Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 assess the potential (a) costs and (b) impact on patients of the use of (i) lecanemab , (ii) donanemab and (ii) other Alzheimer's drugs.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS, based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. NHS England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by the NICE, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance. The NICE is currently appraising lecanemab and donanemab and expects to publish guidance on both medicines later this year.
NHS England has established a dedicated programme team to prepare for any new Alzheimer’s treatments that are granted a licence by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and determined by the NICE to be clinically and cost effective for use in the NHS. The programme team is preparing for key challenges in implementation. This includes planning for additional diagnostic, treatment, and safety monitoring capacity, and the introduction of a new genetic test as well as amyloid positron emission tomography and computed tomography scanning, to ensure the new pathway for these medicines can be rolled out successfully.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure that social enterprises can meet the Agenda for Change pay award without impacting service quality.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is working with NHS England to provide additional funding to eligible non-National Health Service organisations, including social enterprises, to help deliver the one-off payments of the Agenda for Change pay deal to eligible staff. Eligible organisations are those that have been negatively financially impacted by the pay deal, and whose staff are employed on dynamically linked Agenda for Change contracts.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she plans to take to help ensure equitable pay for people (a) employed by social enterprises and (b) in other sectors delivering NHS services.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Independent providers, including social enterprises, are free to develop and adapt their own terms and conditions of employment. This includes the pay scales that they use and any non-consolidated pay awards they choose to make.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had discussions with leaders of social enterprises on (a) NHS sector wage policies and (b) future healthcare planning.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has not had recent discussions with leaders of social enterprises. Independent providers, including social enterprises, are free to develop and adapt their own terms and conditions of employment.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to help improve the (a) clarity and (b) accuracy of allergen information on food labelling.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The fundamental principle of food labelling rules is that information provided to the consumer must not mislead and must enable the safe use of food. The United Kingdom maintains high standards on the information that is provided on food labels, so that consumers can have confidence in the food they buy. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is responsible for food safety and food hygiene in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, including food allergen labelling.
All food businesses are under a legal obligation to provide information on the presence of the 14 major allergens in food, so that people who have allergies and intolerances are able to make safe food choices. The FSA carries out a range of research to ensure that this information is clear and accurate. It has recently carried out an evaluation of the prepacked for direct sale food labelling requirements introduced in 2021, and updated food labelling technical guidance for businesses following a consultation with consumers and food businesses on the application and understanding of allergen labelling.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she will make an assessment of the adequacy of food labelling for people with allergies.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The fundamental principle of food labelling rules is that information provided to the consumer must not mislead and must enable the safe use of food. The United Kingdom maintains high standards on the information that is provided on food labels, so that consumers can have confidence in the food they buy. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is responsible for food safety and food hygiene in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, including food allergen labelling.
All food businesses are under a legal obligation to provide information on the presence of the 14 major allergens in food, so that people who have allergies and intolerances are able to make safe food choices. The FSA carries out a range of research to ensure that this information is clear and accurate. It has recently carried out an evaluation of the prepacked for direct sale food labelling requirements introduced in 2021, and updated food labelling technical guidance for businesses following a consultation with consumers and food businesses on the application and understanding of allergen labelling.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on steps being taken to help mitigate the potential mental health impact of (a) conditionality groups and (b) welfare sanctions on claimants.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Ministers hold discussions with other ministerial colleagues regularly on a range of issues.
As set out in the Major Conditions Strategy: Case for Change and Strategic Framework, published in August 2023, we are currently working with stakeholders to develop a tool which will potentially support policymakers across Whitehall to examine the impact of their proposals on people’s mental health.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what roles former physician associates have most frequently moved into in the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 with (a) the NHS, (b) community organisations and (c) health experts to help tackle inequalities in the treatment of diabetes.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for improving the health of their populations, including the planning and delivery of diabetes clinical services and addressing health inequalities. The national NHS Diabetes Programme (NDP) develops policies and provides leadership and support to ICBs to improve diabetes care and outcomes.
The NDP ensures local health care systems can identify inequalities in diabetes care and outcomes through National Diabetes Audit data that contains demographic information such as age, deprivation, ethnicity. The NDP allocates funding to support the costs of diabetes clinical lead posts in local health systems, with a key priority to supporting improvement in addressing health inequalities at the local level.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to regulate the physician associate role.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 13 December 2023, the Department laid draft legislation in both Houses and in the Scottish Parliament that will empower the General Medical Council (GMC) to regulate physician associates and anaesthesia associates.
Subject to parliamentary scrutiny, this legislation will instruct the GMC to commence regulation. The GMC will then have to consult on their own rules, policies and guidance and begin regulating these roles in or before December 2024.