Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with representatives of the football industry on (a) the scale of and (b) tackling Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy suffered by ex-professional football players.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The safety, wellbeing and welfare of everyone taking part in sport is absolutely paramount. I welcome work by the football industry to protect players from harm and provide practical support to former players who develop neurodegenerative conditions. One example of this is the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Football Brain Health Fund, supported by the Premier League and announced in September 2023, which aims to assist former players and their families who have been impacted by dementia and other neurodegenerative conditions.
The Government has no plans to legislate in this area, but will continue to liaise with the football authorities about their work to protect players and provide support, including funding initiatives.
The Government continues to take the issue of head injuries very seriously. In December 2021 DCMS published its Command Paper report on concussion in sport, outlining the steps the Government is undertaking to help reduce risks associated with head injuries by improving understanding, awareness, prevention and treatment of concussion in sport. As part of this, in April 2023 the Government announced the first UK concussion guidelines for grassroots sport, in conjunction with the Sport and Recreation Alliance. This guidance is intended to be a helpful tool in reducing the risks associated with concussion and marks an important step in making sport safer for thousands of people who enjoy sport at a grassroots level, as well as an aid to professional sports.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to provide additional funding to the NHS for (a) diagnostic tools and (b) the workforce to help prepare for the potential arrival of new dementia treatments.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has established a dedicated national programme team, which is working in partnership with other national agencies and with local health systems to co-ordinate the preparations for the potential roll out of new treatments.
The team at NHS England are assessing the additional scanning, treating and monitoring capacity which would be required if potential new Alzheimer’s treatments are approved and determined to be clinically and cost-effective. This includes securing additional diagnostic capacity including magnetic resonance imaging, lumbar puncture, and positron emission tomography and computed tomography.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of geographical disparities in access to specialist dementia diagnostics on the (a) accuracy and (b) timeliness of diagnoses across regions.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network has been commissioned by NHS England to develop a resource to support investigation of the underlying variation in dementia diagnosis rates. The aim of this work is to provide context for variation and enable targeted investigation and provision of support at a local level, to enhance diagnosis rates. The tool has been released and is available via the NHS Futures Collaboration platform.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
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 expand testing for Alzheimer's to enable people to benefit at an early stage from new treatments (a) lecanemab and (b) other new treatments.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is committed to improving diagnosis rates, and recovering to the national ambition for two thirds of people with dementia to have a formal diagnosis. This commitment is included in the operational planning guidance for 2023/24, giving clear direction for integrated care boards to prioritise dementia. The national ambition includes provision for a sub-type diagnosis.
NHS England has established a dedicated national programme team which co-ordinates the preparations for the potential roll out of new treatments, for use in the earlier stages of Alzheimer’s disease. These plans assume that, if these new treatments are approved by the regulators, significant additional diagnostic capacity including amyloid positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET-CT) lumbar puncture and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), will be needed both to identify patients who are most able to benefit, and to provide important safety monitoring for potential adverse effects during treatment.
The team at NHS England is taking concrete steps to ramp up preparations across the country and assess the additional scanning, treating, and monitoring capacity that will be needed. This encompasses securing additional diagnostic capacity including MRI, lumbar puncture, and PET-CT.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will exempt not for profit organisations delivering welfare services for people living with dementia from VAT.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
VAT has been designed as a broad-based tax on consumption, and the twenty per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. Whilst there are exceptions to the standard rate, these have always been strictly limited by both legal and fiscal considerations.
Welfare services for people living with dementia provided by local authorities and similar bodies and charities are exempt from VAT, meaning no VAT is charged to the final consumer.
Welfare services for people living with dementia, provided by state regulated private welfare organisations, are also exempt from VAT. State regulated suppliers are those that are registered with the Care Quality Commission, and are eligible for the VAT exemption where they are providing services that are state regulated.
The regulation requirement ensures that VAT relief is limited to providers certified as offering safe and high-quality welfare services. This is a long-standing requirement, and there are no plans to make changes to these rules.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the dementia diagnosis rate was for people aged under 65 who had developed symptoms on 23 February 2024; and if she will publish a monthly estimate of this rate within national primary care dementia data.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The dementia diagnosis rate is not calculated for patients aged under 65 years old. This is because the numbers of patients known to have dementia in the sample population age groups comprising those aged between zero and 64 years old are not large enough for reliable estimates to be made.
The dementia diagnosis rate for patients aged 65 years old and over is calculated and published monthly via the Primary Care Dementia Data publication, which is available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/primary-care-dementia-data
This publication does include a monthly count of the number of patients aged 65 years old and under who do have a dementia diagnosis on their patient record; this is expressed as a raw count and as a percentage of registered patients aged between zero and 64 years old.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will take steps to require every Integrated Care Board to develop a young onset dementia pathway to (a) standardise and (b) improve dementia (i) care and (ii) support for people of working age.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs). NHS England would expect ICBs to commission services based on local population needs, taking account of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
The Dementia Well Pathway includes diagnosing well, living/ supporting well and dying well, and highlights that services need to be integrated, commissioned, monitored, and aligned with NICE standards for each component of the pathway. It makes it clear that the needs, wishes and preferences of each individual, including those of working age, should be taken into account in planning and providing their care.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the national ambition for dementia diagnosis rates at ensuring that people under 65 receive (a) a timely dementia diagnosis and (b) appropriate post-diagnostic support.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The dementia diagnosis rate is not calculated for patients aged under 65 years old. This is because the numbers of patients known to have dementia in the sample population age groups comprising the zero to 64-year-old age range, are not large enough for reliable estimates to be made. Nonetheless, NHS England is committed to delivering high quality care and support for every person with dementia at every age, and central to this is the provision of personalised care.
As part of the spending review settlement in 2021/22, £17 million was allocated to the National Health Service to address dementia waiting lists and to increase the number of diagnoses, which had been adversely impacted by the pandemic. NHS England will share reporting on the impact of this funding and examples of good practice with dementia clinical networks in March 2024.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing VAT exemption for not-for-profit organisations who provide welfare services to dementia sufferers.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
VAT has been designed as a broad-based tax on consumption, and the twenty per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. Whilst there are exceptions to the standard rate, these have always been strictly limited by both legal and fiscal considerations.
Welfare services provided by local authorities and similar bodies and charities are exempt from VAT, meaning no VAT is charged to the final consumer.
Welfare services provided by state regulated private welfare institutions are also exempt from VAT. State regulated suppliers are those that are registered with the Care Quality Commission, and are eligible for the VAT exemption where they are providing services that are state regulated.
The regulation requirement ensures that VAT relief is limited to providers certified as offering safe and high-quality welfare services. This is a long-standing requirement, and there are no plans to make changes to these rules.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
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 reduce premature deaths from cardiovascular disease.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Plan has committed to a number of key ambitions to improve care and outcomes for individuals with cardiovascular disease (CVD), including enhanced diagnostic support in the community, better personalised planning, and increasing access to cardiac rehabilitation. These ambitions will support the delivery of the aim to help prevent 150,000 heart attacks, strokes, and dementia cases by 2029.
To support elective recovery, the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to drive up and protect elective activity, including heart disease, ensuring early access to diagnostic tests and treatment.
The NHS Health Check programme is a core component of England's CVD prevention pathway. Over 15 million people are eligible for an NHS Health Check every five years, with 1.3 million being delivered a year, preventing an estimated 500 heart attacks and strokes.
The NHS Long Term Plan sets out that by 2028 the proportion of patients accessing cardiac rehabilitation will be amongst the best in Europe, with up to 85% of those eligible accessing care. This will prevent up to 23,000 premature deaths and 50,000 acute admissions over 10 years.