Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the level of risk to health posed by 5G connectivity.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Public Health England (PHE) has published a webpage about exposure to the radio waves from mobile phone base stations, including those for 5G networks, at the following link:
This explains the health-related reviews and assessments have been performed, as well as the practical measures that are in place to protect public health.
PHE continues to monitor the health-related evidence applicable to radio waves, including in relation to base stations, and is committed to updating its advice as required.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much capital funding has been (a) allocated to and (b) spent by (i) NHS foundation trusts and (ii) NHS trusts per capita in each of the last five years.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
National Health Service capital expenditure by NHS providers is funded in large part through their ability to generate income via trading activity with Commissioners. This internally generated financing is supplemented by Departmental financing in the form of repayable capital loans and Public Dividend Capital (PDC) for specific strategic initiatives, for example sustainability and transformation partnerships funding; for investment to address pressures on urgent and emergency care over the winter period or for investment in strategic technology fields.
Details of these investments can be found in the annual report ‘Financial Assistance under Section 40 of the National Health Service Act 2006’, which is published alongside the Department’s Annual Report. This can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dhsc-annual-report-and-accounts-2018-to-2019
The following table provides detail of the outturn Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit (CDEL) for foundation trusts and NHS trusts over the past five years.
It is not possible to provide this information ‘per capita’ as there is no fixed population or geographical boundary for any given hospital trust.
| 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 |
Foundation Trust CDEL Outturn Expenditure (£,000s) | 1,925,555 | 1,795,693 | 1,815,837 | 2,061,023 | 2,380,091 |
NHS Trust CDEL Outturn Expenditure (£,000s) | 1,381,276 | 1,146,203 | 1,049,501 | 1,002,017 | 1,551,799 |
Total NHS Provider CDEL Outturn Expenditure (£,000s) | 3,306,831 | 2,941,896 | 2,865,338 | 3,063,040 | 3,931,890 |
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) NHS trusts and (b) NHS foundation trusts have implemented an Electronic Patient Record system; and how many patients’ records are recorded on those systems.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS Digital has advised that currently there are 71 National Health Service trusts and 108 NHS foundation trusts who have implemented an Electronic Patient Record System. NHS Digital does not routinely collect data on the overall number of patients’ records and therefore the number of patient’s records is not held on the Electronic Patient Record System.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many bids for capital spending (a) his Department, (b) NHS England and (c) NHS Improvement have (i) accepted and (ii) fully funded in each of the last five years; and what the total value was of those bids in each of those years.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The number of bids received by the Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement for capital spending are not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many overheating occurrences triggering a risk assessment were recorded by (a) NHS trusts and( b) foundation trusts in (i) England and (ii) Totnes in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the July 2017 tobacco control plan for England, when the Government plans to announce a date for achieving its smokefree generation target of smoking prevalence at 5 per cent or below.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The Government’s vision, as set out in the Tobacco Control Plan for England published in 2017, is to create a smokefree generation by reducing adult smoking prevalence to 5% or below. The current smoking rates for England are 14.4%, the lowest on record. The Government has not yet committed to a date by which to achieve a smokefree generation but continues to keep progress on reducing prevalence under close review.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
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 ensure that tobacco companies have no involvement in (a) smoking cessation services and (b) public health campaigns.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The United Kingdom is a signatory to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The Government takes very seriously its treaty obligations, including the commitment under Article 5.3 to protect public health policies with respect to tobacco control from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry. It expects all public bodies to follow comply with the FCTC Secretariat’s guidance on this Article.
To remind the National Health Service of this commitment, NHS England issued a note to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in the CCG bulletin dated 26 July 2018. Public Health England (PHE) has also written to local authorities and Directors of Public Health advising against such partnerships, a message reiterated in the PHE blog. The blog is available to view at the following link:
https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2018/01/05/duncan-selbies-friday-message-5-january-2018/