Topical Questions 2021-04-13

2021-04-13

TAGS
Response quality

Questions & Answers

Q1 Partial Answer
Context
The Prime Minister had set a deadline for offering vaccines to the top nine priority groups by April 15th. The government aims to vaccinate all adults by July.
I am concerned about the vaccination programme's success in reaching communities with low English proficiency and poor health literacy, particularly those traditionally overlooked by health campaigns. How is my Department working to ensure these individuals are vaccinated based on choice rather than coercion?
We prioritise working with local communities through trusted confidants to explain vaccine benefits. An example includes Somali clinicians administering vaccines in Leicester, driving up vaccination rates among the Somali community.
Assessment & feedback
Under Review
Response accuracy
Q2 Partial Answer
Context
The Prime Minister announced a 10-year plan for the social care sector akin to the NHS long-term strategy.
What does my right hon. Friend think this 10-year plan should contain? Will external organizations such as Age UK, Alzheimer's Society, and Care England contribute to its development before publication?
We are working closely with stakeholders in a broad programme. The Minister for Care has held roundtables on this subject, and we aim to ensure external organizations contribute before the plan is published later this year.
Assessment & feedback
Under Review
Response accuracy
Q3 Partial Answer
Jeremy Hunt Con
Godalming and Ash
Context
A private meeting between the Secretary of State, Lex Greensill, and David Cameron led to a controversial NHS payroll financing contract awarded without tender.
Why was an NHS payroll financing contract given to Lex Greensill's firm without competition? Why wasn't this meeting declared? What pressure did you put on officials for this decision?
Ministers were not involved in deciding to facilitate salary advances. I reported the meeting to officials as required, and there was no pressure put on them regarding this decision.
Assessment & feedback
Response accuracy
Q4 Partial Answer
Context
There have been concerns about contracts going to Tory donors and a lack of transparency.
If you have done nothing wrong, will you publish all minutes, emails, correspondence, directions given to civil servants, and text messages with David Cameron so we can understand the contract award process?
Yesterday, a review into this matter was announced. I will participate fully in that review.
Assessment & feedback
Too Early To Say
Response accuracy
Q5 Direct Answer
Context
Directly comparable healthcare performance data are lacking between England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
Does my right hon. Friend agree that UK-wide data in the NHS, along with aligned inspection mechanisms and audit procedures, would improve transparency and ultimately lead to better service delivery?
Yes. Through the pandemic, we have seen improvements in seeing what is happening across the UK's NHS, which helps us work together better to deliver services.
Assessment & feedback
Response accuracy
Q6 Partial Answer
Sarah Olney Lib Dem
Richmond Park
Context
Constituents report severe mental health issues in children, leading to long wait times of up to a year for appointments.
I am hearing increasingly difficult stories from constituents across my constituency whose children are suffering severe mental health problems and are regularly having to wait up to a year for a first appointment. In that year, their condition gets progressively worse, so by the time their appointment comes around, they already need a much greater level of treatment than they would have needed had they been seen earlier. That also has a disruptive impact on their education, on top of the disruption that they have all experienced over the last year. The situation is getting worse; we are seeing more and more young people needing mental health care in my constituency. What is the Secretary of State doing to increase resources in this very important area of child and adolescent mental health?
We are putting record resources in. Of the increase in the NHS budget, the fastest increase in the long-term plan settlement is for mental health services, and within that, for children's mental health services. We have also increased support through the pandemic.
Assessment & feedback
Did not specify concrete actions or timelines to address the specific lack of resources for child and adolescent mental health services.
Response accuracy
Q7 Partial Answer
John Lamont Con
Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
Context
The Moderna vaccine has arrived in the UK.
Last week we had the fantastic news that the Moderna vaccine had arrived in the United Kingdom. Can the Secretary of State tell the House how many vaccine doses, across all three vaccines currently being rolled out, have been allocated to Scotland so far?
Scotland gets her fair share of vaccines allocated, and then we publish the amount of vaccines that are delivered. That is slightly lower in Scotland as a proportion of the population compared with the UK as a whole, but we are working very closely with the NHS across Scotland, with the armed services and, of course, with the Scottish Government to try to make sure that they can catch up.
Assessment & feedback
Did not provide specific numbers of allocated vaccine doses for Scotland.
Response accuracy
Q8 Partial Answer
Emma Lewell Lab
South Shields
Context
Some hospitality venues have erected large marquees to recover losses from closures.
Yesterday, many hospitality venues remained closed. Those that could open erected large marquees and were able to recover some of the losses that they have suffered. Others were completely dismayed that there is clearly no difference at all between some of those marquees and well ventilated, covid-secure indoor hospitality. Will the Secretary of State explain what he perceives the difference to be?
The definition of “outdoors” used in these regulations is the one set out by the Labour Government in the ban on indoor smoking.
Assessment & feedback
Avoided explaining differences in vaccine regulations for outdoor vs indoor hospitality, instead referring to a different regulation.
Response accuracy
Q9 Direct Answer
Context
Walley's Quarry landfill is emitting foul gases and odour, affecting public health.
The foul gases and odour coming from Walley's Quarry landfill in my constituency are no longer just an environmental catastrophe; they are also a major public health concern. A local GP surgery in Silverdale reports exacerbation of asthma, hay fever-like symptoms, nausea, insomnia and depression. The Environment Agency figures that have been passed to Public Health England show that World Health Organisation guidelines for hydrogen sulphide have been exceeded on the 24-hour public health limits. What is going on is not fair on my constituents. What assessment has the Secretary of State made of the public health implications, both physical and mental, of the major environmental incident going on in my constituency, and will he meet me and the Environment Secretary to discuss the matter?
I am very happy to meet my hon. Friend. I am grateful to him for raising this vital question of local public health in the House, and I am absolutely determined that the authorities—both the local authority, with its responsibilities, and the national authorities, including Public Health England—play their role in tackling this problem.
Assessment & feedback
Response accuracy
Q10 Partial Answer
Lilian Greenwood Lab
Nottingham South
Context
Real-terms pay in the NHS is below 2010 levels.
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust is giving all its staff an extra day's leave this year to thank them for their sacrifices during the pandemic. I am sure that is a welcome gesture, but staff in Nottingham and across England deserve so much more. Real-terms pay in the NHS is already below 2010 levels, and we went into the pandemic facing serious staff shortages, with 40,000 nurse vacancies and 7,000 doctor vacancies. What will the Government's proposed real-terms pay cut do to vacancy rates?
I am very glad to say that the numbers that the hon. Lady uses are out of date. We have seen a very significant increase in the number of nurses and other staff in the NHS. In fact, we have a record number of nurses in the NHS. For the very first time, we have more than 300,000 nurses in the NHS. We have seen over 10,000 more nurses over the last year alone.
Assessment & feedback
Did not address the impact of real-terms pay cut on vacancy rates; instead provided outdated statistics about current staffing levels.
Response accuracy
Q11 Partial Answer
Context
Junior doctors and experienced nurses knew symptoms and treatments early on in the pandemic.
While the NHS acted heroically when the pandemic first hit, what lessons have been learned about translating the learnings of junior doctors and experienced nurses into policy more quickly? For example, junior doctors knew that loss of taste and smell was a symptom, and that proning helped patients, quite some time before those became policy.
There is a huge amount that we can learn from the early response to the pandemic, and it is very important that we adopt the scientific understanding and learnings as quickly as is rigorously possible. We need the time for the rigour, but we need to adopt the policies. We have seen in the vaccine roll-out a huge amount of these lessons adopted, and the speed at which the scientific advice takes into account what we are learning on the ground in the vaccine roll-out is impressive.
Assessment & feedback
Did not specify concrete actions or timelines to improve translation of medical learnings into policy; instead provided general principles.
Response accuracy