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Column 187
Year |Entries|Exits -------------------------------- 1984 |1,199 |793 1985 |1,176 |880 1986 |1,137 |957 1987 |1,181 |892 1988 |1,161 |838
We do not hold information on the number of practitioners who withdrew from an FPC list to practise privately.
Horticultural Therapy
Mr. Bowis : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what financial and others steps he is taking to encourage horticultural therapy ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Currie : The Department has grant-aided the Society for Horticultural Therapy since 1984. The current grant of £52,000 a year towards the society's project advice and training services was awarded in April 1988 and supports a range of activity including the promotion and dissemination of good practice in the therapeutic rehabilitation of hospital patients.
NHS Staff (Pay)
Mr. Corbyn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will indicate the date on which he first received grading projections from each health authority on the new clinical structure for nurses, midwives and health visitors.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : I first received preliminary and provisional projections during the first two weeks of September.
Mr. Corbyn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish a breakdown of the new grading structure for nurses, midwives and health visitors broken down by grade, types of hospital including psychiatric, geriatric and acute, by district and region.
Mr. Mellor : For the grading breakdown by district and by region, I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to my hon. Friend the Member for Staffordshire, Moorlands (Mr. Knox) on 28 November at column 147-48. We do not hold information on the outcome by type of hospital centrally.
Salmonella
Mr. Nicholas Bennett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of salmonella poisoning caused by infected eggs have been reported in each month of 1988 ; and what percentage of total egg sales these figures represent.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : Reports of food poisoning do not normally identify the food stuff causing the illness. However, in England and Wales, there were 46 outbreaks involving 1,141 people in the first 10 months of 1988 in which the most likely source of infection was uncooked or partially cooked eggs. Recent studies indicate that some sporadic cases of salmonellosis have also been caused by eggs. We also have reason to believe that these figures underestimate the total number of people affected. The monthly breakdown of 1,141 cases is as follows :
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|Number
------------------------
January |27
February |-
March |-
April |60
May |302
June |159
July |207
August |145
September |114
October |127
Figures of egg sales are not available but the number of eggs produced each year in the United Kingdom is between 12,000-13,000 million. The percentage of reported cases to egg sales is clearly very small.
Although the risk of harm to any healthy individual from consuming a single raw or partially cooked egg is small, it is advisable for vulnerable people such as the elderly, the sick, babies and pregnant women to consume only eggs which have been cooked until the white and yolk are solid.
General Practice Finance Corporation
Mr. Boswell : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the Government intends to invite offers for the purchase of the General Practice Finance Corporation.
Mr. Mellor : Hambros Bank, on behalf of the Government, will tomorrow issue an information memorandum to those financial institutions and others who have expressed an interest in acquiring the operating business of the General Practice Finance Corporation. The GPFC provides family doctors with a source of funds for the purchase, construction and improvement of their surgery premises in the form of fixed and variable rate loans and acquisition and lease finance.
An agreement has been reached with the general medical services committee of the British Medical Association providing for its participation in the management of the successor company to the corporation once it is transferred into the private sector. The object is to preserve the ethos of the existing business, maintain its sensitivity to the needs of family doctors, and ensure the operational integrity of the new company in its early years within any group of which it might become part.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
Disabled Persons (Staff)
Mr. Sean Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what percentage of his Department's staff are classed as disabled.
Mrs. Chalker : In the diplomatic wing of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 0.3 per cent. of staff are registered disabled people. In the aid wing of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1.4 per cent. of staff are registered disabled people.
Viacheslav Uspensky
Rev. Martin Smyth : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will raise with the Soviet authorities the case of Viacheslav Uspensky, on
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hunger strike in protest against the refusal of the Soviet Government to grant a visa for himself and his parents to emigrate ; and if he will make a statement.Mrs. Chalker : We regularly make representations to the Soviet authorities on behalf of those, such as Viacheslav Uspensky, who are refused permission to leave the Soviet Union. We last raised the case of the Uspensky family at the bilateral consultations in Moscow on 23 June. We shall continue to raise this case at every suitable opportunity including during Mr. Gorbachev's forthcoming visit.
VAT
Mr. Heddle : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessments he has made as to the likely effect on (a) his Department's capital building programme and (b) the rent the Department will pay under occupational leases, of implementation of the European Court of Justice's judgment on value added tax on non-domestic buildings.
Mrs. Chalker : Implementation of the European Court of Justice's judgment on VAT will have no effect on the Department's capital building programme, since compensating adjustments have been made to the relevant expenditure provisions. At this stage, before landlords have decided whether to exercise their option to tax rents, it is not possible to offer meaningful estimates of the effects of the judgment on rental costs.
Gibraltar
Mr. Amos : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will announce the details of the agreement reached on 1 December with the Chief Minister of Gibraltar on the future of the Gibraltar social insurance fund.
Mrs. Chalker : Her Majesty's Government and the Government of Gibraltar have established that the state of the social insurance fund is such that it is no longer financially viable. Payments will continue to all beneficiaries at existing cash levels for a further five years. At the end of that time, the fund will be dissolved, and the balance paid out to all past and present contributors, taking account of their accrued rights. Under these arrangements, all beneficiaries will be treated in an equitable and non-discriminatory manner. Her Majesty's Government have agreed to make available the necessary funds to make up any shortfall in the SIF for the duration of these arrangements. The details of dissolution and distribution will now be worked out on the basis of a thorough analysis of the fund's contribution records.
Internal Market (EC)
Mr. Redwood : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) if he will list the measures required to complete the internal market for 1992 ;
(2) if he will list those of the items identified by the European Commission as being essential to complete the internal market in Europe which have to date been incorporated in (a) European Community and (b) United Kingdom law ;
(3) if he will list those items identified by the European Commission as essential to complete the internal market where agreement has not yet been reached.
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Mr. Maude : I have been asked to reply.
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Newham, North-East (Mr. Leighton) at column 440. Since then the following measures have also been agreed by the Council of Ministers :
Control of Goods
Directive amending Directive 77/93 on protective measures concerning entry into Member States or organisms harmful to plants or plant products. [adopted]
Removal of Technical Barriers
Food for particular nutritional use (amendment). [common position] Food labelling (amendment). [common position]
Two (concerning proprietary and immunological medicinal products) of a package of four proposals on the extension of directives to medicinal products not already included. [common position] The following measures are either currently in force in the United Kingdom or legislation has been made or administrative action taken to bring them into force by the required implementation dates. Control of Goods
Duty-free admission of fuel contained in the fuel tanks of commercial motor vehicles : lorries and coaches*.
Single Administrative document (SAD) third country aspects. Simplification of Community transit procedure : amendment to Reg 222/77.
Abolition of customs presentation charges.
Elimination of customs formalities in the framework of the TIR Convention and the Introduction of common border
posts--"banalisation".
Live animals of the bovine species : amended eradication directives to provide for final eradication of brucellosis, tuberculosis and leukosis.
Eradication of classical swine fever in the Community as a whole and swine fever.
Hormone growth promoters.
Medical examination of Personnel.
Antibiotic residues.
Control of residues.
Swine fever.
Control of foot and mouth disease.
Amendment to Directive 77/93 (plant health).
Maximum levels for pesticide residues in cereals and foodstuffs of animal origin.
Amendment of Directive 79/117/EEC on the prohibition of certain plant protection products (ethylene oxide).
Proposal for Directive on the fixing of guidelines for the evaluation of additives used in animal foodstuffs.
Modification of Directive 72/461 on health problems affecting Intra- Community trade in fresh meat and Directive 72/462 on health and veterinary inspection problems upon importation of bovine animals and swine and fresh meat from 3rd countries.
Acceptance for breeding purposes of purebred breeding animals of the bovine species.
Amendment to Directive 80/215 on animal health problems affecting Intra- Community trade in meat products.
Amendment to Directive 74/63 on undesirable substances and products in animal nutrition (maximum pesticide residues in animal feeding-stuffs).
Semen of animals.
Control of Individuals
Sixth Directive relative to exemptions in international travel : increase to 350 ECUs.
Tax reliefs to be allowed on the importation of goods in small consignments of a non-commercial character.
The Removal of Technical Barriers
Proposal for the extension of information procedures on standards and technical rules (amendment to Directive 83/189)
Type approval of motor vehicles and their trailers, Directive 70/156
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Directive on the approximation of laws relating to weights and dimensions of certain motor vehiclesModification of tractors framework Directive 74/150
General Directive on sampling and methods of analysis
Emulsifiers (modification)
Coffee extracts chicory extracts (modification)
Proposal for Directive concerning the placing on the market of high- technology medicinal products including those derived from biotechnology
Proposal amending Directive 75/318/EEC concerning the testing of medical specialities
Proposal amending Directive 81/852/EEC concerning veterinary medicinal products
Proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 65/65/EEC concerning medical specialities
Council Directive relating to restrictions on the marketing and use of PCB's (polychlorinated biphenyls)
Council Directive relating to "Restrictions on the marketing and use of asbestos"
Non-ionic detergents (modification of existing Directive) Tyre pressure gauge
Hydraulic diggers (noise)
Good laboratory practices--non-clinical testing of chemicals Free Movement for Labour and the Professions
Comparability of vocational training qualifications
Co-operation between higher education and industry for advanced training relating to new technologies (COMETT)
Co-ordination of provisions in respect of certain activities in the field of pharmacy
Mutual recognition of diplomas in pharmacy
Common Market for Services
Collective investment undertakings for transferable securities UCITS Directive : special measures concerning certain investments. Transport
Fares for scheduled air services.
Air transport : sharing of passenger capacity and market access Air transport : application of Articles 85 and 86 (rules of competition).
Maritime transport :
1. freedom to provide services in the sea transport sector : between Member States and between Member States and third countries. 2. application of Articles 85 and 86 of Rome Treaty to maritime transport.
3. unfair pricing practices.
4. co-ordinated action to safeguard free access to cargoes in oceanic trades.
Road transport : organisation of the market (Community quota) for the carriage of goods by road between Member States : transitional and final stages [except in so far as all Community quotas and bilateral quotas between Member States will not be abolished until 1 January 1993].
Capital Movements
Liberalisation of units in collective investment undertakings for transferrable securities.
Liberalisation of operations such as transactions in securities not dealt in on a Stock Exchange, admission of securities of the capital market and long-term commercial credits.
Liberalisation of capital movements
Other Areas
Legal protection of micro circuits.
Fiscal Measures
13th VAT Directive concerning tax refunds to persons not established in the Community.
17th VAT Directive concerning the temporary importation of goods other than means of transport.
In addition the following measures do not require implementation by the United Kingdom because they are recommendations, or action is for other Member States or the Commission.
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