Jan. 03 2024
Source Page: Graphic design contracts spending: FOI releaseFound: consultation on a Scottish Pubs Code - Part 193.722021-11-01 00:00:00Children’s Rights & Wellbeing Screening
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government (1) what plans they have to monitor the development of the BA.2.86 COVID-19 variant in the UK; and (2) to what extent PCR testing will support monitoring the BA.2.86 COVID-19 variant.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency conducts routine monitoring and surveillance of COVID-19 and the emergence and spread of new variants internationally via a range of surveillance systems and genomics capabilities, which report infection rates, hospitalisations and the risks posed by new variants, including the BA.2.86 variant.
The Government has maintained essential COVID-19 surveillance activities in primary and secondary care, and in high-risk settings. Currently a technical briefing is published every week, reviewing the data and risk assessing BA.2.86 and other variants.
We use Polymerase Chain Reaction testing for genomic sequencing to monitor and detect and assess vaccine effectiveness against new variants.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the detection of the BA.2.86 COVID-19 variant in the UK, what assessment they have made of COVID-19 PCR testing (1) capacity, and (2) availability in England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Appropriate levels of testing for COVID-19, including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing have remained to support diagnosis for clinical care and treatment, and to protect very high-risk individuals and settings.
Lateral flow device (LFD) testing is predominantly used and continues to be effective in detecting positive results, including of new variants. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) currently holds a stock of LFDs to support current testing policy and enable expanded deployment, should cases rise or risks to the National Health Service increase.
UKHSA continues to monitor prevalence and other factors to determine if additional testing, either LFD or PCR, is needed.
May. 22 2023
Source Page: Conflict, Stability and Security Fund: Counter Terrorism Programme Fund annual review summaries 2020 to 2021Found: Capabilities of using screening equipment and security procedures / management.1 (Ca)4.2.1.2.
May. 22 2023
Source Page: Conflict, Stability and Security Fund: Counter Terrorism Programme Fund annual review summaries 2020 to 2021Found: Capabilities of using screening equipment and security procedures / management.1 (Ca)4.2.1.2.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the unavailability of testing kits free of charge on the accuracy of national Covid-19 surveillance reports.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The data in the national COVID-19 and flu surveillance reports are accurate based on the data reported to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
The changes in the availability of free COVID-19 testing have not affected the accuracy of data presented within UKHSA’s national COVID-19 and flu surveillance reports. Changes to testing policies over time have changed the volume and breadth of data included in the reports, and this needs to be considered when interpreting that information.
However, there continues to be a range of useful and accurate data available within the national COVID-19 and flu surveillance reports taken from other sources, including our ongoing surveillance programmes.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the covid-19 wastewater testing programme in England on monitoring the rate of infection.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Wastewater monitoring for COVID-19 and its variants was stood down in April 2022 in response to the Government policy change to Living with COVID-19. Therefore, in England, there has been no wastewater testing for COVID-19 within the last 12 months.
Wastewater sampling, and subsequent analysis, has the benefit of detecting the virus regardless of whether people have symptoms or whether they are tested.
Environmental factors such as rainfall dilution can influence the detection of variants in wastewater. Therefore, low total detections on some days may not be reflective of low community infection levels.
Wastewater monitoring cannot currently estimate the number of cases associated with a detection with a high degree of confidence. For example, in small catchment areas it is possible, but highly unlikely, that a detection is due to a single individual. In larger catchment areas detections are likely to be related to a higher number of cases in the population.
Jun. 21 2023
Source Page: Coronavirus (COVID-19) care home outbreaks - root cause analysis: progress report November 2020 to September 2022Found: Coronavirus (COVID-19) care home outbreaks - root cause analysis: progress report November 2020 to September
Jul. 12 2023
Source Page: UK businesses to get free government tool to tackle economic abuseFound: response rate reflected that some of the training participants were no longer in post, as well as the coronavirus
Report Jul. 06 2023
Committee: NoneFound: (Scotland) Act, the Coronavirus Act and any other legislation in relation to the response to COVID-19