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Family Credit
Ms. Short : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many claims for family credit have been made for each month since April 1988 ; how many claims have been paid during the same periods ; and what has been the average income of claimants and the average housing costs showing rent separately, of claimants during this period.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : The number of family credit claims and awards is as follows :
|Claims received|Awards made
----------------------------------------------------------------
April |96,505}
May |41,721} |40,213
June |52,293 |36,145
July |46,100 |37,912
August |46,376 |40,249
September |47,759 |24,158
October |56,373 |44,944
November |57,850 |46,234
December |44,834 |35,797
January |63,638 |42,712
No information is available about the average income or housing costs of claimants.
Mr. Battle : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many children there are in families claiming family credit ; and what is the number of children in families entitled to family credit.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : In December 1988, the latest date for which information is available, there were approximately 520,000 children in families receiving family credit. An estimate of the number of children in families eligible for family credit cannot be made until information from the 1988 family expenditure survey is available.
Staff Dispersal
Mr. Doran : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what is the number of employees to be taken on by the Department of Social Security in Glasgow, Wigan and Belfast as a result of the dispersal of jobs presently located in London which was announced on 16 January ;
(2) how many of the posts created by the dispersal announced on 16 January he expects to be filled (i) by transfer of existing staff from local Department of Social Security offices in the areas involved, (ii) by transfer for existing staff from London, and (iii) by hiring of new staff ;
(3) what is the planned reduction in staff numbers in the Department of Social Security local offices in those areas gaining new posts as a result of the dispersal announced on 16 January.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : As a direct result of the movement of work from 21 London offices announced on 16 January, we shall be creating around 450 jobs in Glasgow, 350 in Belfast and 260 in Wigan. Detailed recruitment plans will be a matter for the manager of each social security centre (SSC), but staff who wish to move from London or from local offices in the area of the SSC will have the opportunity to do so. We shall not be able to estimate the numbers involved until we have sought the views of staff affected. Current calculations show that, over the year 1989-90, there will be staff savings of about 310 for offices within daily travelling distance of the Glasgow SSC and about 280 for Wigan. Staff savings in the Northern Ireland Civil Service, are a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
Pensions
Mr. David Marshall : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list in the Official Report, for each constituency in Scotland, the number of males and females in receipt of the state retirement pension.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : Information is not collected about the number of retirement pension recipients in any particular locality. However, at 30 September 1988 there were 788,380 retirement pension recipients in Scotland as a whole, of whom 256,850 were men and 531,530 women. These figures exclude those receiving graduated pension only.
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Mr. Kirkwood : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will institute a system of age priority when reviewing claims or hearings for war pensions or disablement pensions whereby age will be a factor in determining the degree of priority accorded to new claims.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : We are grateful for the suggestion. However, war pension claimants are predominately elderly, and relating priority to age would lengthen the processing of most claims. Priority is already given to claimants identified as having a short life expectancy.
Agency Benefits Unit
Ms. Richardson : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the average time taken by the agency benefits unit to process forms AG1 submitted by practitioners ; and whether he will take steps to speed up the process.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : In the period 12 December 1988 to 3 February 1989 forms AG1 were cleared on average within 6.6 working days of receipt. This average masks a wide variation in clearance times due to the need to seek further information in some cases, and a more representative measure is that, in the same period, 61.2 per cent. of forms were cleared within five working days and 80.8 per cent. within 10 workings days.
The number of staff in the agency benefits unit was increased in December 1988. We are also looking at the design of form AG1 in the light of experience, with a view to improving its effectiveness and reducing the need for follow-up inquiries.
Benefits (Leicestershire)
Mr. Latham : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security why Miss A., a constituent of the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton, referred to in the letter from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary, the hon. Member for Fareham dated 11 November reference PO(35)2487/23, is required to apply for jobs regularly despite being unable to obtain employment because of her son's disabilities ; and why she cannot be issued with a permanent order book.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : Social security legislation requires that an able- bodied adult should be available and looking for work as a condition of receiving benefit. However, for some people this rule would be inappropriate and so there are exceptions to it. One of these exemptions applies to a person who is looking after a person in receipt of attendance allowance, and Miss A comes into this category during the school holidays when she cares for her 19-year-old son. The payment of benefit by order book is not possible when Miss A is required to register for work, and becomes so only for the holiday periods when she cares for her son.
Mr. Latham : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security why Miss A., reference PO(35) 2487/23, received no order book over the Christmas holidays, although she had previously notified the social security office in advance of the dates of her handicapped son's holiday.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : Over the Christmas period Miss A. continued to receive her full entitlement to benefit from the unemployment benefit office because she continued to register as available for work.
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Mr. Latham : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether, in making a decision over Miss A., reference PO(35)2487/23, he took account of the fact that the school holidays of her handicapped son are significantly different from those in Leicestershire.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : No. The relative lengths of school holidays are not relevant when considering the question of Miss A.'s entitlement to benefit, although they could affect the method of payment adopted by the local office.
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Mobility Allowance
Mr. Alfred Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will publish in the Official Report tables relating receipt of mobility allowance to the amount of extra expenditure on travel, classified according to severity of disability from the data in the survey by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys on the financial circumstances of disabled adults living in private households ; and if he will tabulate separately pensioners and non-pensioners.
Mr. Scott [holding answer 23 January 1989] : The information requested is as follows :
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|c|All recipients of mobility allowance: average extra expenditure on travel<1>|c|
Severity category<2>
1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 1-10
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A. Average weekly extra expenditure on travel
Pensioners (£) |<1>- |1.70 |2.80 |2.80 |1.80 |2.40
Non-pensioners (£) |2.30 |3.40 |3.60 |3.70 |2.30 |3.20
All disabled adults (£) |2.60 |2.90 |3.40 |3.40 |2.20 |3.00
B. Proportion with extra expenditure on travel
Pensioners (per cent) |<1>- |43 |53 |52 |37 |46
Non-pensioners (per cent.) |45 |60 |50 |50 |36 |48
All disabled adults (per cent.) |43 |54 |51 |50 |36 |47
C. Base: Sample numbers of mobility allowance recipients
Pensioners |21 |40 |43 |50 |41 |196
Non-pensioners |53 |87 |111 |121 |101 |473
All disabled adults |74 |127 |154 |172 |142 |669
<1> Base too small to show statistics.
<2> Overall measure of severity constructed by OPCS to classify people with different numbers and types of disability (category 1 least severe, category 10 most severe).
Part A of the table shows extra expenditure averaged over all recipients of the relevant benefit, irrespective of whether they actually reported extra expenditure: sample numbers
are too small to compute a reliable average confined to those who reported extra expenditure. Part B shows the proportion of those who reported extra expenditure.
Attendance Allowance
Mr. Alfred Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will publish in the Official Report tables relating receipt of attendance allowance at each rate to the amount of extra expenditure on home services, classified according to severity of disability from the data
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in the survey by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys on the financial circumstances of disabled adults living in private households ; and if he will tabulate separately pensioners and non-pensioners.Mr. Scott [holding answer 23 January] : The information requested is as follows :
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|c|All recipients of higher rate attendance allowance:|c|
|c|average extra expenditure on home services<1>|c|
Severity category<2>
1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 1-10
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|(Standard deviation)
A. Average weekly extra expenditure on home services
Pensioners (£) |<3>- |<3>- |<3>- |1.70 |1.70 |1.60 |(6.10)
Non-pensioners (£) |<3>- |<3>- |<3>- |<3>- |2.00 |1.50 |(7.10)
All disabled adults (£) |<3>- |<3>- |<3>- |1.40 |1.80 |1.60 |(6.40)
B. Proportion with expenditure on home services
Pensioners (per cent.) |<3>- |<3>- |<3>- |29 |17 |22
Non-pensioners (per cent.) |<3>- |<3>- |<3>- |<3>- |9 |12
All disabled adults (per cent.) |<3>- |<3>- |<3>- |27 |15 |19
C. Base: Sample numbers of higher rate AA recipients
Pensioners |2 |3 |16 |58 |135 |213
Non-pensioners |1 |3 |10 |25 |64 |105
All disabled adults |3 |5 |26 |83 |199 |317
<1> Source: OPCS surveys of disability 1985-88.
<2> Overall measure of severity constructed by OPCS to classify people with different numbers and types of disability (category 1 least severe, category 10 most severe)
<3> Bases too small to show statistics.
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Table file CW890216.041 not available
Part A of the table shows extra expenditure averaged over all recipients of the relevant benefit, irrespective of whether they actually reported extra expenditure : sample numbers are too small to compute a reliable average confined to those who reported extra expenditure. Part B shows the proportion of those who reported extra expenditure.
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|c|All recipients of lower rate attendance allowance: Average extra expenditure on home services<1>|c|
Severity category<2>
1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 1-10
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|(Standard deviation)
A. Average weekly extra expenditure on home services
Pensioners (£) |<3>- |<3>- |9.00 |2.10 |5.80 |4.50 |(22.40)
Non-pensioners (£) |<3>- |<3>- |0.20 |0.30 |0.50 |0.30 |(1.70)
All disabled adults (£) |<3>- |<3>- |5.00 |1.70 |4.30 |3.20 |(18.60)
B. Proportion with extra expenditure on home services
Pensioners (per cent.) |<3>- |<3>- |30 |22 |24 |23
Non-pensioners (per cent.) |<3>- |<3>- |8 |5 |7 |7
All disabled adults (per cent.) |<3>- |<3>- |20 |18 |19 |18
C. Base: Sample number of lower rate AA recipients
Pensioners |4 |16 |43 |120 |139 |322
Non-pensioners |5 |12 |37 |40 |56 |149
All disabled adults |9 |28 |80 |160 |195 |472
<1> Source: OPCS surveys of disability 1985-88.
<2> Overall measure of severity constructed by OPCS to classify people with different numbers and types of disability (category 1 least severe, category 10 most severe).
<3> Bases too small to show statistics.
Part A of the table shows extra expenditure averaged over all recipients of the relevant benefit, irrespective of whether they actually reported extra expenditure : sample numbers are too small to compute a reliable average confined to those who reported extra expenditure. Part B shows the proportion of those who reported extra expenditure.
HEALTH
Health Hazards
69. Mr. Teddy Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will take steps to ensure that consumers are advised promptly and effectively when health hazards related to foodstuffs become known to his Department ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : Action on health hazards related to foodstuffs depends on the nature and seriousness of the hazard. We do ensure that consumers are warned of hazards as quickly as possible.
Waiting Lists
Mr. Cousins : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will state for the 10 district health authorities with the longest waiting lists in the latest available returns (a) the length of wait and (b) the type of procedure or surgery to which the wait applies.
Mr. Freeman : Waiting information about individual districts is published in "Hospital Waiting Lists--Regional and District Summaries", copies of which are available in the Library. The summaries provide a percentage breakdown by time waited and by surgical specialty. We do not collect waiting information centrally by type of operation. The 10 district health authorities with the largest waiting lists at 31 March 1988 were :
Bloomsbury
Sheffield
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NorwichLeicestershire
North Staffordshire
Liverpool
Barking, Havering and Brentwood
Bristol and Weston
Newcastle
Shropshire
Halton General Hospital
Mr. Butler : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement about the future development of Halton general hospital.
Mr. Freeman : The Mersey regional health authority has established a sub-committee to look into the future development of Halton district general hospital. The sub-committee is due to report back to the RHA sometime in the spring.
Abortion
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he now expects to publish the findings of the study commissioned by his Department in 1976 into post-abortion syndrome.
Mr. Freeman : I understand that the results of this study should be written up later this year and that the researchers then expect to submit it to a learned journal for publication.
Nursing Homes
Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many nursing home places are available in Staffordshire ; and if he will give the location and number of beds and cost per place of each.
Mr. Freeman : The latest information held centrally is that on 31 December 1986 there were 659 beds in establishments in Staffordshire registered with health authorities as nursing homes. I understand that the
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number is likely to have increased substantially since then. Information on location and cost per place is not held centrally. The hon. Member may wish to write to the chairman of the Staffordshire health authorities for further information.Cervical Smears
Mr. Tony Lloyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he has any information about the frequency of availability of cervical smears in other western European and north American countries and the mortality rates from cancer of the cervix.
Mr. Freeman : We have no detailed information on the frequency of availability of cervical smear testing in these countries. Mortality rates for western European and north American countries are given in the 1988 "World Health Statistics Annual", published by the World Health Organisation, a copy of which is in the Library. In England and Wales the death rate from cervical cancer fell by 14 per cent. between 1976 and 1986.
Mr. Tony Lloyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what advice he gives about the age at which cervical smears should be made available.
Mr. Freeman : Guidance to health authorities on cervical cancer screening is contained in health circular HC(88)1, which was issued in January 1988 and has been placed in the Library. We have asked health authorities to invite all women aged 20 to 64 for routine screening by March 1993, unless their GP has indicated that they should be excluded. Women aged 65 and over who have not had two consecutive negative smears in the last 10 years should also be screened. Smears should also be taken at any age if clinically necessary.
Mr. Tony Lloyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will give details of those district health authorities which make provision for cervical smears more frequently than on a three yearly basis.
Mr. Freeman : This information is not currently available centrally. Regional health authorities have been asked to provide it in their outturn reports for 1988-89.
Census
Mr. Fisher : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether it is his intention to include questions on (a) ethnic origin and (b) disability in the 1991 census.
Mr. Freeman : The Government's proposals for the 1991 census in Great Britain were published in a White Paper (Cm. 430) on 19 July 1988.
A question on disability is not included in the proposals. The census will, however, include a question on long-term illness in which each person will be asked whether he or she has any long-term illness, health problem or handicap which limits his or her daily activities.
A question on ethnic group is to be included in the census test in April 1989 and the results studied by the Government before deciding whether to include such a question in the final plans for the 1991 census.
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Aluminium (Baby Milk)
Mr. Dunnachie : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he has any plans to ban the sale of those baby milks which have been identified as containing high levels of aluminium ;
(2) if he will issue guidelines on risks to babies from drinking milks which have been identified as containing high levels of aluminium.
Mr. Freeman : I refer the hon. Member to my replies to the right hon. Member for Stoke on Trent, South (Mr. Ashley) and the hon. Member for Glasgow, Provan (Mr. Wray) on 6 February at columns 491 and 501 respectively.
Listeria
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department has received any data on whether the use of microwave ovens for reheating cook-chill meals will eliminate listeria.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : The research projects listed by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in his reply to the hon. Member for South Shields (Dr. Clark) on 9 February 1989 at columns 780-81 include one on microwave ovens. The information obtained from these studies will be made available to my Department.
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the safe threshold of listeria in food consumed by a pregnant women.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : The 1988 World Health Organisation working group indicated that virtually nothing is known about the infectious dose of listeria monocytogenes in man, although it may be related to host susceptibility. Advice was given to pregnant women and other vulnerable groups last week about certain soft cheeses and other foods which may present a risk.
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the relationship between the increase in listeriosis and the consumption of cheeses over the most recent convenient period.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : Although it is most likely that listeriosis is a foodborne disease, the cause of most cases is as yet unknown. However, high numbers of listeria have been found in several varieties of soft cheeses, and a number of cases of listeriosis--both in this country and abroad--have been associated with eating heavily contaminated soft cheese. For this reason, the Government's chief medical officer has advised pregnant women and people recovering from serious illness to avoid eating soft cheese.
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he has received any report from the public health laboratory service on the incidence of listeria in pre-cooked chickens.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : At my Department's request, the public health laboratory service recently carried out a survey of the prevalence of listeria monocytogenes contamination in certain cooked chilled foods. This showed that 12 per cent. of the pre-cooked ready-to-eat poultry purchased from retail outlets contained listeria monocytogenes. Adequate reheating will destroy the organism.
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This was the basis of the advice given to pregnant women and other vulnerable groups on Friday 10 February that they should thoroughly reheat such foods. The recent survey was fully taken into account when that advice was issued. The latest survey does not indicate a degree of risk which would justify dietary advice to healthy adults who would be very unlikely to suffer adverse effects from the levels of contamination detected.I will be laying regulations under the Food Act to ensure better temperature controls in retail refrigerated units. We have been engaged in talks with the Ministry of Agriculture, manufacturers, retailers and caterers aimed at developing a code of practice and improving procedures in the handling of retail cooked poultry and chilled meals.
Mr. Kennedy : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases have been identified in the past 10 years of meningitis caused as a result of consuming United Kingdom-produced listeria-infected cheese.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : There has been one case of listeria meningitis in the past 10 years which was microbiologically associated with a United Kingdom-produced cheese. The cause of most cases of listeriosis remains unknown, although it is most likely that it is foodborne.
Mr. Churchill : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of listeria in the United Kingdom have been identified in the past 10 years as having been caused by cheese made from unpasteurised milk products produced (a) within the United Kingdom, (b) in France and (c) in any other country ; and if he will publish the scientific evidence available to him on the risk presented by such cheese.
Mr. Kenneth Clark : Two reported cases of listeriosis have been directly attributed to the consumption of cheese made from unpasteurised milk, one produced in the United Kingdom and one in France.
There has been a variety of published evidence indicating the risk associated with both unpasteurised and pasteurised soft cheeses. In particular, the "Report of the WHO Informal Working Group on Foodborne Listeriosis", Geneva 15-19 February 1988 and "Occurrence in the UK of Listeria specis in Raw Chicken and Soft Cheeses" published in the International Journal of Food Microbiology 1988 Vol. 6. However, as he indicated in his public statement on 10 February 1989, the Government's chief medical officer has recently been taking further expert advice on the risks.
Lead Pollution
Mr. Michael : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what evidence he has available of levels of lead pollution in the air in Cardiff over the last 10 years ; what trends have been reflected in measurements taken during the period ; what are the figures for other cities in the United Kingdom ; and what steps is he taking to reduce lead pollution in the atmosphere in Cardiff and elsewhere in England and Wales ;
(2) what information he has on the level of lead in the atmosphere which is considered acceptable in the urban environment and the level which is considered to be detrimental to the health of pedestrians and of the public at large.
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Mr. Freeman : I refer the hon. Member to the replies given to him today by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Environment.
Cheese
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance and control he has given during the last 12 months to assist port health authorities in their inspection of cheese imports for listeria contamination.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : In February 1988, port health authorities were asked to direct their monitoring of imported soft cheeses to those in which a problem had previously been identified.
Private Dental Treatment
Mr. Sean Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether income tax relief for those over 60 years will apply to payments made to private dental capitation schemes for dental patients.
Mr. Norman Lamont : I have been asked to reply.
The precise treatments that will be covered and the conditions which will apply are under consideration.
Salmonella
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he has any evidence of the incidence of (a) salmonella enteritidis and (b) any other strain of salmonella in (i) farmed salmon and (ii) other farmed fish ;
(2) what is the procedure for monitoring the produce of salmon farms to ensure its safety for human consumption.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke [holding answer 23 January 1989] : We are not aware of any evidence which shows that salmonella enteritidis, or any other strain of salmonella, has been isolated from farmed salmon or other farmed fish.
SCOTLAND
Interest Rates
70. Mr. Andrew Welsh : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the effect of interest rate levels on Scottish farmers.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : My right hon. and learned Friend is well aware of the concerns of Scottish farmers about interest rates. We estimate that interest payments by Scottish farmers in 1988 were only slightly higher than in 1987. What happens in 1989 will depend upon the course of interest rates and the level of farmers' indebtedness. The Government believe that, despite problems caused by short-term movements in interest rates, keeping inflation under control must remain our top priority since farming stands to benefit as much as other sectors of the economy from low inflation.
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