Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent discussions he has had with his Indian counterpart on the protection of freedom of religion or belief in that country.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government is committed to defending Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) for all and promoting respect and tolerance between different religious and non-religious communities. We have a broad and deep partnership with the Government of India and we discuss all elements of our relationship, including human rights and FoRB. FoRB was among issues discussed by Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister for South Asia, with the Government of India during his visit to India in February 2024.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will publish a strategy to (a) tackle critical medicines shortages and (b) help improve the resilience of the community pharmacy sector.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has no plans to publish a strategy. There are around 14,000 medicines licensed for supply in the United Kingdom, and most are in good supply. However, the medicine supply chain is highly regulated, complex, and global, which means that there can sometimes be supply issues which affect the UK, along with other countries around the world. Medicine supply problems may be caused by several factors, including manufacturing difficulties, regulatory non-compliance, demand surges, problems with the supply of raw materials, and issues related to distribution of the product. We work with industry, NHS England, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the devolved administrations, and other stakeholders to address these issues and help ensure patients continue to have access to the treatments they need. Communications about supply issues requiring active management are issued to healthcare professionals, and guidance is provided to help them manage their patients, where necessary.
Access to community pharmacies in England is good, with 80% of the population living within 20 minutes walking distance from a pharmacy, and twice as many pharmacies in the most deprived areas. We are funding pharmacies with £2.6 billion per year, and have invested up to an additional £645 million in the sector across this and next year, for the recently launched Pharmacy First service and the expansion of the existing Blood Pressure Check Service and Pharmacy Contraception Service. The contractual arrangements and funding for 2024/25 are being currently consulted on with Community Pharmacy England.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had recent discussions with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on its targets to reduce its licensing backlog of generic and biosimilar medicine applications.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers receive regular updates on the performance of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. The agency is taking significant steps to assess licensing applications within the shortest time possible. It is working to reduce timelines by bringing in additional resources and developing processes that will result in significantly improved response times, while protecting patient safety. These changes are already resulting in improvements, and monthly performance figures are published online.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department is taking steps to ensure that patients diagnosed with early stage chronic kidney disease are monitored for disease progression.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance, Chronic kidney disease: Assessment and management [NG203], updated in November 2021, sets out best practice for clinicians in the diagnosis and management of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The guidance covers: monitoring for those patients at risk; pharmacological management; and referral where appropriate. The guidance can be found at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng203
In addition to evidence-based guidance to support clinicians in diagnosing problems of the kidney, we are also working to detect people at risk of kidney disease through the NHS Health Check Programme. The programme, which is available for everyone between the ages of 40 and 74 years old, who are not already on a chronic disease register, assesses people’s health and risk of developing certain health problems. Using this information, patients are supported to make behavioural changes and access treatment which helps to prevent and detect kidney disease earlier.
NHS England, through the Renal Services Transformation programme and regional renal networks, is undertaking a series of initiatives to provide better and more joined-up care across care settings, reduce health inequalities, and focus on prevention and timely intervention through streamlined patient pathways, to address the management of deteriorating kidney disease. Regional renal clinical networks have already prioritised CKD diagnosis and prevention of progression within their transformation ambitions. This includes considerations to develop a unified approach to testing populations at risk of developing CKD, with a view to earlier treatment and raising the profile for the use of specific drugs in the early management of patients diagnosed with the disease. The transformation programme launched a renal toolkit earlier last year for use by care systems, that outlines principles to support better management of patients identified with CKD throughout their patient journey.
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) reviewed CKD and glomerulonephritis in 2011, concluding that a population-wide screening programme would not be recommended. The UK NSC has not looked at the evidence for a targeted programme. The UK NSC can be alerted to any new published, peer-reviewed evidence which may suggest the case for a new screening programme. Proposals to change or review a topic early can be submitted via the UK NSC’s annual call which will open in July 2024. More information can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to raise awareness of chronic kidney disease among high-risk groups.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance, Chronic kidney disease: Assessment and management [NG203], updated in November 2021, sets out best practice for clinicians in the diagnosis and management of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The guidance covers: monitoring for those patients at risk; pharmacological management; and referral where appropriate. The guidance can be found at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng203
In addition to evidence-based guidance to support clinicians in diagnosing problems of the kidney, we are also working to detect people at risk of kidney disease through the NHS Health Check Programme. The programme, which is available for everyone between the ages of 40 and 74 years old, who are not already on a chronic disease register, assesses people’s health and risk of developing certain health problems. Using this information, patients are supported to make behavioural changes and access treatment which helps to prevent and detect kidney disease earlier.
NHS England, through the Renal Services Transformation programme and regional renal networks, is undertaking a series of initiatives to provide better and more joined-up care across care settings, reduce health inequalities, and focus on prevention and timely intervention through streamlined patient pathways, to address the management of deteriorating kidney disease. Regional renal clinical networks have already prioritised CKD diagnosis and prevention of progression within their transformation ambitions. This includes considerations to develop a unified approach to testing populations at risk of developing CKD, with a view to earlier treatment and raising the profile for the use of specific drugs in the early management of patients diagnosed with the disease. The transformation programme launched a renal toolkit earlier last year for use by care systems, that outlines principles to support better management of patients identified with CKD throughout their patient journey.
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) reviewed CKD and glomerulonephritis in 2011, concluding that a population-wide screening programme would not be recommended. The UK NSC has not looked at the evidence for a targeted programme. The UK NSC can be alerted to any new published, peer-reviewed evidence which may suggest the case for a new screening programme. Proposals to change or review a topic early can be submitted via the UK NSC’s annual call which will open in July 2024. More information can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the press release entitled New drugs pilot to tackle obesity and cut NHS waiting lists, published on 7 June 2023, what her Department's timetable is for launching the obesity drugs pilot.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to the safe introduction of the newest National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved weight loss drugs into the National Health Service. NHS England is leading on the design and development of the pilots which will consider how to safely prescribe these treatments outside of a hospital setting, with wraparound support provided in the community or digitally. We are working with NHS England to finalise the pilots, and further details will be available in due course.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full time equivalent staff worked in the MHRA on the licensing of new medicines, biosimilars and generics in each of the last 5 years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has estimated the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) staff who have worked in the MHRA on the licensing of new medicines, biosimilars, and generics for 2019 to 2022, which are:
- 255 FTE staff in 2019;
- 230 FTE staff in 2020;
- 219 FTE staff in 2021; and
- 178 FTE staff in 2022.
Between 2021 and 2023 the MHRA underwent a significant process of transformation and changes to the structure and function of the operating groups across the agency. Throughout this period, there were a range of professionals across the agency working on the licensing of new medicines, biosimilars, and generics. However, the information required to answer this question in full is not available, as the data is unvalidated.
Staffing levels at the MHRA fell between June 2021 and December 2022 due to the One Agency Transformation Programme, as detailed in the MHRA’s Delivery Plan 2021-2023. During this transformation, the MHRA prioritised filling vacancies with contingent resources until the conclusion of the organisational change element of the transformation. This decision was made in order to minimise impact on Civil Servant roles. Since then, the MHRA has been successfully recruiting into the new structure.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the number of units of dental activity delivered by newly qualified dentists in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on units of dental activity (UDAs) delivered by foundation dentist trainees between April and November 2023 is available at the following link:
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/english-contractor-monthly-general-dental-activity
Data from 2016 onwards will be published shortly.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full time equivalent alcohol policy specialists her Department employs.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Public health policy to prevent and reduce alcohol related health harms is part of the Health Improvement Directorate, within the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. There are approximately 157.7 full time equivalent people employed in the directorate. Resources are allocated according to priorities to collectively address common behavioural risk factors, which often cluster, such as smoking, obesity and diet related factors, low physical activity, alcohol, and drug use. The directorate also draws on cross-cutting policy, surveillance, and analytical and delivery specialists across the Department to support policy development, including on alcohol related harms.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the (a) total and (b) annual cost of increasing dental undergraduate training places in England by 40% by 2031-32.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, the Government committed to expanding dentist training places so that there are 1,000 places by 2028/29. No specific estimate is available for the increase in dental undergraduate costs, but along with the other commitments to increase training places for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare roles, it is estimated that this will cost an additional £2.4 billion cumulatively, on top of current education and training budgets. This will support a 27% expansion in training places by 2028/29.