Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, on what date HPV vaccinations were made available to men who have sex with men; and how many such men have received that vaccination since that date.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
A pilot programme offering human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to men who have sex with men up to the age of 45 who attend participating HIV and genitourinary medicine Mclinics started on 6 June 2016.
Information on the number of HPV vaccinations administered during the pilot is being collected and, as such, is not yet available. It is anticipated that initial validated data covering the period up to the end of September will be available in late November.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which (a) Ministers and (b) officials of his Department plan to attend the UN General Assembly high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS at the UN headquarters in New York in June 2016.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The United Kingdom Government will be represented at this meeting. Precise attendance has still to be finalised.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which (a) ministers and (b) officials of his Department will be present at the International Aids Conference in Durban in July 2016.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Officials from Public Health England will be attending the conference and feeding back to Ministers on the issues discussed.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what mechanisms are in place to monitor the use of HIV innovation funding; and when he plans to (a) conduct and (b) publish his review of the projects that have received such funding.
Answered by Jane Ellison
In November 2015, the HIV Prevention Innovation fund announced one year’s funding for seven projects led by voluntary sector organisations. Project funding included an allocation for monitoring and evaluation of their activities and projects have been asked to submit regular monitoring reports to Public Health England. Projects will be asked to report the outcome of their work at the end of their contract. These results will be combined into a single report, which will draw out and highlight important learning from all projects, to be presented and published before the end of the 2016/17 financial year.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which professional bodies provide accreditation for (a) counselling and (b) psychotherapy services for the NHS.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Department has no statutory powers to compel professional bodies to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). We are working closely with the group who drafted the MoU, currently led by the UK Council for Psychotherapy, which has successfully increased the number of signatories since the document was first published in February 2015. The group will continue to encourage others to sign up to their revised MoU, which will be extended to include transgender people, over coming months.
The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) provides independent accreditation of voluntary registers for counselling and psychotherapy services.
Accreditation by the PSA allows commissioners, employers, and service users to assure themselves that the practitioners on these registers meet high standards of training, conduct and competence, and at all times apply high ethical standards to their work.
The PSA accredits the following voluntary registers relevant to counselling and psychotherapy:
Association of Child Psychotherapists;
Association of Christian Counsellors;
British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy;
British Association of Play Therapists;
British Psychoanalytic Council;
Counselling & Psychotherapy in Scotland;
National Counselling Society;
Play Therapy UK; and
UK Council for Psychotherapy.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that all professional bodies that provide accreditation for counselling and psychotherapy services for the NHS add their signatures to the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy in the UK, published in November 2015.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Department has no statutory powers to compel professional bodies to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). We are working closely with the group who drafted the MoU, currently led by the UK Council for Psychotherapy, which has successfully increased the number of signatories since the document was first published in February 2015. The group will continue to encourage others to sign up to their revised MoU, which will be extended to include transgender people, over coming months.
The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) provides independent accreditation of voluntary registers for counselling and psychotherapy services.
Accreditation by the PSA allows commissioners, employers, and service users to assure themselves that the practitioners on these registers meet high standards of training, conduct and competence, and at all times apply high ethical standards to their work.
The PSA accredits the following voluntary registers relevant to counselling and psychotherapy:
Association of Child Psychotherapists;
Association of Christian Counsellors;
British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy;
British Association of Play Therapists;
British Psychoanalytic Council;
Counselling & Psychotherapy in Scotland;
National Counselling Society;
Play Therapy UK; and
UK Council for Psychotherapy.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress his Department is making on rolling out HPV vaccinations to men who have sex with men.
Answered by Jane Ellison
In November 2015, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the expert body that advises the Government on all immunisation matters, advised that a targeted human papillomavirus vaccination programme should be undertaken for men who have sex with men up to 45 years of age who attend genitourinary medicine and HIV clinics. They noted that this should be subject to procurement of the vaccine and delivery of the programme at a cost-effective price.
JCVI acknowledged that finding a way to implement its advice would be challenging and made clear that work was needed by DH and others to consider commissioning and delivery routes for this programme. This work is already underway and we will announce our plans as soon as we can.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress his Department has made in developing a HIV prevention strategy; and what timetable he has set for the development of that strategy.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department’s Framework for Sexual Health Improvement in England (2013) addresses HIV prevention as part of wider action to improve sexual health and modernise sexual health services. It sets out the evidence base for sexual health improvement, including for people at risk of HIV. In addition, Public Health England (PHE) is currently consulting on its Health Promotion Strategic Plan for Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV. This will complement the Department’s Framework and PHE expect to publish their strategic plan later this year.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of the Government's proposed £200 million reduction in the local government public health grant will apply to public health funding in each local authority area.
Answered by Jane Ellison
We will shortly publish a consultation on how best to implement these savings in ways that minimise any impact on services.
Spending decisions on particular services, such as sexual health services, will remain for local authorities to make in the light of their local priorities. They are best placed to assess local needs and prioritise the deployment of their available resources accordingly.
Asked by: Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his policy is on the level of future funding for open access to sexual health services which local authorities are obliged to provide under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
Answered by Jane Ellison
We will shortly publish a consultation on how best to implement these savings in ways that minimise any impact on services.
Spending decisions on particular services, such as sexual health services, will remain for local authorities to make in the light of their local priorities. They are best placed to assess local needs and prioritise the deployment of their available resources accordingly.