Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of (a) the industry proposal to introduce fines of £10,000 to retailers found selling e-cigarettes to children and (b) other alternative strategies to reduce youth access to single use e-cigarettes.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
No assessment has been made of the proposal to introduce fines of £10,000 to retailers found selling vapes (e-cigarettes) to children. The Government recently ran a call for evidence on youth vaping, which closed on 6 June. This will identify opportunities to reduce the number of children accessing and using vaping products and explore where the Government can go further, including on single use vapes. We will respond to the call for evidence shortly.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish the Dental Recovery Plan.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We are currently working on a plan for dentistry, to be published shortly, to improve access to dental care across England. There are several fronts where we need to take further action to support and recover activity in National Health Service dentistry, to improve access to care for all ages.
Our plan for dentistry will build upon the first package of reforms agreed in July 2022, which included changes to banding and the introduction of a minimum Units of Dental Activity value. Our plan will include addressing how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients; and how we make NHS work more attractive to ensure NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver more NHS care.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the (a) side effects of abortion pills and (b) rate and severity of complications that arise from abortion pills taken at home instead of in a clinic.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No formal assessment has been made on either of the points raised. Like any medication, some women may experience side effects from taking abortion pills. In accordance with clinical guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on abortion care, services should provide all women with information on what to expect during and after an abortion and how to identify signs and symptoms that indicate they need to seek medical attention and who to contact if they do.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of changes in the level of costs to the NHS since the (a) approval of taking the second abortion pill at home in 2018 and (b) temporary approval during the pandemic and subsequent permanent approval of taking both abortion pills at home in 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No such estimate has been made.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
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 5 July 2023 to Question 191860 on WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, who will lead the UK delegation; what instructions his officials will be given on the authorisation of measures that will involve a cost to the public purse; and if he will make a statement to the House on (a) his Department's approach before and (b) the outcomes of the convention after November 2023.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The United Kingdom delegation will consist of officials from the Department of Health and Social Care, as is usual practice for this Conference of the Parties. A decision on who will attend is yet to be made.
The delegation will not agree to any decisions which would impact on our ability to deliver our bold ambition to be Smokefree by 2030. Any measures involving a cost to the public purse will follow the normal Departmental approval processes.
Following the conference, decisions will be published on the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control website. There are no plans for a statement on the conference to be made to the House.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to provide additional support to (a) social care workers and (b) voluntary care organisations.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is making available up to £7.5 billion in additional funding over two years to support adult social care and discharge with up to £2.8 billion available in 2023/2024 and up to £4.7 billion in 2024/2025. This funding will put the adult social care system on a stronger financial footing and help local authorities address waiting lists, low fee rates, and workforce pressures in the sector.
The Department will shortly publish a plan for how it will reform the Adult Social Care system. The publication will confirm the Government’s commitment to the 10-year vision set out in the People at the Heart of Care white paper. It will provide specific detail on how we will implement proposals on workforce in the white paper, including the funding, activity and milestones.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
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 take steps to increase wages in the social care sector above the minimum wage, in the context of rises in the cost of living.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has no current plans to set a specific minimum wage for care workers. Most care workers are employed by private sector providers who set their pay and terms and conditions. Local authorities work with care providers to determine fee rates, which should take account of wage costs, based on local market conditions.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
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 impact of increasing the number of people issued with NHS hearing aids on trends in the level of dementia diagnoses in the next 20 years.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have no current plans to make a specific assessment.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
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 align the pay of social care workers with NHS agenda for change pay bands.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has no plans to align the pay of social care workers with National Health Service agenda for change pay bands.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will commission research on the potential impact of unaddressed hearing loss on dementia.
Answered by Will Quince
Since 2018, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has allocated around £2 million to research the links between unaddressed hearing loss and dementia. This includes the DIADEM project, which is being supported by the NIHR invention for innovation funding programme (i4i) and will evaluate new hearing tests that measure early brain changes in dementia. More information is available at the following link:
Through NIHR-funded Biomedical Research Centres, the NIHR is also supporting medical research into hearing loss and dementia.