Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the time taken for clinically-proven drugs to be considered for use on the NHS once they are off-patent.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines Repurposing Programme was established in March 2021 by the Department, NHS England, the National Institute for Health Research and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). This seeks to identify new uses for medicines that are outside of the scope of the existing licence for the medicine. This typically involves taking an existing medicine that already has a marketing authorisation or licence for human use for a particular condition, and then using it to treat another condition. It provides a tailored package of support to priority repurposed medicines, potentially including support for research, licensing and implementation.
NICE makes recommendations on whether the benefits of licensed medicines justify their costs and maintains surveillance of new developments that may affect its published guidance, including the latest evidence and any significant changes in the prices of medicines. NICE would consult on proposed changes to its guidance with stakeholders if significant new evidence relating to the clinical- and cost-effectiveness of a medicine were to emerge.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Government plans to introduce the cap on care costs.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As announced in the Autumn Statement 2022, we listened to the concerns of local Government and took the difficult decision to delay the planned adult social care charging reforms.
To ensure that these highly ambitious reforms are successful and to avoid destabilising the system, it is vital that we work with the sector to ensure that local authorities have the capacity and readiness to deliver reform successfully.
We are committed to working with local authorities to build preparedness, and the Government has made available up to £8.1 billion to put the adult social care system on a stronger financial footing.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 tackle shortages of Letrozole.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
A team within the Department deals specifically with medicine supply problems arising both in the community and in hospitals. It has well-established procedures to deal with medicine shortages, whatever the cause, and works closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England and others operating in the supply chain to help prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when shortages do arise.
The team is aware of recent supply constraints affecting letrozole, however, other suppliers remain in stock and can support the gap in the market. Therefore, pharmacies should be able to obtain letrozole via their usual wholesaler routes. In addition, there are currently no supply constraints with the branded medicine of letrozole 2.5mg tablets, Femara.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 tackle rates of skin cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government takes the prevention of cancers, including skin cancers, very seriously.
The UK Health Security Agency has published guidance to the public on how to stay safe in hot weather including the importance protecting yourself from the sun. This guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beat-the-heat-hot-weather-advice/beat-the-heat-staying-safe-in-hot-weather
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Government's figures on covid-19 cases in the UK, whether that figure includes results from all types of covid-19 testing kits.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the UK’ dashboard provides a summary of key information about the pandemic. This includes levels of infections, the impact on health in the United Kingdom and on measures taken to respond. The UK Health Security Agency also publishes the National Influenza and COVID-19 Report which includes the number of episodes of infection and test positivity over time.
Case numbers include results from Pillar 1 (polymerase chain reaction) testing, which represents tests undertaken for healthcare purposes and in public health laboratories. They also include results from people who have reported a positive lateral flow test from the National Health Service on GOV.UK. Lateral flow tests that are privately purchased cannot currently be registered on GOV.UK
Changes to testing policies over time affect surveillance data. Fewer tests being performed, and tests limited to certain settings, would need to be considered when interpreting surveillance data. Nonetheless, surveillance metrics based on current testing continue to provide useful indicators of recent trends and disease acuity.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 reduce the prevalence of smoking.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Smoking rates in England have been consistently falling and are currently at 12.7%, according to 2022 data from the Office for National Statistics.
On 4 October 2023, the Prime Minister unveiled plans to introduce a new law to stop children who turn 14 years old this year or younger from ever legally being sold cigarettes, in a bid to create the first ‘smokefree generation’. This announcement was accompanied with additional funding, including £70 million extra per year to fund local stop smoking services and £5 million this year and then £15 million per year thereafter to fund national stop smoking marketing campaigns.
This is in addition to a range of other measures which we announced in April 2023, including a new national swap to stop scheme to provide vapes to one million smokers to help them to quit, and an evidence-based financial incentives scheme to help all pregnant smokers to quit.
We are confident that the new measures announced by the Prime Minister, in addition to the actions we are already taking, will set us on course to both achieve our bold ambition to be smokefree by 2030 and create the first smokefree generation.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 help ensure the safety of babies in neonatal units in the context of the Lucy Letby case.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Most families have a positive experience of neonatal care thanks to the dedication and expertise of National Health Service clinical teams. The neonatal mortality rate for England (for births at 24 weeks gestation and over), has fallen by 30.4% since 2010 to 1.37 per 1,000 live births in 2021, the year for which the most recent data is held. There would have been 355 more neonatal deaths in 2021 if the neonatal mortality rate had been the same as in 2010.
This autumn, the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework will be implemented across the NHS, representing a significant shift in the way we respond to patient safety incidents, with a sharper focus on data and understanding how incidents happen, engaging with families and taking effective steps to improve and deliver safer care for patients.
The NHS is taking decisive steps to strengthen patient safety monitoring, and the national roll-out of medical examiners has created additional safeguards since 2021, ensuring independent scrutiny of all deaths not investigated by a coroner, and improving data quality.
The maternity and neonatal delivery plan, published this year, sets out what the NHS will do over the next three years to improve care to make it safer, more personalised and more equitable. Since 2021, NHS England has invested an additional £165 million per year to improve maternity and neonatal care.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 help ensure the adequacy of the (a) quality and (b) nutritional content of food in hospitals.
Answered by Will Quince
We know the importance of quality, nutritious hospital food to aid a patient’s recovery. All National Health Service trusts should ensure should healthy, nutritious food is on offer for patients and staff.
Following the publication of the Independent Review on Hospital Food in October 2020, NHS England are leading a three-year plan ‘Great Food, Good Health’ to implement the recommendations from the Review with the aim to improve hospital food.
In November 2022, NHS England published updated NHS Food and Drink Standards. These include eight mandatory standards that trusts are expected to implement, including a requirement to have a designated board director responsible for food (nutrition and safety). NHS England are considering the best way to measure the effectiveness of improvements as a result of those standards.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 to ensure that the labelling of alcohol products includes calorie information.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’, published in 2020, we committed to consult on whether to introduce calorie labelling on prepacked alcohol and alcohol sold in on-trade businesses such as pubs and restaurants.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to help reduce consumption of ultra-processed foods.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Diets high in calories and saturated fat, salt, and sugar are associated with an increased risk of obesity and chronic diseases. Based on their nutritional content, most people are likely to benefit from reducing their consumption of many foods classified as ultra-processed foods (UPF).
The UK Eatwell Guide shows that many foods classified as UPF are not part of a healthy, balanced diet.
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition has concluded that observed associations between UPF and health are concerning, but it is unclear whether these foods are inherently unhealthy due to processing or due to their nutritional content.
Many UPF are also likely to be the focus of: regulations which restrict the placement of high fat, salt or sugar products in store and online; reformulation of products high in calories, sugar and salt; the Soft Drinks Industry Levy; and calorie labelling regulations for food sold in large out-of-home businesses.