Asked by: Mark Harper (Conservative - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason it was not possible to answer Question 28127 tabled by the hon. Member for Forest of Dean on the named day of 12 July 2021; and when he plans to provide a substantive response to that question.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
I refer the Rt hon. Member to the answer of 20 July to Question 28127.
Asked by: Mark Harper (Conservative - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the Rt Hon Member for West Suffolk, declared to his Department a personal interest relating to Gina Coladangelo, a non-executive director on the Departmental Board until 26 June 2021, in the period from 1 January 2019 to 26 June 2021.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Rt. hon Matt Hancock MP) declared his interests to the Department in line with the Ministerial Code.
Asked by: Mark Harper (Conservative - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 25 of Covid-19 Response: Summer 2021, for how long his Department plans to continue regular asymptomatic covid-19 testing for (a) the public, (b) children at school, (c) students at university or college and (d) employees in workplaces.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Test, Trace and Isolate has an important ongoing role in managing the virus and reduces the risk of potentially dangerous variants spreading. It continues to be important that anyone with symptoms of COVID-19 arranges to have a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test and that they stay at home while they are waiting for a home test kit, a test site appointment or a test result.
We continue to recommend twice-weekly asymptomatic testing. Testing remains freely available to all through pharmacies and online at GOV.UK. However, we are stopping free testing offered through workplaces as planned on the 31 July 2021. Asymptomatic testing will continue for education settings open over the summer, including summer schools and wraparound care. On the return to school and college in the autumn term, pupils will take two tests onsite before continuing with twice weekly asymptomatic testing until the end of September, when the position will be reviewed. Asymptomatic testing in vulnerable and higher-risk settings, such as the National Health Service, social care and prisons, will continue until further notice.
Asked by: Mark Harper (Conservative - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 26 of Covid-19 Response: Summer 2021 and his Oral Statement of 6 July 2021, Official Report, column 753, what the evidential basis is for the selection of 16 Aug 2021 as the date to implement the policy change on self-isolation after contact with a positive case.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The exemption regarding self-isolation for the fully vaccinated after contact with a positive case is being introduced in mid-August to allow more people to become fully vaccinated, reducing the risk of severe illness.
Public Health England’s (PHE) analysis published on 14 June shows the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 96% effective against hospitalisation after two doses and the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is 92% effective against hospitalisation after two doses. As the vaccine programme progresses, links between cases and hospitalisations weaken. PHE’s analysis shows the vaccination programme has already prevented over 44,500 hospitalisations and 27,000 deaths in England. Consequently, introduction of the change in August will reduce the risk of further transmission, hospitalisations and deaths.
Asked by: Mark Harper (Conservative - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of people hospitalised with the B.1.617.2 variant of covid-19 to date were (a) unvaccinated and (b) vaccinated with (i) one dose or (ii) two doses.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of 25 May 2021, Public Health England has recorded 5,559 cases of B.1.617.2 infection with 201 cases attending emergency care. Of these 201 cases, 138 were unvaccinated at the time of presentation to emergency care. 52 had received a single dose of vaccine while five cases had received both doses. The vaccination status of six cases is unknown.
Asked by: Mark Harper (Conservative - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the efficacy of vaccination in preventing (a) transmission, (b) hospitalisation and (c) death arising from the B.1.617.2 variant of covid-19.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Public Health England (PHE) has published early estimates of vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease with the B.1.617.2 variant which are available at the following link:
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.22.21257658v1
The number of hospitalised cases and deaths from the B.1.617.2 variant of COVID-19 are currently too small to estimate vaccine effectiveness against these outcomes. PHE will continue to monitor the impact of the COVID-19 vaccines on variant B.1.617.2.
Asked by: Mark Harper (Conservative - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of using closed hospitality venues that are equipped with commercial grade refrigeration for the storing and distributing of vaccines.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
There are currently no plans to make a specific assessment NHS England and NHS Improvement continue to work to ensure that appropriate freezer and refrigeration capacity is in place to maintain the required cold-chain for COVID-19 vaccination deployment across England.
Should venue owners have sites which they wish to put forward for use by the Programme, submissions may be made to the Vaccine Taskforce and in conjunction with regional and local teams, an assessment of the offer will then be made.
Asked by: Mark Harper (Conservative - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the evidential basis is for the policy that (a) a positive covid-19 lateral flow test taken on a test site in a school or college does not require a PCR confirmation and (b) where a PCR confirmation test is taken and is negative that test is not able to override the positive lateral flow test result.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
From the 30 March, a negative NHS Test and Trace administered confirmatory polymerase chain reaction test taken within two days of the initial, positive lateral flow device (LFD) test removes the legal duty to self-isolate. LFDs continue to have a very high specificity – the latest analysis shows lateral flow tests have a specificity of at least 99.9%. This means that for every 1,000 lateral flow tests there is fewer than one false positive.
Asked by: Mark Harper (Conservative - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will launch a national campaign to educate the public on the safety and benefits of the covid-19 vaccines.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Department is working closely with Public Health England and NHS England and NHS Improvement to provide authoritative information to the public and urge everyone to seek National Health Service advice, so they have the right information to make an informed choice about getting vaccinated.
We are also working with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to help social media platforms identify and take action against incorrect claims about the virus in lines with their terms and conditions. This includes anti-vaccination narratives that could endanger people’s health.
Asked by: Mark Harper (Conservative - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason it was not possible to respond to Question 167173 tabled by the hon. Member for Forest of Dean by the named day deadline.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We continually evaluate Lateral Flow Device and PCR testing and are working to ensure we have the correct information to respond to Question 167173.
We are working rapidly to provide all hon. Members with accurate answers to their questions, as well as supporting the Government’s response to the unprecedented challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic. The hon. Member’s question will be answered as soon as possible.