Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on (a) changes in the levels of autism assessments in children and (b) the potential impact of those changes on services supporting education, health and care plans.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has regular discussions on a wide range of matters with Cabinet colleagues. We recognise that in recent years demand for autism assessments for children and young people has increased. The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Department for Education to ensure that children and young people with Special Educational Need and Disability (SEND), including autistic children, receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time. We are doing this through working together to implement the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, which was published 2 March 2023.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of funding of (a) adult and (b) children's social care; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of changes in the level of funding on those sectors.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care carries out regular exercises to assess the financial pressures facing adult social care. These assessments account for a wide range of pressures, such as inflation, National Living Wage increases and demographic changes. The Department of Health and Social Care continuously works closely with local authorities and the adult social care sector to understand what the impact of cost and demand pressures will be on service delivery.
The Department of Health and Social Care’s assessment of financial pressures is shared with HM Treasury and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and used to inform decisions on the overall funding available to local government. Since the Spending Review the Government has made available up to £8.1 billion in additional funding over two years to support adult social care and discharge, including an additional £570 million announced in July 2023. This will put the adult social care system on a stronger financial footing and improve the quality of and access to care.
As the Department for Education is responsible for children’s social care, the Department of Health and Social Care has made no assessment of its funding adequacy.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of undertaking health impact assessments for future free trade agreement negotiations.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care does not carry out specific health impact assessments for Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Section 42 of the Agriculture Act 2020 commits the Government to produce a report which examines new FTAs in the context of their impact on domestic statutory protections in the United Kingdom, including the impact on human health. This report must be laid in Parliament as part of the scrutiny process. This process has also been applied to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Agreement.
The “Section 42 report”, as it is known, is led by the Department for Business and Trade, and is drafted in consultation with other Government departments, including the Department of Health and Social Care.
Asked by: Jack Brereton (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the (a) UK’s vaccine vial production capability, (b) reliance of the UK on the import of medical grade vials and (c) security of UK supply chains in the event of a future pandemic.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department for Business and Trade has not conducted assessments on these specific goods. The Government has established strategic partnerships with industry to maintain security of vaccine supply in the event of a pandemic. This includes our partnership with Moderna which is building an innovation and technology centre with capacity from 2025 to produce up to 250 million doses of mRNA vaccines annually onshore in the United Kingdom.
The UK Health Security Agency has also agreed an advanced purchase agreement with Seqirus UK Limited to access 100 million vaccines if a future influenza pandemic is declared. The manufacturing process will be based entirely in the UK, giving better security of access if global demand ever outweighs supply. As part of these contracts, the Government regularly assesses risks that may impact the performance of the contract.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Independent - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to assess the cost-effectiveness of his Department's preventive healthcare strategies; and whether his Department has conducted research on the (a) cost-effectiveness and (b) impact on public health outcomes of preventive healthcare interventions.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department assesses the cost-effectiveness of prevention measures through a rigorous and evidence-based approach. The Department publishes impact assessments for policy proposals applying the methodology outlined in the Green Book, which provides guidance on appraising Government policy, programmes and projects. The Green Book is available at the following link:
There is a wide range of published research and evidence on preventative healthcare interventions, which informs both the development of policy and advice issued to health services including by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. In 2017, Public Health England published the Health Economics Evidence Resource which summarized the evidence on the cost-effectiveness of various prevention interventions used by local authorities. The Health Economics Evidence Resource is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-economics-evidence-resource
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's document entitled Final impact assessment: statutory scheme to control costs of branded health service medicines, published in March 2020, whether his Department plans to update that impact assessment using data from the Life Sciences Competitiveness Indicators 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government publishes new impact assessments each time the statutory scheme is updated. Further impact assessments were published in respect of updates made to the statutory scheme in 2022 and 2023.
The Government is currently consulting on updates to the statutory scheme to make sure that the scheme can continue to meet its objectives from 2024 onwards. A consultation stage impact assessment of the proposed updates has been published, and is available at the following link:
An updated impact assessment will be published alongside the response to the consultation and will include the updated Competitiveness Indicators in the evidence base.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of conducting health impact assessments of the public health impacts of new free trade agreements; and if he will make an impact assessment of the potential impact of accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership on public health.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department of Health and Social Care does not carry out specific health impact assessments for Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Section 42 of the Agriculture Act 2020 commits the Government to produce a report which examines new FTAs in the context of their impact on domestic statutory protections in the United Kingdom, including the impact on human health. This report must be laid in Parliament as part of the scrutiny process. This process will apply to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Agreement.
The “Section 42 report”, as it is known, is led by the Department for Business and Trade, and is drafted in consultation with other Government departments, including the Department of Health and Social Care.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many automated decision-making systems are currently in use by the Department of Health and Social Care, even partially, to make decisions that affect people’s legal rights or entitlements; and how many of those systems have publicly available equality impact assessments or data protection impact assessments or both.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not use automated decision-making in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.
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, whether he has has made an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact on public health of changes in the levels of closures of pharmacies between 2015 and 2023.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
No assessment has been made of the impact on public health of pharmacy closures.
The Department closely monitors the market to ensure that people in England have good access to National Health Service pharmaceutical services, including services focused on health promotion and prevention of ill-health. Despite the increase in pharmacy closures seen in recent years, there is a similar number of pharmacies to ten years ago, and about 80% of the population live within 20 minutes’ walking distance of a pharmacy. Every three years, local authorities’ Health and Wellbeing Boards in England undertake pharmaceutical needs assessments for their areas to ensure that provision continues to meet their populations’ needs.
Asked by: Baroness Suttie (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to carry out research into the impact of ultra-processed foods on public health outcomes.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) is currently carrying out a scoping review of the evidence on processed foods and health and aims to publish its initial assessment in the summer of 2023. SACN’s scoping review will make a number of research recommendations in this area. This review will also include evaluating existing classifications of processed foods, including ultra-processed foods and the NOVA classification.
SACN is a committee of the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and provides independent scientific advice and risk assessments on nutrition and related health issues. Members of SACN are appointed as independent scientific experts in their field. We are not aware of any plans to agree a definition internationally.
The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health including ultra-processed foods. The usual practice of the NIHR is not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics.