The carrier bag charge has been very successful in reducing the number of single-use carrier bags used - which have fallen by 95% for major retailers. Retailers with over 250 staff must keep three years of records, including how many single-use bags have been sold, and how the proceeds have been used. Whilst there is no legal obligation on retailers to donate the charge, Defra encourages doing so and publishes a summary including the amounts of money given to good causes: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/carrier-bag-charge-summary-of-data-in-england Retailers have donated nearly £190 million to good causes from the charge since its introduction.

The safe and speedy redistribution of surplus food is a priority, be it from retail, manufacture or the hospitality and food service sector, which all may have their own issues and challenges in their supply chains. Defra supports a range of action to overcome these challenges, reduce food waste and help get more surplus food to charities.

Since 2017 Defra has made a series of grants available to help the redistribution sector. In total nearly £12m has been awarded to over 250 large and small redistribution organisations across the country for the provision of for example warehousing, vehicles, fridges and freezers.

We continue to support WRAP and the Courtauld 2030 redistribution working group that seeks to overcome barriers to redistribution. The most recent outputs from the group is the publication of new guidance on storing surplus food; best practice on redistributing own brand products and the tool Framework for Effective Redistribution.

We remain committed to the WRAP led Food Waste Reduction Roadmap which supports business to target, measure and specifically act on reducing food waste for instance by making sure food surplus is redistributed.

The amount of surplus food redistributed in 2020, over 92,000 tonnes, was worth £280 million and was the equivalent of 220 million meals. Since UK-level data was first reported in 2015, overall levels of redistribution have increased three-fold.

Ministers have regular discussions with representatives of charities and patient organisations on a range of issues, including interventions to protect against COVID-19.

If the decision is taken to move to step four of the roadmap, we will continue to set out in guidance that wearing a face covering may reduce risk of transmission, especially in enclosed and crowded indoor spaces.

The standard guidance for clinically extremely vulnerable people will be updated ahead of any lifting of restrictions on 19 July.

We have engaged with the eating disorder charity, BEAT, in addition to other groups representing the views of people living with eating disorders.

Public Health England has been sharing provider-level data on the completeness of recurrence reporting with individual National Health Service trusts since July 2016. This is accepted as being significantly below the estimated number of secondary breast cancers. The latest data with figures covering 2014 to 2018 was published in November 2020 and are available at the following link:

http://www.ncin.org.uk/cancer_type_and_topic_specific_work/topic_specific_work/recurrence

Since 2019, the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS) has discussed recording of recurrence data with Breast Cancer Now, formerly Breast Cancer Care, Cancer52, Pancreatic Cancer UK, National Audit of Breast Cancer in Older People National Bowel Cancer Audit Macmillan, Cancer Research UK and the developers of the NHS England Cancer Waits Dataset.

NCRAS works closely with cancer service managers at hospital trusts to determine sources of data which can be used to complete the Cancer Services and Outcomes Dataset (COSD) items. The NCRAS Data Liaison team provide direct support to hospital providers to improve their ability to collect data. This includes system procurement support, review of COSD data, clinical engagement and data reporting and validation.

As demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) hit record levels during the global pandemic, the Government and industry joined forces to build a PPE distribution network from scratch. With the help of the Armed Forces, the NHS Supply Chain now delivers PPE to 58,000 settings including care homes, hospices and community organisations. Since 25 February 2020 the Department has distributed over 3.4 billion PPE items for use by health and social care services in England in this manner.

Additionally, the Government has authorised the release of over 164 million items of PPE to local resilience forums to help them respond to urgent local spikes in need across the adult social care system and some other frontline services, where providers are unable to access PPE through their usual, or dedicated wholesaler routes.

From 1 August 2020, clinically extremely vulnerable people in England were no longer advised to shield. National advice for people at high risk from COVID-19 remains available at the following link:

www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/people-at-higher-risk/advice-for-people-at-high-risk/

We continue to engage with key stakeholders, including charities and patient groups.

We recognise that many charities are facing difficult decisions at the exact time their services are needed most and on 8 April 2020 the Chancellor announced £750 million to support the charity sector in response to COVID-19.

The Department does not routinely provide financial support to charities. However, of the £360 million allocated by central Government as part of that announcement, £200 million is for hospices and £22 million for health and social care charities. The £22 million includes the following cancer charities who were awarded grants in July:

- Jo’s Cervical Cancer - £435,000;

- Blood Cancer UK - £341,000; and

- Anthony Nolan - £325,000.

The Department regularly engages with external stakeholders about a range of matters, including the availability of medicines for the treatment of a number of conditions.

We recognise that many charities are facing difficult decisions at the exact time their services are needed most and, on 8 April 2020 the Chancellor announced £750 million to support for the charity sector in response to COVID-19. This includes up to £200 million for hospices and £22 million for health and social care charities. The £22 million includes:

- £4.2 million to support mental health charities and charities within the National Bereavement Alliance;

- Up to £6.8 million to support St John Ambulance;

- £6 million to support Air Ambulances;

- £6 million to support various charities, including those working with people with learning disabilities, autism and complex needs, those working to support people with cancer and stroke and dementia charities, and those that support the adult social care system; and

- This funding will also go to charities supporting pregnant women, babies in neonatal intensive care and those affected by stillbirth and neonatal deaths and support for specialist addiction and recovery charities.

To this date there has been no funding agreed for ophthalmology charities.

There is still an opportunity for charities to apply directly for funding from the National Lottery’s £200 million Coronavirus Community Support Fund. This fund is supporting charities working with vulnerable people. The criteria for this fund are set out at the following link:

https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/

We recognise that many charities are facing difficult decisions at the exact time their services are needed most and, on 8 April 2020 the Chancellor announced £750 million to support for the charity sector in response to COVID-19. This includes up to £200 million for hospices and £22 million for health and social care charities. The £22 million includes:

- £4.2 million to support mental health charities and charities within the National Bereavement Alliance;

- Up to £6.8 million to support St John Ambulance;

- £6 million to support Air Ambulances;

- £6 million to support various charities, including those working with people with learning disabilities, autism and complex needs, those working to support people with cancer and stroke and dementia charities, and those that support the adult social care system; and

- This funding will also go to charities supporting pregnant women, babies in neonatal intensive care and those affected by stillbirth and neonatal deaths and support for specialist addiction and recovery charities.

To this date there has been no funding agreed for ophthalmology charities.

There is still an opportunity for charities to apply directly for funding from the National Lottery’s £200 million Coronavirus Community Support Fund. This fund is supporting charities working with vulnerable people. The criteria for this fund are set out at the following link:

https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/

Everybody working on the front line deserves to have the equipment they need to do their job safely and the Government is working day and night to make that happen.

To 9 August, we have authorised the release of over 157 million items of personal protective equipment (PPE) to Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) to help them respond to urgent local spikes in need across the adult social care system and some other front-line services.

These multi-agency LRF partnerships are made up of representatives from local public services, including the emergency services, local authorities, the National Health Service, the Environment Agency and others. This PPE is intended to help LRFs respond to urgent local spikes in need across the adult social care system and other front-line services, where providers are unable to access PPE through their usual routes. This includes children’s homes, secure children’s homes, residential special schools and children’s social care services in local authorities.

We have brought together the NHS, industry and the armed forces to create a PPE distribution network, delivering critical PPE supplies to those who need it. Since the publication of the Government’s Testing Strategy in April 2020, we have continued to scale its capacity to support testing for COVID-19 and as at 17 August 2020, testing capacity was 326,086 across all pillars of the testing programme.

Following these further increases in testing capacity, testing is now available to all symptomatic people across the whole of the UK and anyone experiencing symptoms should get a test as soon as possible. This includes those working to provide essential public services, including children’s social care and charities delivering critical frontline services.

Everybody working on the front line deserves to have the equipment they need to do their job safely and the entire Government is working day and night to make that happen.

To 9 August, we have authorised the release of over 157 million items of personal protective equipment (PPE) to Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) to help them respond to urgent local spikes in need.

These multi-agency LRF partnerships are made up of representatives from local public services, including the emergency services, local authorities, the National Health Service, the Environment Agency and others. This PPE is intended to help LRFs respond to urgent local spikes in need across the adult social care system and other front-line services, where providers are unable to access PPE through their usual routes. This includes children’s homes, secure children’s homes, residential special schools and children’s social care services in local authorities.

We have brought together the NHS, industry and the armed forces to create a PPE distribution network, delivering critical PPE supplies to those who need it. Since the publication of the Government’s Testing Strategy in April 2020, we have continued to scale its capacity to support testing for COVID-19 and as at 17 August 2020, testing capacity was 326,086 across all pillars of the testing programme.

Following these further increases in testing capacity, testing is now available to all symptomatic people across the whole of the United Kingdom and anyone experiencing symptoms should get a test as soon as possible. This includes those working to provide essential public services, including children’s social care and charities delivering critical frontline services.

Public Health England (PHE) works with appropriate organisations to develop campaigns that promote healthy eating, for example Start4Life, Change4Life and One You.

PHE has recently met with the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Obesity UK.

In instances where NHS Providers have called upon non-National Health Service organisations for their staff to be deployed to an NHS service, it would be expected that the contracting body will pay back the organisation accordingly and claim that money as a reasonable additional cost in their cost collection exercise.

The Department is taking steps to ensure that all staff operating in the medical sector can access adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), and as such has delivered millions of items of personal protective equipment for staff at care homes, home care providers and hospices as well as to hospitals, ambulance trusts, general practitioner practices and pharmacists.

The needs of staff in frontline health services are covered in the United Kingdom-wide PPE Plan published on 10 April 2020. This provides clear guidance on who needs PPE and in what circumstances they need to use it, and how sufficient supplies will be secured to manage the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan can be accessed on the following link:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-personal-protective-equipment-ppe-plan

The Department is taking steps to ensure that all staff operating in the medical sector can access adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), and as such has delivered millions of items of personal protective equipment for staff at care homes, home care providers and hospices as well as to hospitals, ambulance trusts, general practitioner practices and pharmacists.

The needs of staff in frontline health services are covered in the United Kingdom-wide PPE Plan published on 10 April 2020. This provides clear guidance on who needs PPE and in what circumstances they need to use it, and how sufficient supplies will be secured to manage the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan can be accessed on the following link:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-personal-protective-equipment-ppe-plan

The National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence (NICE) has advised that a six week public consultation on the proposals for changing its methods and processes will take place this summer. We understand that further work on the timetable is in progress and will be communicated in due course.

The wider health charity sector will have an opportunity to review the proposals for change from the task and finish groups during this consultation.

NICE also held a webinar with stakeholders in November 2019 to share how and why health technology evaluation is changing and what it means for patients. The webinar is available on the NICE website at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/about/what-we-do/our-programmes/nice-guidance/nice-technology-appraisal-guidance/changes-to-health-technology-evaluation

NICE staff have also participated in a number of events to engage with the patient community, including the charity sector and about the methods review.