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Tag: Luciana Berger

  • Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the prevalence and effect of unlicensed performance enhancing drugs (a) online and (b) in shops.

    Norman Lamb

    There are strict legal controls governing the sale and supply of medicinal products in the United Kingdom.

    Unlicensed medicines which claim to enhance performance generally claim to enhance either sexual, cognitive or athletic performance.

    The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) works with domain name providers to shut down websites which are illegally trading in unlicensed erectile dysfunction medicines and which refuse to come in to compliance.

    A UK registered pharmacy may have a presence on the internet; however the requirements of legislation apply equally to both UK internet pharmacies and bricks-and-mortar premises. These legal controls also apply equally to medicines for human use sold or supplied via the internet or e-mail transactions. These restrictions do not apply to countries outside UK jurisdiction where medicines may be classified and regulated differently.

    Medicines most commonly associated with enhanced athletic performance are anabolic steroids and human growth hormones. These medicines are controlled as class C drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

    The MHRA has serious concerns about the availability of medicines being offered via the Internet and issues regular warnings to the public concerning the inherent risks of purchasing medicines online. MHRA advice is that medicines purchased from websites, particularly websites based overseas, cannot be guaranteed to meet set standards of quality, safety and efficacy and advises patients not to purchase medicines in this way.

  • Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 16 June 2014, Official Report, column 486W, on health: business, what assessment his Department makes of the annual updates; and what estimate he has made of the number of hours of officials’ time spent assessing those updates.

    Jane Ellison

    Officials review annual updates to Responsibility Deal pledges on receipt and liaise with partners directly if any clarification is required.

    The Department does not record separately the spent on reviewing annual updates to the Responsibility Deal.

  • Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-04-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the number of teenage pregnancy co-ordinators in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13 and (d) 2013-14.

    Jane Ellison

    The Department does not collect this information centrally. Efforts to tackle teenage pregnancy are led by local authorities, who will make local decisions on whether a teenage pregnancy co-ordinator is needed in their local area. There is no requirement for them to report centrally on whether they have a co-ordinator.

  • Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 8 April 2014, Official Report, column 178W, from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health, on air pollution, for what reasons an assessment has not been made of the deaths caused by short-term exposures to elevated levels of air pollutants in the years since 2010.

    Jane Ellison

    Estimates of deaths attributable to long-term exposure to particulate air pollution in United Kingdom local authorities in 2010 were published by Public Health England in April 2014. The mortality burden for the UK was estimated as an effect equivalent to nearly 29,000 deaths.

    Public Health England does not routinely estimate the deaths associated with short-term exposure to elevated levels of air pollutants, as these effects are thought to overlap with the mortality effects of long-term exposure to air pollution. Long-term exposure to air pollution is understood to be a contributory factor to deaths from respiratory and, particularly, cardiovascular disease, for example, unlikely to be the sole cause of deaths of individuals. This means that it is likely that air pollution contributes a smaller amount to the deaths of a larger number of exposed individuals rather than being solely responsible for a number of deaths equivalent to the calculated figure of ‘attributable deaths’.

  • Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 10 June 2014, Official Report, column 101W, on the human papillomavirus, when the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation will publish its conclusions into whether the human papillomavirus should be offered to males.

    Jane Ellison

    The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) human papillomavirus (HPV) sub-committee will report its findings to the JCVI following consideration of on-going studies by Public Health England on the impact and cost-effectiveness of extending HPV vaccination to men who have sex with men (MSM) and/or adolescent boys.

    It is expected that the MSM modelling study will be completed at the end of 2014 at the earliest, and the adolescent boys modelling study will be completed at the end of 2015 at the earliest. The JCVI will then consider the findings of the HPV subcommittee before deciding what advice or recommendations can be made.

  • Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients are waiting for gender reassignment surgery; and what the average waiting time for such surgery was in each of the last four years.

    Norman Lamb

    Information about how many patients are waiting for gender reassignment surgery and average waiting times for such surgery is not held centrally.

  • Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-04-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the increase in demand for child and adolescent mental health following the launch of the MindEd e-portal; and what steps it is taking to accommodate that increase.

    Norman Lamb

    The Department has not made an estimate of the increase in demand for child and adolescent mental health following the launch of the MindEd e-portal on 25 March 2014.

    We know that many schools want to do more to help children who are, or may be, experiencing mental health problems. Many now have their own programmes and mental health support – such as a school-based counsellor, whilst others have whole school approaches to mental and emotional health. We want to ensure that such programmes offer the best support possible, but also that schools are better able to identify mental health problems in their pupils sooner.

    The Department funded the MindEd website which will help anyone working with children, including all school staff, to spot the signs of mental health problems in children and help them get the support they need. Spotting the signs of mental health problems early in children and young people is essential to prevent problems from escalating and continuing into adulthood.

    The Chief Medical Officer has recommended better data on children and young people’s mental health. The Department, with arms lengths bodies (ALBs) and other key partners, is currently looking at the options available for arranging a survey of children and young people to look at prevalence of mental health conditions. We are seeking advice from colleagues in the Department’s Health and Social Care Information Centre to consider options for the survey, and what such a survey would be able to tell us.

  • Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which mental health services he and each Minister in his Department have visited since they were appointed; and what the date of each such visit was.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    The following list provides details of the visits undertaken by my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and his ministerial team to mental health services in an official capacity, since their appointment.

    Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt):

    06 February 2014
    Redwoods Centre, South Staffordshire and Shropshire NHS Foundation Trust

    13 March 2014
    Springfield Hospital, South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust

    1 May 2014
    East London NHS Foundation Trust

    Minister of State for Care and Support (Norman Lamb):

    13 November 2012
    Raid Birmingham Heartlands Hospital

    19 December 2012
    South London and Maudsley NHS Mental Health Trust

    7 February 2013
    The Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme and Child and Adolescent, Mental Health services project, Oxford

    4 July 2013
    Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust

    19 August 2013
    Leicester Mental Health Triage Care Project

    5 September 2013
    Gnosall Surgery, Stafford

    12 September 2013
    Yeovil Hospital

    12 September 2013
    Royal United Hospital, Bath

    31October 2013
    Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust

    19 December 2013
    Broadmoor Hospital

    3 January 2014
    Bethnal Green Police Station (Bi-lateral visit with Damian Green MP Home Office), London (A Liaison and Diversion scheme, this scheme brings together three large mental health trusts)

    17 February 2014
    Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, Crisis Resolution Service

    12 March 2014
    Humphrey Booth Resource Centre, Manchester

    Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health (Dr Daniel Poulter):

    11 July 2013
    Disraeli School and Children’s Centre, High Wycombe

    17 October 2013
    Parkview Clinic, Birmingham Children’s Hospital

    8 May 2014
    Bethlem Royal Hospital- Channi Kumar Mother and Baby Unit (Perinatal mental health)

    Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health (Earl Howe):

    18 April 2012
    BuddyApp – Mental health innovation product launch – Maudsley Hospital

    Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health (Jane Ellison):

    15 April 2014
    Roshni Ghar Mental Health Charity, Keighley

  • Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many (a) women and (b) men have cancers caused by the human papilloma virus.

    Jane Ellison

    At present the number of people living with Human papillomavirus (HPV) related cancers is not known for several reasons;

    – there is no nationally collated database of individual patients’ records containing the HPV status of their cancers;

    – prevalence figures are not known for all types of cancer i.e. the number of people who have been diagnosed and are still alive; and

    – many people alive after treatment of cancer will have been cured and will not consider themselves to be still living with a cancer.

    However it has been estimated by Parkin1 that the number of new cases per year, of cancers in the United Kingdom, which maybe HPV related as 5,088 (1.6% of all newly diagnosed cancer cases). Of these 4,058 are females and 1,030 are males. This is based on incidence rates for 2010.

    Public Health England (PHE) has calculated a prevalence estimate for the number of women who are currently alive following treatment of their cervical cancer and this is at least 19,000. Many of these will be cured.

    Later this year PHE will publish prevalence estimates i.e. the number of people living with the other types of HPV related cancers.

    Notes:

    Parkin, D M. Cancers attributable to infection in the UK in 2010

    British Journal of Cancer (2011) 105, S49 – S56; doi:10.1038/bjc.2011.484

  • Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the prevalence and effect of the sale of so-called legal highs (a) online and (b) in shops.

    Norman Baker

    The Government monitors the prevalence of use of particular new psychoactive substances through the Crime Survey for England and Wales. The latest results of the crime
    survey can be found here:
    http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/crime-stats/crime-statistics/period-ending-decembe
    r-2013/stb-crime-stats-dec-2013.html

    New questions have been included in the 2014/15 Crime Survey, to capture the use of a wider range of new psychoactive substances than was previously the case.

    The Home Office is currently undertaking a six month review led by an expert panel to look at how the UK’s legislative, educational and health response to new psychoactive substances can be enhanced. It is anticipated that the panel will report their recommendations to Home Office Ministers before summer recess.