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Written Question
Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme
Thursday 29th September 2022

Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce the backlog of unresolved Vaccine Damage Payment claims.

Answered by Will Quince

The Department is working with the NHS Business Services Authority, which has administered the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme since November 2021, to reduce the backlog of claims.

The NHS Business Services Authority has increased the scheme’s capacity with 40 named caseworkers, additional supporting staff and the appointment of an independent third-party supplier to provide additional medical assessments. The NHS Business Services Authority has also introduced time limits for the provision of records and a call back process to improve the return rate of medical records required for assessments.


Written Question
Food: Advertising
Thursday 9th June 2022

Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the high fat, sugar and salt regulations, whether his Department plans to publish evidence that demonstrates why sweet nut bars are set to be included in the restrictions, and why sweet nuts in bags are not.

Answered by Maggie Throup

The Government decided the restrictions of foods high in fat, salt or sugar in stores and online should apply to a specified list of categories which are significant contributors to children's sugar, salt, and calorie intakes and are heavily promoted. Products within these categories are considered less healthy if they receive a score of four or more for food or a drink product scores one or above, using the 2011 technical guidance to the 2004/2005 Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM). The 2004/2005 NPM is being applied as it is based on scientific evidence and provides an overall assessment of the nutritional content of products considered by balancing the beneficial nutrients of a product including fruit, vegetables and nuts, fibre and protein content against components of food that children should eat less of, such as saturated fat, sugar, salt, and calories. The categories in the sugar and calorie reduction and reformulation programmes have been used as a basis as they were formulated following research and analysis undertaken by Public Health England (PHE). The categories identified everyday foods that contribute significantly to the sugar and calorie intakes of children up to the age of 18 years old. For the sugar reduction programme, PHE held stakeholder engagement between 2016 and 2017 to inform decisions on the categories included in the programme and ensure the application of a consistent approach to businesses and products. A similar approach was used for the calorie reduction programme. The impact assessments for the promotions and placement restrictions, published in December 2020, show the overall health benefit is significant and takes into account the proportionality and feasibility of restricting specific product categories. Definitions of product categories in scope of the advertising restrictions are to be included in a consultation which will be launched shortly.


Written Question
Food: Advertising
Thursday 9th June 2022

Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)

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 health impact for consumers and businesses of including fruit and nut-based bars under the restrictions for high fat, sugar and salt products.

Answered by Maggie Throup

The Government decided the restrictions of foods high in fat, salt or sugar in stores and online should apply to a specified list of categories which are significant contributors to children's sugar, salt, and calorie intakes and are heavily promoted. Products within these categories are considered less healthy if they receive a score of four or more for food or a drink product scores one or above, using the 2011 technical guidance to the 2004/2005 Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM). The 2004/2005 NPM is being applied as it is based on scientific evidence and provides an overall assessment of the nutritional content of products considered by balancing the beneficial nutrients of a product including fruit, vegetables and nuts, fibre and protein content against components of food that children should eat less of, such as saturated fat, sugar, salt, and calories. The categories in the sugar and calorie reduction and reformulation programmes have been used as a basis as they were formulated following research and analysis undertaken by Public Health England (PHE). The categories identified everyday foods that contribute significantly to the sugar and calorie intakes of children up to the age of 18 years old. For the sugar reduction programme, PHE held stakeholder engagement between 2016 and 2017 to inform decisions on the categories included in the programme and ensure the application of a consistent approach to businesses and products. A similar approach was used for the calorie reduction programme. The impact assessments for the promotions and placement restrictions, published in December 2020, show the overall health benefit is significant and takes into account the proportionality and feasibility of restricting specific product categories. Definitions of product categories in scope of the advertising restrictions are to be included in a consultation which will be launched shortly.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Vaccination
Tuesday 30th March 2021

Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients in (a) Derbyshire and (b) Amber Valley constituency are in phase 1 priority groups for covid-19 vaccination.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

The information requested at county level is not currently available. In addition, constituency level vaccination and eligibility data is not available in the format requested as of 7 January 2021.

Data on the number of vaccinations delivered is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-vaccinations/


Written Question
Coronavirus: Derbyshire
Tuesday 30th March 2021

Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients in (a) Derbyshire and (b) Amber Valley constituency are in the top four priority groups for covid-19 vaccination.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

The information requested at county level is not currently available. In addition, constituency level vaccination and eligibility data is not available in the format requested as of 7 January 2021.

Data on the number of vaccinations delivered is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-vaccinations/


Written Question
Coronavirus: Derbyshire
Tuesday 30th March 2021

Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people in (a) Derbyshire and (b) Amber Valley constituency have received a covid-19 vaccine as of 7 January 2021.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

The information requested at county level is not currently available. In addition, constituency level vaccination and eligibility data is not available in the format requested as of 7 January 2021.

Data on the number of vaccinations delivered is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-vaccinations/


Written Question
Hospitals: Hygiene
Wednesday 7th November 2018

Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)

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 13 September 2017 to Question 8915 on Hospitals: Hygiene, when he plans to publish the data on hospital hand hygiene compliance.

Answered by Caroline Dinenage

The 2008 Health and Social Care Act’s code of practice on the prevention and control of infections requires adequate provision of hand washing facilities, information on the importance of compliance with hand hygiene for visitors, regular refresher training for health professionals and support for patients to wash their hands. The Care Quality Commission monitors compliance with this code.

NHS Improvement leads on infection prevention and control and is developing a plan that will standardise policies and guidance on hand hygiene and will be looking at a national hand hygiene data collection and reporting methodology. This project is still in development and we will be able to advise on timelines as further updates are received from NHS Improvement.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Children
Tuesday 10th October 2017

Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve mental health services for children and young people.

Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price

We are investing an extra £1.4billion in children and young people’s mental health services. This money is already extending access for children and young people to vital services, and will reach an extra 70,000 children a year by 2020/21.

The Government has committed to publish a Green Paper on children and young people’s mental health by the end of the year to outline next steps.


Written Question
Hospitals: Hygiene
Wednesday 13th September 2017

Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to publish information on hospital hand hygiene compliance.

Answered by Philip Dunne

The Department understands that NHS Improvement is looking into a means of capturing hand hygiene data and compliance within the National Health Service.


Written Question
Sepsis
Wednesday 13th September 2017

Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to support the 70th World Health Assembly's resolution on improving hand hygiene and the prevention, diagnosis and clinical management of sepsis.

Answered by Philip Dunne

The United Kingdom supported the “Improving the prevention, diagnosis and clinical management of sepsis” resolution adopted by the World Health Organization at the 70th World Health Assembly in May 2017.

The Health and Social Care Act 2008: Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infections and related guidance was updated in 2015. The Department published a revised code of practice setting good practice on hand hygiene compliance. The code is used by the Care Quality Commission for inspections of health and social care services in England and underpins their regulatory activities.

The UK works with international partners to support initiatives in infection prevention and management.