Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the impact of the Misuse of Drug Act 1971 on the criminal justice system.
Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how much his Department spent on special advisers in (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23 and (c) 2023-24.
Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how much his Department has spent on public information campaigns to advise the public on Government policies in (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-2024.
Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how much his Department spent on communications staff in (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24.
Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many Special Advisers his Department employs.
Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent representations his Department has received from (a) MedTech Directorate and (b) the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on the (i) import of (A) urine drainage bags and (B) other medical devices, (ii) security of supply of those devices and (iii) cost to the NHS of imposing six per cent import tariffs on...
Philippa Whitford: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will instruct HMRC officials to work with their counterparts in the World Customs Organization’s Harmonized System Committee on the potential merits of reclassifying urine drainage bags as medical devices for import tariff purposes.
Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has taken steps with Cabinet colleagues to advertise English language (a) tuition services and (b) other learning initiatives to Ukrainian refugees.
Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make it her policy to remove the six per cent import duty on urine drainage bags on a permanent basis by re-classifying them as medical devices under the UK Global Tariff regime.
Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to take steps to publish a vaccine strategy.
Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle misinformation about mRNA vaccines.
Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of adequacy of the uptake of the influenza vaccine in winter 2022-23.
Philippa Whitford: May I start by expressing my thanks to all health and care staff across the UK? I pay tribute to them for the work they do year in, year out—especially during the pandemic, when they literally risked their lives to care for us and our loved ones. Sadly, some of them paid the ultimate price. Others who are suffering with long covid face losing their pay or their job, and we should be...
Philippa Whitford: That is not true—and 99% of our trainee posts last year have already been filled. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman should look at the statistics. We have more GPs per head of population than any of the other nations in the UK, including Wales, which his party runs. So what do we need to do about this? Clearly we need to train more staff, but we must also not only increase the number of both...
Philippa Whitford: I think I have spent the last eight years demonstrating the different approaches that Scotland takes. The Minister talked about community pharmacies, which have been providing minor ailment care in Scotland since 2005. Our optometrists are allowed to refer people with cataracts directly to hospital, whereas in England, they are often made to go through a GP. So I am sharing and have shared...
Philippa Whitford: I should like to make some progress. The hon. Gentleman had a very long time at the Dispatch Box and I think there should be more than just the three of us. It is important to recognise the impact of the loss of the nursing bursary in 2016. The number of nursing student applications fell in England after the bursary was cut, so perhaps this is one of the ideas that I am sharing. The numbers...
Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to launch a public awareness campaign on the reasons for which people are prescribed medical cannabis.
Philippa Whitford: The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs alone has identified more than 1,700 pieces of retained EU law, with the majority in devolved areas such as agriculture, forestry and fishing. What happens if the Scottish Government want to maintain some of the EU standards that the Secretary of State’s party wants to ditch? Does he think it would be right for UK Ministers to change...
Philippa Whitford: Because of the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2022, goods made in the rest of the UK cannot be kept out of Scotland, even if they do not meet future Scottish standards on quality, safety or environmental impact. Does the Secretary of State not recognise that the combined effect of both pieces of legislation will drastically increase the degree of direct rule by Westminster and drive a...
Philippa Whitford: rose—