Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
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 17 November to Question 73745 on Ophthalmic Services: National Clinical Directors, what his timetable is for appointing the National Clinical Director for Eye Care.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
NHS England and NHS Improvement are planning to commence the recruitment process for a National Clinical Director for Eye Care in the new year.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with NHS England on the appointment of a National Clinical Director for Eye Care.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently developing a role description for a National Clinical Director for Eye Care to support recovery and provide clinical leadership to NHS England’s work to transform eye care services. A national recruitment process will be launched in due course.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to work with NHS England to appoint a National Clinical Director for Eye Care, and formulate the responsibilities held in this role.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently developing a role description for a National Clinical Director for Eye Care to support recovery and provide clinical leadership to NHS England’s work to transform eye care services. A national recruitment process will be launched in due course.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
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 reduce the (a) appeal and (b) availability of (i) e-cigarettes and (ii) other nicotine products to children.
Answered by Maggie Throup
E-cigarettes in the United Kingdom are regulated by the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 (TRPR) and the Nicotine Inhaling Products (Age of Sale and Proxy Purchasing) Regulations 2015 (NIP). These regulations aim to reduce the risk of harm to children and include restrictions on mainstream television and radio advertising; requirements on the packaging and labelling of e-cigarettes, prevent sale to under 18s; and limit both tank sizes and nicotine content.
We are currently undertaking a post implementation review of TRPR to assess if the regulations are meeting their objectives. The Government aims to publish its response by the end of the year. The post implementation review on the Nicotine Inhaling Products (Age of Sale and Proxy Purchasing) Regulations 2015 is available at the following link:
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answers of 28 October 2021 to Questions 62622 and 62623, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of implementing (a) community testing, (b) point-of-care testing and (c) wider antiviral treatment into the flu pathway.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Department is currently assessing the scope to include testing for Influenza alongside existing community testing for SARS-CoV-2.
We are not currently assessing the potential merits of implementing point-of-care testing for flu and we have not made an assessment of the potential merits of implementing wider antiviral treatment into the flu pathway.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
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 fund regional programmes that reduce the use of illicit tobacco in deprived communities.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Local authorities make funding decisions through the public health grant about the services needed to meet the needs of their populations and this includes stop smoking services and campaigns. Central funding is also provided to local authorities for local trading standards activity including illicit tobacco. Local authorities will decide how this is allocated across local services.
In addition, to reduce the availability of illicit tobacco in local communities the Government announced a package of measures at Budget 2020. This included investment to create a new UK-wide HMRC and Trading Standards intelligence sharing hub as well as a ring-fenced grant of £1 million to support National Trading Standards anti-illicit tobacco projects. This investment has commenced and is designed to provide tougher, more visible street level enforcement in those communities where illicit tobacco is a problem.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
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 reduce the level of smoking in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Local authorities are responsible for deciding the services required to meet the needs of their local populations, this includes stop smoking services and campaigns. In 2011 the adult smoking rates in the Newcastle upon Tyne area were 23% and in 2019 at 13%, below the current England average of 13.9%. The local authority is part of the collaboratively funded Fresh North East tobacco control programme, providing additional stop smoking campaigns and service support across the North East.
The Government is committed to making the country Smokefree by 2030 and will publish a new tobacco control plan to support this ambition which will have an even sharper focus on tackling health disparities.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which Minister is responsible for improving the (a) prevention and (b) treatment of sight loss conditions.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
I am the Minister with responsibility for primary eye care services, including the National Health Service sight testing service, which can detect conditions that can lead to sight loss.
My hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Vaccines and Public Health (Maggie Throup MP) is responsible for prevention which includes the diabetic retinopathy screening programme and tackling known causes of sight loss such as smoking and obesity.
In addition, my hon. Friend the Minister of State for Health (Edward Argar MP) is responsible for hospital services, including hospital eye care services which provides treatment for sight loss conditions.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many pre-registration student midwives (a) have started their training and (b) were at any stage of their training in each of the last five academic years for which figures are available.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The Department does not hold information on the number of midwives in any stage of training. The following table shows the number of student acceptances to midwifery courses in England. Acceptances are a widely used proxy for the number of students who start training each year.
Academic year | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-2021 | |
Number of acceptances | 2,395 | 2,600 | 2,680 | 3,105 | 3,630 | |
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Source: The Universities and Colleges Admission Service end of cycle data, 2020
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what measures his Department is considering other than vaccination to help mitigate a winter flu outbreak in winter 2021-22.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The National Health Service continues to recommend hand washing, using tissues to catch coughs and sneezes and using a bin to catch tissues as quickly as possible to help reduce the risk of flu. However, influenza vaccination remains a cost-effective measure to protect those at risk and reduce hospitalisations.