Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
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 secure the supply of lisdexampfetamine.
Answered by Will Quince
We are aware of supply issues affecting medicines used for the management of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), including lisdexamfetamine. We have issued communications, in the form of a National Patient Safety Alert, to the National Health Service to advise healthcare professionals on management of patients during this time. We continue to work closely with manufacturers to resolve the issues as soon as possible and to ensure patients have continuous access to ADHD medicines in the United Kingdom.
The shortage of lisdexamfetamine capsules is not confined to the UK, it is a global issue and other markets are affected. We have added ADHD products, including lisdexamfetamine, to the export restriction list to protect available supplies for UK patients. We anticipate that the supply disruption will resolve at various dates between October and December 2023.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had on ensuring the supply of lisdexamfetamine.
Answered by Will Quince
We are aware of supply issues affecting medicines used for the management of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), including lisdexamfetamine. We have issued communications, in the form of a National Patient Safety Alert, to the National Health Service to advise healthcare professionals on management of patients during this time. We continue to work closely with manufacturers to resolve the issues as soon as possible and to ensure patients have continuous access to ADHD medicines in the United Kingdom.
The shortage of lisdexamfetamine capsules is not confined to the UK, it is a global issue and other markets are affected. We have added ADHD products, including lisdexamfetamine, to the export restriction list to protect available supplies for UK patients. We anticipate that the supply disruption will resolve at various dates between October and December 2023.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) accidents and (b) near misses involving manual handling equipment have taken place at Defence Equipment and Support in Beith since 11 September 2023.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
There have been no accidents involving manual or mechanical handling equipment at Defence Munitions Beith since 11 September 2023.
There have been three near-misses involving mechanical handling equipment reported at Defence Munitions Beith since 11 September.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to bring forward cat breeding regulations similar to those in Scotland.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 (the Regulations), anyone in the business of breeding and selling cats as pets needs to have a valid licence issued by their local authority. Licensees must meet strict statutory minimum welfare standards which are enforced by local authorities who have powers to issue, refuse, vary or revoke licences.
Defra has been working on a post-implementation review of the Regulations in line with the requirements of the Regulations’ review clause. This review considers whether the Regulations have met their objectives, and where there could be scope to further improve the protections they provide to breeding cats and their offspring. The review will be published soon.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of administrative changes to IR35 in 2021 on the extent to which domestic contractors are able to secure short-term contracts from UK clients.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The off-payroll working rules are designed to ensure that individuals working like employees but through their own company pay broadly the same income tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs) as those who are directly employed.
The government and HMRC remain committed to understanding the impacts of changes made to the rules in April 2021, and have published external research and HMRC’s own internal analysis on the short-term impacts of the reforms.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether alternative labour is being used to carry out the roles of people on strike at Defence Equipment and Support in Beith.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Defence Munitions Continuity Plan was invoked during the strike action which meant fully qualified and competent staff attended Beith from other Defence Munitions sites. This was to ensure the continued safety of operations and to ensure ongoing military capability was not disrupted.
Those personnel undertake the same roles at other Defence Munition sites, hold full Ministry of Defence driving licences and have undertaken the same training as the staff at Beith.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he is taking steps to ensure the adequacy of health and safety arrangements during industrial action at Defence Equipment and Support in Beith.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Defence Munitions Continuity Plan was invoked during the strike action which meant fully qualified and competent staff attended Beith from other DM sites. This was to ensure the continued safety of operations and to ensure ongoing military capability was not disrupted.
Those personnel undertake the same roles at other DM sites, hold full Ministry of Defence driving licences and have undertaken the same training as the staff at Beith.
Risk assessments and method statements for activities at Beith remain extant for all processes undertaken and have been fully complied with.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that people transferred onto the Adult Disability Payment while awaiting his Department's decision to increase their mobility rate who are subsequently deemed by Social Security Scotland to be eligible for an enhanced mobility rate receive a backdated payment for the period following their notifying his Department of their change in circumstances and their transition to Adult Disability Payment.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
These are matters for the Scottish Government.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of banning the import of fur.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues about a wide range of issues, and Cabinet discussions are considered confidential.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department provides funding to research (a) understanding and (b) treatment of Lewy Body dementia.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government is strongly committed to supporting research into dementia. In 2019 we committed to double funding for dementia research. We will double funding for dementia research to £160 million per year by 2024/25. The Department funds research via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and has provided funding to research which seeks to increase understanding and treatment of Lewy Body dementia. For example, NIHR Programmes spent almost £1.8 million on research in this remit over the past five years. NIHR infrastructure is dedicated to supporting research across all disease and therapy areas, including research into Lewy Body dementia, funded by public funders, medical research charities and the life sciences industry.
Examples of projects funded by the NIHR include the £1.6 million COBALT study which investigates whether adding the drug Memantine to existing medications (acetylcholinesterase inhibitors) improves overall health and function for people with Lewy Body dementia and Parkinson’s disease dementia.
Through an NIHR-funded project, DIAMOND-Lewy, researchers from Newcastle University and University of Cambridge have created a Management Toolkit for better diagnosis and disease management of Lewy Body dementia. The guide is designed to be used by practitioners to facilitate the detection of Lewy Body dementia in patients.