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1672994

registered interest
date	27/11/2023
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	World Health Assembly
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the amendment to Article 59 of the World Health Organisation's International Health Regulations, adopted on 22 May 2022 by the World Health Assembly, and for which the opt-out period, available to each country separately, expires on 1 December.
tabling member printed	Lord Hannan of Kingsclere
uin	HL605
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/12/2023 answer text <p>The International Health Regulations (2005) are an existing international legal instrument to which the United Kingdom and 195 other World Health Organization (WHO) Member States are party. The regulations are a key part of the global health security system to prevent, protect against, control, and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease.</p><p>At the WHO World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2022, Member States including the UK agreed a process to negotiate and agree targeted amendments to the regulations and adopted five process-related amendments.</p><p>These amendments shorten the timeframes for future amendments to the regulations to come into force, namely 12 months with the possibility to extend up to 24 months, rather than 24 months, and for Member States to reject or reserve on them for 10 months rather than 18 months.</p><p>These amendments apply only to future Member State-agreed amendments to the regulations. The UK supports the amendments as they aim to improve the timeliness of Member States’ implementation of and compliance with the regulations, which helps to better protect the UK from future public health events including pandemics.</p><p>The 75th WHA also agreed the process for negotiating further targeted amendments to the regulations. Member States could submit proposed amendments for consideration and a Working Group (WGIHR), consisting of all Regulation State Parties, including the UK, through which the proposed amendments would be negotiated and agreed.</p><p>The Government continues to engage in the Member State-led WGIHR negotiation process, working to secure the best outcomes for the UK, as a means of strengthening preparedness for and response to future global health emergencies. Our priorities for the more than 300 proposed amendments continue to include increasing compliance with the regulations, improving transparency, and speeding up timeliness of reporting. No further amendments have been agreed yet. Member States agreed to submit a package of agreed amendments to the WHA in May 2024.</p><p>Amendments to the regulations must be adopted by Member States at the WHA for them to come into force as a matter of international law. A 10-month opt-out period for the more than 300 amendments will commence only if and when the amendments have been adopted by the WHA.</p><p>The Government has a strong commitment and duty to implement its international obligations. In addition, throughout negotiations, the UK has been and will continue to be clear that we would not agree any amendments that would cede sovereignty to the WHO, including in relation to making domestic decisions on national measures concerning public health, such as, domestic immunisation programme rollouts and other similar measures.</p><p>A Westminster Hall debate on the regulation amendments will be held on 18 December 2023. Any new or amended domestic legislation necessary to reflect new international obligations under the regulations would be made through the applicable parliamentary process. In all circumstances, the sovereignty of the UK Parliament would remain unchanged.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham grouped question UIN HL606 HL607 question first answered 06/12/2023 16:52:51 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham
tabling member	4905 label Biography information for Lord Hannan of Kingsclere

1672995

registered interest
date	27/11/2023
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	World Health Assembly
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to the 307 amendments to the World Health Organisation’s International Health Regulations (2005), proposed in May 2023, given the deadline for opting out of the regulations and that extended consideration period has now passed and that ten months remain for the UK to opt-out of the amendments.
tabling member printed	Lord Hannan of Kingsclere
uin	HL606
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/12/2023 answer text <p>The International Health Regulations (2005) are an existing international legal instrument to which the United Kingdom and 195 other World Health Organization (WHO) Member States are party. The regulations are a key part of the global health security system to prevent, protect against, control, and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease.</p><p>At the WHO World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2022, Member States including the UK agreed a process to negotiate and agree targeted amendments to the regulations and adopted five process-related amendments.</p><p>These amendments shorten the timeframes for future amendments to the regulations to come into force, namely 12 months with the possibility to extend up to 24 months, rather than 24 months, and for Member States to reject or reserve on them for 10 months rather than 18 months.</p><p>These amendments apply only to future Member State-agreed amendments to the regulations. The UK supports the amendments as they aim to improve the timeliness of Member States’ implementation of and compliance with the regulations, which helps to better protect the UK from future public health events including pandemics.</p><p>The 75th WHA also agreed the process for negotiating further targeted amendments to the regulations. Member States could submit proposed amendments for consideration and a Working Group (WGIHR), consisting of all Regulation State Parties, including the UK, through which the proposed amendments would be negotiated and agreed.</p><p>The Government continues to engage in the Member State-led WGIHR negotiation process, working to secure the best outcomes for the UK, as a means of strengthening preparedness for and response to future global health emergencies. Our priorities for the more than 300 proposed amendments continue to include increasing compliance with the regulations, improving transparency, and speeding up timeliness of reporting. No further amendments have been agreed yet. Member States agreed to submit a package of agreed amendments to the WHA in May 2024.</p><p>Amendments to the regulations must be adopted by Member States at the WHA for them to come into force as a matter of international law. A 10-month opt-out period for the more than 300 amendments will commence only if and when the amendments have been adopted by the WHA.</p><p>The Government has a strong commitment and duty to implement its international obligations. In addition, throughout negotiations, the UK has been and will continue to be clear that we would not agree any amendments that would cede sovereignty to the WHO, including in relation to making domestic decisions on national measures concerning public health, such as, domestic immunisation programme rollouts and other similar measures.</p><p>A Westminster Hall debate on the regulation amendments will be held on 18 December 2023. Any new or amended domestic legislation necessary to reflect new international obligations under the regulations would be made through the applicable parliamentary process. In all circumstances, the sovereignty of the UK Parliament would remain unchanged.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham grouped question UIN HL605 HL607 question first answered 06/12/2023 16:52:51 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham
tabling member	4905 label Biography information for Lord Hannan of Kingsclere

1672996

registered interest
date	27/11/2023
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	World Health Assembly
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government whether they consider that parliamentary ratification is needed for the World Health Organisation’s International Health Regulations (2005) as amended.
tabling member printed	Lord Hannan of Kingsclere
uin	HL607
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/12/2023 answer text <p>The International Health Regulations (2005) are an existing international legal instrument to which the United Kingdom and 195 other World Health Organization (WHO) Member States are party. The regulations are a key part of the global health security system to prevent, protect against, control, and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease.</p><p>At the WHO World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2022, Member States including the UK agreed a process to negotiate and agree targeted amendments to the regulations and adopted five process-related amendments.</p><p>These amendments shorten the timeframes for future amendments to the regulations to come into force, namely 12 months with the possibility to extend up to 24 months, rather than 24 months, and for Member States to reject or reserve on them for 10 months rather than 18 months.</p><p>These amendments apply only to future Member State-agreed amendments to the regulations. The UK supports the amendments as they aim to improve the timeliness of Member States’ implementation of and compliance with the regulations, which helps to better protect the UK from future public health events including pandemics.</p><p>The 75th WHA also agreed the process for negotiating further targeted amendments to the regulations. Member States could submit proposed amendments for consideration and a Working Group (WGIHR), consisting of all Regulation State Parties, including the UK, through which the proposed amendments would be negotiated and agreed.</p><p>The Government continues to engage in the Member State-led WGIHR negotiation process, working to secure the best outcomes for the UK, as a means of strengthening preparedness for and response to future global health emergencies. Our priorities for the more than 300 proposed amendments continue to include increasing compliance with the regulations, improving transparency, and speeding up timeliness of reporting. No further amendments have been agreed yet. Member States agreed to submit a package of agreed amendments to the WHA in May 2024.</p><p>Amendments to the regulations must be adopted by Member States at the WHA for them to come into force as a matter of international law. A 10-month opt-out period for the more than 300 amendments will commence only if and when the amendments have been adopted by the WHA.</p><p>The Government has a strong commitment and duty to implement its international obligations. In addition, throughout negotiations, the UK has been and will continue to be clear that we would not agree any amendments that would cede sovereignty to the WHO, including in relation to making domestic decisions on national measures concerning public health, such as, domestic immunisation programme rollouts and other similar measures.</p><p>A Westminster Hall debate on the regulation amendments will be held on 18 December 2023. Any new or amended domestic legislation necessary to reflect new international obligations under the regulations would be made through the applicable parliamentary process. In all circumstances, the sovereignty of the UK Parliament would remain unchanged.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham grouped question UIN HL605 HL606 question first answered 06/12/2023 16:52:51 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham
tabling member	4905 label Biography information for Lord Hannan of Kingsclere

1672997

registered interest
date	27/11/2023
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Incontinence: Health Services
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what is their response to the report prepared by Future Health for Astellas Pharma Who’s Counting: The case for urgent action to improve NHS continence care, published in September.
tabling member printed	Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
uin	HL608
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/12/2023 answer text <p>The Department has noted the publication of the report. In 2019, NHS England commissioned and led on the National Bladder and Bowel Health Project. The NHS England led project has been delayed due to COVID-19, with as yet no firm date set for publishing its draft report.</p><p>NHS England will consider next steps on Excellence in Continence Care through the project, which aims to improve continence care across the whole public health and care system.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham question first answered 11/12/2023 13:17:49 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham
tabling member	2024 label Biography information for Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

1672998

registered interest
date	27/11/2023
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Incontinence and Urology: Health Services
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to encourage NHS England to appoint a national Clinical Director for urological conditions and continence services.
tabling member printed	Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
uin	HL609
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/12/2023 answer text <p>No assessment has been made of the implementation of NHS England guidance on Excellence in Continence Care published in June 2018. The Department does not intend to encourage NHS England to appoint a specific National Clinical Director for urological conditions and continence services. The decision to create such a role would be a matter for NHS England.</p><p>NHS England National Clinical Directors and National Specialty Advisers are practicing clinicians from across England, providing clinical leadership, advice, input and support across distinct areas of conditions in the National Health Service including those for urological conditions and continence services. NHS England also funds Getting It Right First Time, a national programme designed to improve the treatment and care of patients through in-depth review of services, benchmarking, and presenting a data-driven evidence base to support change.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham grouped question UIN HL610 question first answered 11/12/2023 13:23:34 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham
tabling member	2024 label Biography information for Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

1672999

registered interest
date	27/11/2023
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Incontinence: Health Services
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implementation of NHS England guidance on Excellence in Continence Care published in June 2018.
tabling member printed	Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
uin	HL610
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/12/2023 answer text <p>No assessment has been made of the implementation of NHS England guidance on Excellence in Continence Care published in June 2018. The Department does not intend to encourage NHS England to appoint a specific National Clinical Director for urological conditions and continence services. The decision to create such a role would be a matter for NHS England.</p><p>NHS England National Clinical Directors and National Specialty Advisers are practicing clinicians from across England, providing clinical leadership, advice, input and support across distinct areas of conditions in the National Health Service including those for urological conditions and continence services. NHS England also funds Getting It Right First Time, a national programme designed to improve the treatment and care of patients through in-depth review of services, benchmarking, and presenting a data-driven evidence base to support change.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham grouped question UIN HL609 question first answered 11/12/2023 13:23:34 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham
tabling member	2024 label Biography information for Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

1673013

registered interest
date	27/11/2023
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Nutrition and Poverty: Children
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government, following a survey by the School and Public Health Nurses Association and the British Dental Association in June which showed that 65 per cent of health practitioners reported that children’s health had got worse over the last year as a result of hunger, what plans they have to address hunger and poor nutrition in children.
tabling member printed	The Lord Bishop of St Albans
uin	HL630
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/12/2023 answer text <p>The Government understands concerns regarding food inflation and its impact on the current cost of living, and as such is providing support of over £94 billion over 2022/23 and 2023/24 to help households and individuals.</p><p>Data from the Office for National Statistics shows prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 13.6% in the year to August 2023. This was down from 14.9% in July and a recent high of 19.2% in March 2023, which was the highest rate seen for over 45 years. This means that food prices are still increasing but at a slower rate than before.</p><p>Through the Healthy Food Schemes, the Government provides a nutritional safety net to those who need it the most. The three Healthy Food Schemes, namely Healthy Start, Nursery Milk and the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme, together help more than three million children. They support wider Government priorities on obesity and levelling up. The schemes help to support children and babies when they are at home, in childcare and in early years at school, and pregnant women. From April 2021, the value of the Healthy Start increased from £3.10 to £4.25, providing additional support to pregnant women and families on lower incomes to make healthy food choices.</p><p>The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme provides approximately 2.2 million children in Key Stage 1 with a portion of fresh fruit or vegetables each day at school. Around 419 million pieces of fruit and vegetables were distributed to children in 2022/2023. In addition, the Nursery Milk Scheme provides a reimbursement to childcare providers for a daily 1/3 pint portion of milk to children and babies.</p><p>Free school meals are provided to over one third of school children. This includes two million pupils who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals, making up 23.8% of all pupils, which is an increase from January 2021 when 1.7 million or 20.8% pupils were eligible. In addition, almost 1.3 million more infants enjoy a free and nutritious meal at lunchtime following the introduction of universal infant free school meals in 2014. A further 90,000 disadvantaged pupils in further education also receive a free meal at lunch time. Overall, we spend over £1 billion per annum delivering free lunches to a large proportion of school children.</p><p>The Government’s wider programme of work to create a healthier environment to help people achieve and maintain a healthy weight includes:</p><p>- regulations which restrict the placement of products high in saturated fat, salt or sugar in store and online;</p><p>- efforts to reformulate products high in calories, sugar and salt;</p><p>- the Soft Drinks Industry Levy; and</p><p>- calorie labelling regulations for food sold in large out of home businesses.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham question first answered 04/12/2023 17:39:40 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham
tabling member	4308 label Biography information for The Lord Bishop of St Albans

1673026

registered interest
date	27/11/2023
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Care Workers: Migrant Workers
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have made to address concerns in the social care sector about the closure of care homes caused by the loss of staff from overseas as a result of restrictions on staff bringing their families to the UK.
tabling member printed	Baroness Goudie
uin	HL603
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/12/2023 answer text <p>We recognise the importance of international recruitment to ensure we have sufficient supply of care workers and senior care workers. This is why the Government decided to add care workers to the Shortage Occupation List in February 2022, in response to unprecedented workforce pressures.</p><p>On 4 December 2023, the Secretary of State for the Home Department announced a five-point plan to curb legal net migration, including removing the right for care workers and senior care workers to bring dependants to the United Kingdom and restricting access to the route to employers who are regulated by the Care Quality Commission. The Secretary of State for the Home Department has committed to put estimates of the impact of these announcements in the House of Commons Library. This will be set out in due course.</p><p>The Government is committed to building a sustainable adult social care workforce. As part of this, international recruitment has bolstered the workforce with 101,000 out of country visa grants for care workers and senior care workers to the year ending September 2023. While at home, we are backing domestic recruitment with our National Recruitment Campaign, working with the Department for Work and Pensions to promote adult social care careers, and funding sector partner to support employers and commissioners to improve recruitment and retention.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham question first answered 19/12/2023 17:03:54 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham
tabling member	3575 label Biography information for Baroness Goudie

1673028

registered interest
date	27/11/2023
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Integrated Care Boards: Procurement
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 27 November (HL409–HL412), why the NHS Gloucestershire integrated care boards' lessons learnt report has not been published, and what assessment they have made of the public interest in publishing it following the High Court’s decision in Consultant Connect Limited v NHS Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board, NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board, NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board [2022] EWHC 2037 (TCC), to ensure that procurement processes are followed properly by integrated care boards and without “considerable organisational bias”.
tabling member printed	Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
uin	HL611
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/12/2023 answer text <p>Each commissioning organisation involved in the procurement process produced their own lessons learnt report. Decisions around the publication of ‘lessons learned reports’ are for individual integrated care boards (ICBs).</p><p>With reference to guidance and support to ICBs on procurement, NHS England published the Strategic framework for the NHS Commercial Sector on 28 November 2023, a copy of which is attached.</p><p>The framework aims to encourage regional collaboration between integrated care systems (ICSs) by creating regional collaborative commercial organisations. These will operate as group procurement organisations in providing the necessary system leadership, capability and capacity to deliver strategic commercial outcomes and supply chain efficiencies, and be designed against a national blueprint to ensure consistency.</p><p>Every National Health Service provider will be expected to be a member of a collaborative organisation; and a senior, experienced, qualified commercial leader will be appointed to run and promote each organisation at an executive-level, with ownership for commercial strategy and all non-pay spend.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham grouped question UIN HL612 HL613 question first answered 11/12/2023 13:33:33 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham attachment 1 file name 611, 612 and 613 - Lord Hunt - NHS England Strategic framework for NHS Commercial - 6-12-23 (1).pdf title Strategic framework for NHS Commercial
tabling member	2024 label Biography information for Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

1673029

registered interest
date	27/11/2023
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Integrated Care Boards: Procurement
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 27 November (HL409–HL412), whether the NHS Gloucestershire integrated care boards' lessons learnt report has been shared widely with NHS organisations to ensure that procurement processes are followed properly by integrated care boards and without “considerable organisational bias”.
tabling member printed	Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
uin	HL612
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/12/2023 answer text <p>Each commissioning organisation involved in the procurement process produced their own lessons learnt report. Decisions around the publication of ‘lessons learned reports’ are for individual integrated care boards (ICBs).</p><p>With reference to guidance and support to ICBs on procurement, NHS England published the Strategic framework for the NHS Commercial Sector on 28 November 2023, a copy of which is attached.</p><p>The framework aims to encourage regional collaboration between integrated care systems (ICSs) by creating regional collaborative commercial organisations. These will operate as group procurement organisations in providing the necessary system leadership, capability and capacity to deliver strategic commercial outcomes and supply chain efficiencies, and be designed against a national blueprint to ensure consistency.</p><p>Every National Health Service provider will be expected to be a member of a collaborative organisation; and a senior, experienced, qualified commercial leader will be appointed to run and promote each organisation at an executive-level, with ownership for commercial strategy and all non-pay spend.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham grouped question UIN HL611 HL613 question first answered 11/12/2023 13:33:33 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham attachment 1 file name 611, 612 and 613 - Lord Hunt - NHS England Strategic framework for NHS Commercial - 6-12-23 (1).pdf title Strategic framework for NHS Commercial
tabling member	2024 label Biography information for Lord Hunt of Kings Heath