The Department fully understands that maintaining access to treatments for epilepsy and bipolar disorder is vitally important to many people in this country.<\/p>
The Government remains committed to leaving the European Union with a deal. We have now reached agreement with the EU on an extension to the Article 50 period until 31 October at the latest, with the option to leave earlier as soon as a Withdrawal Agreement has been ratified.<\/p>
Under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, there will be an implementation period running till the end of 2020, during which there will be no changes to the current trading arrangements with the EU. Therefore, if the Withdrawal Agreement is ratified, the supply of medicines will continue on the same basis it does now during this period.<\/p>
Leaving without a deal remains the legal default at the end of the extension period if no Withdrawal Agreement is agreed. Therefore, as a responsible Government, we will continue to prepare to minimise any disruption to the supply of medicines and medical products in a potential \u2018no deal\u2019 scenario. We are considering what impact this longer extension may have on our EU exit preparations, and are working closely with our stakeholders to review our position.<\/p>
While we never give guarantees, we are confident that if everyone does what they need to do, the supply of medicines and medical products including treatments for epilepsy and bipolar disorder should be uninterrupted in the event we leave the EU without a deal.<\/p>
The Department has a long-established pharmacist-led team and dedicated processes to deal with medicine shortages, whatever the cause. This team works closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England and others in the supply chain to help prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when they do arise.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1585", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Stephen Hammond"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Wimbledon"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Stephen Hammond"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-04-30", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-04-30T16:17:46.783Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "17"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-04-18", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "NHS: Drugs"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure adequate supplies of treatments for (a) epilepsy and (b) bipolar disorder in all scenarios surrounding the UK's exit from the EU.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/3968", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Stephen Lloyd"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Eastbourne"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Stephen Lloyd"} ], "uin" : "245751"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1091379", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department for Work and Pensions"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1091379/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
Universal Credit is a 24 hour, seven days a week, digital service that allows claimants to manage their own data and account online at a time which is convenient for them. Via their account claimants can check their Universal Credit benefit payments, notify us of changes and record notes via an online journal facility. In addition, established claimants who call the Freephone Universal Credit helpline are connected directly to the person or team who are dealing with the case.<\/p>
<\/p>
The average waiting time for a person calling the Universal Credit Full Service helpline in each of the last three months was:<\/p>
<\/p>
Month<\/strong><\/p><\/td> Average Speed of Answer (minutes)<\/strong><\/p><\/td><\/tr> December 2018<\/p><\/td> 4.52<\/p><\/td><\/tr> January 2019<\/p><\/td> 4.53<\/p><\/td><\/tr> February 2019<\/p><\/td> 4.16<\/p><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table> <\/p> The average waiting times for a person calling the Universal Credit Full Service helpline in 2018 was 5 minutes 52 seconds<\/p> <\/p> Our Average Speed of Answer (ASA) measure is the average customer wait time from the point of entering a queue to connection to an agent. This excludes any time spent in pre-queue messaging and any wait time for calls ultimately abandoned by callers prior to answer.<\/p> <\/p> Notes:<\/strong><\/p> <\/p> For calls connected to the owning Case Manager or team, the Average Speed of Answer was 1 minute 10 seconds in February 2019.<\/p> <\/p> Data Source: BT - OPMIS and Historical Management Information (GI2 \u2013 HMI)<\/p> <\/p> Outsourced partner data is included.<\/p> <\/p> The data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. The data should therefore be treated with caution.<\/p>"}
, "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4014", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma"}
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, "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-03-27T16:15:47.583Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
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, "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "29"}
, "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"}
, "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"}
, "date" : {"_value" : "2019-03-19", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
, "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Universal Credit: Telephone Services"}
, "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"}
, "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"}
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], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average wait time for a phone call to be answered was to the universal credit helpline in (a) each of the last three months and (b) 2018.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"}
, "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/3968", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Stephen Lloyd"}
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, "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Eastbourne"}
, "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Stephen Lloyd"}
], "uin" : "234185"}
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