.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's policy is on Vertex (a) waiving its confidentiality clause on the negotiations around NHS access to the drug Orkambi and (b) disclosing details of its offer to NHS England.
Answered by Steve Brine
It is not in the Department’s gift to impose any requirement upon Vertex to waive its confidentiality clause or to disclose details of any offer in the negotiations around National Health Service access to the drug Orkambi. However, Ministers at the department have publicly urged Vertex to consider the offer made by NHS England and to waive confidentiality so that we can all see, in the interests of transparency, the kind of prices it is seeking to charge the NHS.
Asked by: Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What steps he is taking to improve the provision of mental health services for children and young people.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
We are making an additional £1.4 billion available until 2019/20 in order to transform services and ensure access to specialist mental health services for 70,000 additional children and young people each year by 2020/21.
Our recent Green Paper published jointly with the Department for Education, will revolutionise services in schools, bolster links between schools and commits us to pilot a four week waiting time for National Health Service specialist services.