Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate she has made of the number of people in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England who have unmet care needs; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure those care needs are met.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities are responsible for assessing individuals’ care and support needs and, where eligible, for meeting those needs. Where individuals do not meet the eligibility threshold, they can get support from their local authorities in making their own arrangements for care services, as set out in the Care Act 2014.
We recognise that some people still experience challenges in accessing the care and support they need, when they need it. That is why ensuring that people find adult social care fair and accessible is one of the three main objectives of our 10-year reform vision for adult social care. To achieve this vision, we are supporting local authorities to address workforce pressures, drive improvements in their local area, and better streamline their assessment processes.
To support this, the Government has made available up to £8.6 billion in additional funding over the financial years 2023/24 and 2024/25, to support adult social care and discharge. This includes up to £1.5 billion of additional grant funding for adult social care for 2024/25, compared to 2023/24, alongside a 2% increase to the adult social care precept for local authorities with social care responsibilities, uptake of which will generate a further £609 million in 2024/25. In addition, the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund, worth almost £2 billion over two years, is designed to support increased adult social care capacity, improve market sustainability, and enable local authorities to make improvements to adult social care services.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the salary threshold for visas for social workers on the recruitment of social workers from overseas.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Social workers are recruited under the Health and Care Worker visa, and therefore are exempt from the salary threshold of £38,700 required by the Skilled Worker visa. Social workers recruited from overseas are subject to national pay scales, and therefore must be paid in line with the National Health Service agenda for change pay scales.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to announce the pay award for NHS workers for 2024-25.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has submitted its evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body, the Doctors and Dentists Pay Review Body, and the Senior Salaries Review Body, in order for them to make recommendations on a pay uplift for National Health Service workers for 2024/25. We will carefully consider the pay review bodies’ comments and recommendations when we receive them, and will respond in due course.
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 discussions she has had with (a) the British Heart Foundation and (b) other relevant organisations on the survival rate of people who suffer cardiac arrest outside of hospital.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Department officials met with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and NHS England in November 2023 to discuss access to Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) and AED cabinets. Officials also attended a workshop co-hosted by the BHF and NHS England in January 2024, on the same issue.
To improve survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases, the Government launched a new £1 million one-off fund that will expand community access to AEDs. The grant was made available from September 2023. We estimated 1,000 new defibrillators would be provided by the fund, with the potential for this to double as most applicants would be asked to match the funding they receive partially or fully. To date, the grant has successfully delivered 2,000 AEDs.
Applications for AEDs are selected in line with criteria to provide AEDs where there is greatest need. The criteria include remote communities with extended ambulance response times, places with high footfall and high population densities, hotspots for cardiac arrest including sporting venues and venues with vulnerable people, and deprived areas.
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 steps the Government is taking to expand (a) access to and (b) provision of public automatic external defibrillators.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Department officials met with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and NHS England in November 2023 to discuss access to Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) and AED cabinets. Officials also attended a workshop co-hosted by the BHF and NHS England in January 2024, on the same issue.
To improve survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases, the Government launched a new £1 million one-off fund that will expand community access to AEDs. The grant was made available from September 2023. We estimated 1,000 new defibrillators would be provided by the fund, with the potential for this to double as most applicants would be asked to match the funding they receive partially or fully. To date, the grant has successfully delivered 2,000 AEDs.
Applications for AEDs are selected in line with criteria to provide AEDs where there is greatest need. The criteria include remote communities with extended ambulance response times, places with high footfall and high population densities, hotspots for cardiac arrest including sporting venues and venues with vulnerable people, and deprived areas.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risk posed by avian flu, given its spread through the US cattle herd and reports that many infected cattle are asymptomatic; what monitoring is being carried out on UK cattle and other farm animals, wild mammals, and the humans that come into contact with them; and what additional biosecurity measures they are planning or developing.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is in close contact with counterparts in the United States on the incidents of influenza of avian origin in cattle in the USA. We know that the strain of virus (Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) strain B3.13) involved has not been detected in the UK.
Defra is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the Food Standards Agency, the Cabinet Office and with international partners on risk assessments to consider the routes of incursion, animal to animal spread and animal to human spill-over and to review our well-tested surveillance mechanisms and preparedness activities in light of this emerging situation.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has assessed the risk to Great Britain of this outbreak in the USA of Influenza A (H5N1) of avian origin in livestock to our own livestock as very low (event is very rare but cannot be excluded). The assessment has been published on gov.uk Avian influenza in cattle in USA (publishing.service.gov.uk) (see attached). The Food Standards Agency (FSA) have assessed the risk to UK consumers from HPAI strain B3.13 in imported milk, dairy products, colostrum and colostrum-based products originating from US dairy cattle as very low with medium uncertainty (Rapid Risk Assessment: Risk to UK consumers from Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 B3.13 in US dairy products | Food Standards Agency) (see attached).
In response to the unprecedented global outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 in wild and kept birds, the UK's avian influenza national reference laboratory at the Animal and Plant Health Agency Weybridge laboratory has increased its surveillance in both wild birds and wild mammals and genome analysis of the virus itself while keeping a close eye on its spread in global populations of wildlife. In addition, we have published an ‘Influenza A (H5N1) infection in mammals: suspect case definition and diagnostic testing criteria’ on gov.uk to support veterinary professionals and others in knowing when to report suspicion. The UK case definition for influenza of avian origin in mammals has been updated and now includes a case definition for ungulates including dairy cattle, this in response the emerging situation in cattle in the USA and will be kept under regular review as further information becomes available.
We are monitoring the situation closely but at this time have no reason to suspect the virus is circulating in our cattle, nor is this strain of the virus circulating in Europe. We have had no recent cases of avian influenza in kept birds, or findings of influenza of avian origin in kept or wild mammals, and the risk level from wild birds is low. We have discussed the need for surveillance in wildlife, domestic animals and humans with DHSC and UKHSA and are considering the case for additional surveillance for influenza of avian origin in cattle and how best such animal health surveillance could be undertaken.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the advice given to immigrants by care worker agencies on finding suitable accommodation in the UK.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Department of Health and Social Care have published guidance for people applying for health and social care jobs which can be found below: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/applying-for-health-and-social-care-jobs-in-the-uk-from-abroad.
The Legal Migration and Borders Minister has met regularly with his counterpart in DHSC to discuss care worker visas.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to place opioid-overdose reversal Naloxone alongside existing public access defibrillators.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is working to expand access to naloxone, and to increase the availability of this life saving medicine. We will shortly update legislation to enable more services and individuals to provide take-home supplies of naloxone without a prescription. This follows a public consultation in which the responses were overwhelmingly supportive of our proposals. The consultation outcome is available at:
These changes mean naloxone can be given to a family member or friend of a person who is known to be using opiates, and to professionals working with people who use these drugs, to save lives in the event of an overdose.
Whilst the government has no current plans to place naloxone alongside public access defibrillators, we are committed to making naloxone as accessible as possible to those who need it. We are therefore considering the feasibility and potential benefits of a range of options, including making naloxone available in locked boxes in public places.
We have also launched a £5 million fund to tackle drug deaths across the United Kingdom, which is funding research projects that are considering other innovative ways to make naloxone more readily available. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/5-million-fund-to-tackle-fatal-drug-deaths-across-the-uk
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have died while in the care of community mental health teams in the last 12 months; and if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of this data.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total cost of treating patients who are obese and overweight; and what are the associated costs of treating (1) type 2 diabetes, (2) cardiovascular disease, (3) cerebrovascular disease, (4) musculoskeletal diseases including joint replacers, (5) cancer, and (6) dementia.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The department has reviewed and uses cost estimates published by Frontier Economics in 2022.
A study by Frontier Economics estimated that in 2021 obesity related ill-health cost the National Health Service £6.5 billion annually. This estimate includes costs associated with the following obesity related diseases: colorectal cancer; oesophageal cancer; kidney cancer; ovarian cancer; pancreatic cancer; coronary heart disease; stroke; type 2 diabetes; hypertension; knee osteoarthritis; endometrial cancer, and breast cancer.
The disease costs associated with obesity are calculated from the total annual costs per case, as shown in the following table:
Disease | Cost per case per year (2021) |
(1) Type 2 diabetes | £ 827.33 |
(2) Cardiovascular disease - Coronary heart disease (CHD) | £ 1,557.25 |
(2) Cardiovascular disease - Stroke | £ 247.55 |
(2) Risk of Cardiovascular disease - Hypertension | £ 453.91 |
(4) Musculoskeletal disease - Knee Osteoarthritis | £ 27,798.40 |
(5) Cancer - Colorectal cancer | £ 520.13 |
(5) Cancer - Oesophageal cancer | £ 545.06 |
(5) Cancer - Kidney cancer | £ 1,662.88 |
(5) Cancer - Ovarian cancer | £ 14,990.93 |
(5) Cancer - Pancreatic cancer | £ 7,447.27 |
(5) Cancer - Endometrial cancer | £ 520.13 |
(5) Cancer - Breast cancer | £ 545.06 |
The annual costs per case includes direct health-care costs including hospital care (both inpatient and outpatient), primary care, and medication, and they are not exclusively related to obesity associated cases. Indirect and social care costs are not included, which means the exclusion of these costs will probably underestimate total costs of disease events overall.