Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
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 simplify the appeals process for persons who have been wrongly classified as being ineligible for the Healthy Start Scheme.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The NHS Business Services Authority does not have an appeals process for applications to the Healthy Start scheme. However, where eligible applicants have been incorrectly advised they were ineligible during the application process, they should contact the NHS Business Services Authority to request assistance in joining the scheme and to obtain any potential backdated payment owed.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how long the average claim to the Vaccine Damages Payment Scheme takes to be (a) investigated and (b) processed.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The average claim under the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme is investigated and processed in approximately six months from the date of receipt. Medical assessments for each claim commence once the NHS Business Services Authority receives full medical records from a claimant’s general practitioner, medical providers, local authorities and other relevant healthcare providers. Once sufficient evidence is gathered, claims are assessed by an independent and experienced medical adviser. The NHS Business Services Authority provides updates on progress to the individual claimant.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
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 implications for his policies of the evidence given by the Chief Executive Officer of Energy Action Scotland to the Scottish Parliament's Net Zero, Energy, and Transport Committee on 26 April 2022 in relation to excess winter mortality and the energy price cap rise from October 2022.
Answered by Maggie Throup
While we have no plans to make a specific assessment, the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) Cold Weather Plan for England provides actions for organisations, communities and individuals, including health and care services, to protect against extreme cold. The UKHSA is also working with partners on cold weather public health campaigns, including the ‘Stay Well This Winter’ campaign and efforts to focus existing schemes to support those facing fuel poverty.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
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 social care staff who were dismissed from employment following the introduction of the covid-19 vaccine mandate.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
We have no specific plans to do so as employers who dismissed unvaccinated care home workers between 11 November 2021 and 14 March 2022 were complying with the law at the time. The re-employment of former staff is a matter for each organisation. Employers should continue to encourage and support to staff make the choice to receive COVID-19 vaccination to protect themselves, their colleagues and those they care for.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
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 social care staff who were dismissed from employment following the introduction of the covid-19 vaccine mandate.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Government's proposals to end the legal requirement to self-isolate in Spring 2022 on the ability of immunosuppressed people to access their places of work.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Department must, in line with the Public Sector Equality Duty, consider the impact of policy decisions on protected groups when changes to legislation are made.
In the case of the self-isolation regulations this will be done alongside public health considerations ahead of any final decision to remove or amend these regulations and consideration will be given to groups who may be disproportionately impacted by changes to the legislation or guidance, as well as those who are immunosuppressed.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
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 potential impact of proposals to end the requirement to self-isolate by spring 2022 on immunosuppressed persons.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Department must, in line with the Public Sector Equality Duty, consider the impact of policy decisions on protected groups when changes to legislation are made.
In the case of the self-isolation regulations this will be done alongside public health considerations ahead of any final decision to remove or amend these regulations and consideration will be given to groups who may be disproportionately impacted by changes to the legislation or guidance, as well as those who are immunosuppressed.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of exempting healthcare workers who have reached the income threshold for the High-Income Child Benefit Tax Charge as a result of working additional hours during the covid-19 outbreak from that charge; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of such an exemption on staffing levels in winter 2021-22.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
No assessment has been made. Data on the number of staff not working overtime or reducing their overtime hours is not held centrally.
We have had no specific discussions with HM Treasury and no assessment of the potential impact of an exemption on staffing levels in winter 2021/22.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
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 number of frontline NHS staff opting (a) to not work overtime and (b) to reduce the number of overtime hours worked as a result to the potential impact that overtime pay might have on their eligibility for the High-Income Child Benefit Tax Charge and level of household income.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
No assessment has been made. Data on the number of staff not working overtime or reducing their overtime hours is not held centrally.
We have had no specific discussions with HM Treasury and no assessment of the potential impact of an exemption on staffing levels in winter 2021/22.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
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 effect of increasing the qualifying age for free prescriptions to the state retirement age on the number of hospital admissions in England.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A full assessment has not been made.