Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
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 with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to reduce the time taken to license (a) generic and (b) biosimilar medicines to treat Parkinson's disease.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is taking urgent action to deliver improvements to decision timescales in established medicines, including those indicated to treat Parkinson’s disease. Last week we approved additional licences for this critical area. Whilst no specific discussions have taken place between the MHRA and my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on this matter, we are taking significant steps to assess applications for medicine approval within statutory timeframes and will always prioritise applications according to public health need.
We are working to reduce timelines by bringing in additional resources and developing processes that will result in significantly improved response times, while protecting patient safety. The measures we are putting in place are already resulting in significant improvements, and we will continue to publish monthly updates providing applicants with transparent information on expected timescales. As an effective regulator, we are committed to the highest of standards of performance and delivering the right outcomes for patients and public health.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will issue guidance to care settings on how to (a) support and (b) maintain contact between Parkinsons’ patients and their family members and carers.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Visits from loved ones are vital to the health and wellbeing of people receiving care in care homes, hospitals and hospices. In December 2023, the Government laid before Parliament the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Regulations 2023, which adds visiting and accompanying as a new fundamental standard for the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to inspect care and health settings against. These regulations will come into force on 6 April 2024.
The CQC is now consulting on its proposed guidance for this legislation, which will help the health and social care sector understand and meet the new standard on visiting and accompanying in care homes, hospitals, and hospices and their roles and responsibilities under it. The guidance also sets out what people using health and social care services and their families, friends or advocates can expect. The consultation can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
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 potential impact of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan on regional variations in access to Parkinson’s care.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. The Long Term Workforce Plan, which was published in June 2023, includes projections for the number of doctors, nurses and other professionals that will be needed over the next 15 years.
It sets out the mix and number of staff required, as well as the actions and reforms across the National Health Service that will be needed to reduce the supply gap and improve retention. This plan will help ensure we have the right numbers of staff, with the right skills and roles, in the right locations and at the right time, to transform and deliver high-quality services fit for the future.
The modelling and staff training plans presented in the Plan look at the NHS as a whole at a high level, to inform government decisions on the workforce. This is designed to identify the right supply of staff across all clinical pathways and specialisms rather than workforce plans for specific services.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's consultation entitled Work Capability Assessment: activities and descriptors, published on 5 September 2023, what estimate he has made of how many and what proportion of people who have a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease will no longer be deemed as having Limited Capacity for Work Related Activity under the planned reforms to the Work Capability Assessment.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
On 22 November we published our response to the consultation on changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) criteria, having carefully considered feedback from disabled people and people with health conditions, as well as the organisations that represent and support them.
The OBR have said that they expect the changes we outlined in this response will mean that 371,000 fewer people will be declared as having Limited Capability for Work Related Activity (LCWRA) by 2028/29 than otherwise would be the case. We will publish an Impact Assessment in due course. HMT have also published the impacts in their policy costing note that accompanies the Autumn Statement.
Estimates are not based on specific conditions because the WCA considers the impact that a person’s disability or health condition has on their ability to work, not the condition itself.
There have been significant changes to the world of work since 2011 when the WCA activities and descriptors were last comprehensively reviewed, particularly increased flexibility, and the availability of hybrid and home working jobs. As such, from 2025, we will be making changes to the criteria for Mobilising and Getting About in the WCA, as well as the Substantial Risk rules. In making these changes, we will continue to protect those with the most severe conditions, while ensuring those who can work are supported in doing so. To ensure those with the most significant mobilising limitations are still protected, we will retain the LCWRA Risk regulations for physical health – this means that where work preparation would lead to a deterioration in a claimant’s physical health they would still meet the eligibility for LCWRA.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the role of informal observations made by PIP assessors in mandatory reconsiderations for PIP where the claimant has a diagnosis of Parkinson’s.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Entitlement to PIP is assessed based on the needs arising from a long-term health condition or disability, not the health condition or disability itself. The PIP Assessment Guide, used by health professionals who conduct PIP assessments, sets out how informal observations of functional limitations should be used.
Informal observations can be a way to reveal abilities and limitations not mentioned in the claimant questionnaire, supporting evidence, or history taking during the consultation. However, they are only part of the suite of evidence considered by health professionals during an assessment. They must also consider the invisible nature of some symptoms, such as fatigue and pain which may be less easy to identify through observation.
Informal observations included in a health professional’s advice to DWP are not viewed in isolation; they are considered alongside all other available evidence to determine PIP entitlement.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
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 potential merits of implementing each of the recommendations in the report by Parkinson’s UK entitled Every minute counts: Time critical Parkinson’s medication on time, every time, published in September 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Within secondary care, hospital providers are responsible for ensuring that patients within hospital settings, including those with Parkinson’s disease, receive the appropriate medication on time.
NHS England has published a RightCare toolkit which aims to address challenges in providing services for those with progressive neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s disease. The toolkit provides advice on medicine optimisation, highlighting the importance of timely administration of specific drugs, such as Levodopa, in acute and community health settings.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
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 help ensure that people with Parkinson’s receive their medication on time in hospitals.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Within secondary care, hospital providers are responsible for ensuring that patients within hospital settings, including those with Parkinson’s disease, receive the appropriate medication on time.
NHS England has published a RightCare toolkit which aims to address challenges in providing services for those with progressive neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s disease. The toolkit provides advice on medicine optimisation, highlighting the importance of timely administration of specific drugs, such as Levodopa, in acute and community health settings.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's consultation entitled Work Capability Assessment: activities and descriptors, published on 5 September 2023, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the consultation on the (a) financial and (b) mental wellbeing of people with Parkinson's disease.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We have published our response to the consultation on changes to the Work Capability Assessment criteria, having carefully considered feedback from disabled people and people with health conditions, as well as the organisations that represent and support them.
From 2025, we will make changes to the WCA that continue to protect those with the most severe conditions, while ensuring those that can work are supported in doing so. Most existing claimants that have already been assessed without work-related requirements, will be able to benefit from our Chance to Work Guarantee. This change will in effect abolish the WCA for the vast majority of this group, and they will be able to move towards work without fear of reassessment.
As part of the Autumn Statement, the Government has also announced an expansion in tailored support for disabled people and people with health conditions, including Universal Support and NHS Talking Therapies.
The OBR have said that they expect these changes to mean that 371,000 fewer people will be declared as having Limited Capability for Work Related Activity by 2028/29 than otherwise would be the case. HMT have published the impacts in their policy costing note that accompanies the Autumn Statement.
Estimates are not based on specific conditions because the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) considers the impact that a person’s disability or health condition has on their ability to work, not the condition itself.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to page 10 of Parkinson's UK's publication entitled Nowhere near enough, published in April 2023, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his Department’s policies of the finding on the proportion of PIP claims made by people with Parkinson's that were initially assessed incorrectly compared with the general PIP claimant population.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We are working hard to make the right decision, first time, every time. We continue to review our processes and decision-making and work closely with the assessment providers who carry out the assessments and provide feedback to ensure that they provide decision-makers with the highest quality reports.
Condition Insight Reports are also available to PIP assessors to gain a better understanding of a condition and its impact, including Parkinson’s disease. This insight report highlights the importance of exploration of the fluctuation of the condition and was completed in collaboration with relevant charities.
The Mandatory Reconsideration process is a key element of the department’s decision-making process for all benefits and offers claimants an early opportunity to challenge decisions and get them changed quickly. It offers the department an equally timely remedy for correcting decisions and means that fewer decisions progress to appeal, which is stressful and time consuming for claimants and costly for government. It is worth highlighting that in many cases, decisions can be changed as a result of new evidence or information being made available.
We published Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper on 15 March 2023. Changes set out in the White Paper include those aiming to improve our assessment of fluctuating conditions, such as the way we use medical evidence, and developing the capability of our assessors. We will also explore options for introducing a new way of gathering evidence of fluctuation in a person’s condition before their assessment. The department continues to closely monitor all aspects of the assessment process, including how we assess fluctuating conditions.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report by Parkinson's UK entitled Every minute counts, published in September 2023, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of the proportion of patients with Parkinson's admitted to hospital who always receive their medication on time.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Within secondary care, hospital providers are responsible for ensuring that patients within hospital settings, including those with Parkinson’s disease, receive the appropriate medication on time.
NHS England has published a RightCare toolkit which aims to address challenges in providing services for those with progressive neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s disease. The toolkit provides advice on medicine optimisation, highlighting the importance of timely administration of specific drugs, such as Levodopa, in acute and community health settings.