Topical Questions

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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?

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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?

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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?

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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?

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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?

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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?

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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?

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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?

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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?

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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?

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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.