The data collected for the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database is done so under the Control of Patient Information notices issued by the Secretary of State for Health. Consequently, no patient consent is required to collect the data from National Health Service trusts. No patient identifiable data is shared with developers. Images and clinical data points are anonymised before they are sent from each NHS trust to the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust for collation. The Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust further verifies that any identifiable data burnt onto the images is removed. Once this step is completed, the anonymised data is uploaded on a cloud-based repository owned by NHSX, and having NHS England as the data controller.

The Research and Ethics Committee (REC) at the Health Research Authority granted ethical approval for the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database (NCCID) on 16 April 2020.. The REC made no recommendation to establish an ethics board to oversee the NCCID. Access to data contained in the NCCID is governed by a committee of independent experts, which includes patient representatives, and is tasked with ensuring that applications comply with high ethical standards.

X-ray facilities will be returning to Hinckley and District Hospital to provide much needed services to the local population, after funding was secured from University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.

In addition, the local area will benefit from the Government’s £7 million sustainability and transformation partnerships capital investment to refurbish Hinckley Health Centre, which includes works to accommodate diagnostics (x-ray and ultrasound) machines.

At the juxtaposed controls and at ports around the country, Border Force officers use some of the most advanced detection technology available to find and stop migrants attempting to reach the UK illegally. We have also invested tens of millions of pounds in new infrastructure to enhance border security. All freight vehicles entering the UK through the juxtaposed controls are screened for people being smuggled into the UK using a range of techniques. This includes using carbon dioxide detectors and motion sensors as well as sniffer dogs to detect clandestine on-board lorries.

We will continue to monitor closely displacement of the threat to other ports and routes into the UK and are prepared to shift more resources to UK ports, whilst working proactively with European law enforcement, including partners in France, Belgium and Holland, to target the organised crime networks behind people trafficking and illegal migration.

The Department has made no such assessment.

NHS England publishes monthly information about diagnostic imaging tests carried out on National Health Service patients, including plain radiography. This information is at the level of NHS trust, not individual hospital sites within trusts.

However, NHS England advises that the diagnostic suite at Eltham Community Hospital has not been brought into commission and no procedures have been undertaken since it was opened in 2015. Greenwich Clinical Commissioning Group is working with local partners to ensure that best use is made of the facilities at Eltham Community Hospital.

On the abolition of primary care trusts in April 2013, former primary care trust land, buildings and related contracts transferred either to NHS Property Services or to National Health Service trusts, depending on the details of the individual transfer schemes. Clinical equipment was not generally transferred to NHS Property Services.

Equipment donated after April 2013 directly to individual NHS hospital trusts and x-ray equipment bought for a trust by local fundraising efforts would belong to the NHS trust unless it has been specifically transferred to NHS Property Services under the terms of a particular transfer scheme.

The mobile x-ray unit for diagnosing tuberculosis in underserved populations is visiting Birmingham week commencing 20 July 2015 for five days. During this period the unit will screen underserved populations in Birmingham, Sandwell and Dudley.

The information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

There has been no estimate made of the average age of x-ray machines in use in hospitals as this information is not held centrally. It is the responsibility of individual providers to maintain equipment and ensure it is in full working order.

It is not possible to provide the requested breakdown of the total HM Revenue and Customs spent on salaries for staff employed on tackling tobacco smuggling in the way requested. The total costs for each year are as follows:

HM Revenue and Customs does not operate any x-ray scanners. Border Force has responsibility for the operation of x-ray scanners as part of the joint strategy to tackle tobacco smuggling.

HM Revenue and Customs total expenditure on tobacco work since 2010-11 is detailed in the table below. This includes administration and policy, as well as enforcement.

It is not possible to provide the staff information in the format requested. However, the total figures are set out below:

For the year 2012/13, the UK cigarette illicit market was reported at 9%, which is half the level seen a decade ago. The illicit market share for hand-rolling tobacco is 36%, lower than in 2010/11 and significantly lower than the level seen in 2008/09, when it was 50 per cent.

The Department is responsible only for health services in England and data related to the number of bone density scanning machines in England is not held centrally.

Border Force uses a range of x-ray scanners to tackle tobacco smuggling through freight and by passengers. These x-ray scanners are also used to detect the presence of other prohibited drugs and restricted goods so the costs of operating them cannot be solely attributed to tobacco smuggling. In 2010-11 and 2011-12 the contractual maintenance costs of this equipment cost £1,487,000 and £1,133,000 respectively. In addition, new scanning equipment costing £66,005 was purchased.

Officials from the Ministry of Defence and personnel from the Atomic Weapons Establishment work closely with their US counterparts on a range of nuclear matters under the auspices of the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement. This includes participation in experiments at the Nevada Test Site, and at the Los Alamos, Sandia and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.

I am withholding further details of this work in the interests of safeguarding national security.

We are not aware of any such action. However, I refer the noble Lord to my previous Answer on this subject on 17 July 2012, Official Report, col. 100.