Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the value is of contracts awarded to Randox Laboratories for the delivery of covid-19 testing since 1 March 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information on Test and Trace contracts is available publicly on https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has for the participation of local authorities in the roll-out of covid-19 vaccines.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Local authorities will play a vital role, working together with the National Health Service and local care providers, to ensure we make the best possible use of initial supplies of the vaccine. The NHS has identified Senior Responsible Officers to link local authorities and the social care system. The Government will continue to support councils and will ensure everyone who has been clinically prioritised to receive a vaccine will have access as soon as possible.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to announce the public health grant allocations for local authorities for 2021-22.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We expect to confirm individual local authority public health grant allocations for 2021/22 shortly.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
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 assist in procuring personal protective equipment for local authorities from 1 April 2021 when the current arrangement ends.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In the recent Spending Review, it was announced that the Department would be provided with funding for 2021/2022 to cover ongoing COVID-19 related personal protective equipment (PPE) expenditure. We are currently analysing options for the future supply and distribution of PPE beyond March 2021.
We have seen a monumental change in the way that PPE has been secured and supplied across the country. We have learned a great deal from this experience and want to build on this to transition to a future model that is both resilient and proportionate.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all positive covid-19 test results are shared with relevant local authorities within a time frame that enables an individual's contacts to be traced.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
All upper tier local authorities have access to record level test and case data, including sex, age, occupation and postcode. Directors of public health are also receiving fully identifiable test, case and contact tracing data where the case data includes, address, postcode, sex, age, National Health Service number, occupation, test date, and additional data describing progress through the NHS Test and Trace contact tracing process.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department holds data on the average time taken for a covid-19 positive test result to be reported to the relevant local authority by test setting.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not currently hold the information in the format requested.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to provide postcode level data on (a) positive and (b) negative covid-19 tests obtained through (i) Pillar 1 and (ii) Pillar 2 testing strands to (A) local resilience forums and (b) local authority Directors of Public Health.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
All upper tier local authorities have access to record level (including sex, age, occupation and postcode) test and case data. Directors of Public Health are also receiving fully identifiable test, case and contact tracing data where the case data includes, address, postcode, sex, age, NHS Number, occupation, test date, and additional data describing progress through the NHS Test and Trace contact tracing process. Public Health England (PHE) provides access to this data via a secure platform to Directors of Public Health to support them to carry out their outbreak management responsibilities. This data is currently updated on a daily basis.
PHE began providing record level positive test data, including postcodes, to local authorities (including Directors of Public Health) on 24 June.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many tasks have been undertaken by volunteers through the NHS Volunteer Responders programme in each month since it was set up, up to and including September 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of 20 September 2020, NHS Volunteer Responders have undertaken 861,192 tasks since the start of the programme, which went fully live on 7 April 2020.
The following table sets out the number of completed tasks by month from March to September 2020.
Month 2020 | Completed tasks |
March | 1 |
April | 80,362 |
May | 171,521 |
June | 176,532 |
July | 181,797 |
August | 162,879 |
September (up until and including 20 September) | 88,100 |
Total | 861,192 |
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that positive covid-19 test results under the commercial Deloitte system are shared with relevant local authorities.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Deloitte is contracted to provide professional services support to the Department and the National Testing Programme. Deloitte’s role has included setting up testing facilities; coordinating the set-up of home and satellite delivery channels; and designing the digital platform that enables people to book a test and register their kit. Deloitte makes this digital information available to the National Pathology Exchange.
Once results are generated in the labs, the results information also flows to the National Pathology Exchange where the result is matched to the individual’s demographic information. These results are passed to Public Health England every 30 minutes through a data flow. As such, Deloitte does not have a role in the generation of results or the handling of positive case data.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
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 July 2020 to Question 49702 on Protective Clothing: Local Government, how many items of personal protective have been delivered through the PPE Portal each week since April 1st 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Week by week data is not available.