| Previous Section | Home Page |
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : For reasons of commercial confidentiality, it is not usual practice to disclose information about whether or not an application for a product licence has been received or to give information about the progress of any such application.
Cook-Chill Food
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will make public the full report of his Department's audit inquiry into the financial arrangements relating to Wakefield district health authority's cook-chill system of catering ;
(2) when he expects his Department's director of audit to complete the audit of Wakefield district health authority's revenue and capital expenditure on the introduction of a cook-chill catering system.
Mr. Freeman : The director of audit expects the preliminary statutory audit visit to Wakefield district health authority, at which the cook-chill catering system is to be reviewed, to be completed in early April 1990.
We do not intend to make public any report that may be made by the Department's statutory auditor.
Wakefield DHA
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will require a report from the chairman of Wakefield district health authority as to the reasons for and full cost of the recent meeting held by him, the authority's district general manager and commercial manager with Tillery Valley Foods in south Wales.
Mr. Freeman : This is a local issue for the health authority concerned. The hon. Member may wish to contact the chairman of Wakefield health authority, Mr. Hayward, for further information.
Column 824
Nurses (Training)
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many nurses have received (a) basic training and (b) post-graduate training in the private sector in (i) 1980, (ii) 1987, (iii) 1988 and (iv) 1989.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : This information is not collected centrally.
In 1989 representatives from the English National Board, the Department of Health and the independent sector established a working group to identify the extent of the sector's input to
pre-registration and post-registration nurse training ; and to agree action to increase this input consistent with its demand for staff. The working group should report by the summer.
Preliminary findings by the group are that the independent sector does make a contribution to post-registration nurse training, placing some 200 nurses a year on about 23 different approved courses. In addition, at any one time, around 200 pre-registration NHS nurses are undergoing a short (anything from one to 12 weeks) placement in an independent hospital, generally free of charge.
Most training takes place in the National Health Service.
Hospital Waiting Lists
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how often hospital waiting lists are collected ; and if he will publish them.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Information about hospital in-patient waiting lists is collected quarterly from health authorities. Booklets summarising the information and bulletins commenting on trends are published for the March and September quarters, maintaining a series of comparable figures back to September 1975.
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if the hospital in-patient waiting lists for 30 September 1989 will be published within six months of the collection date.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : We plan to publish the waiting list statistics by early April.
Patients (Treatment)
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the number of in-patients treated immediately by referral and not recorded as waiting for treatment, and give this as a percentage figure of all patients treated.
Mr. Freeman : The information readily available indicates that in 1987-88 some 3 million (54 per cent.) of all acute admissions were not recorded as already waiting for in-patient treatment.
Agency Staff
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will give the amount spent on (a) agency nurses and (b) agency clerical and administrative staff for the latest available year for each district health authority, special health authority and regional health authority and England as a whole.
Column 825
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : I shall let the hon. Member have such information as is available as soon as possible.Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will give the amount spent on agency staff for 1983, 1987, and the latest available year.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The information is derived from the summarised annual accounts of regional and district health authorities in Engand together with those of the special health authorities for the London postgraduate teaching hospitals :
Total revenue expenditure on
non-national health service (agency,
etc.) staff
Year |£000 (cash)
------------------------------------
1983-84 |59,822
1987-88 |211,436
<1>1988-89 |252,167
<1> Latest available.
Notes:
1. The figures for 1987-88 and
1988-89 excludes £2.4 million and
£2.9 million respectively being
similar costs charged to capital
expenditure and which were not
specifically identified in the
accounts for earlier years.
2. The figure for 1983-84 includes
a minor element from the
administrative expenses of family
practitioner committees (FPCs)
which is not separately
identifiable but is excluded from
the figures for the more recent
years.
As a result of various initiatives achieved or pending including : nurse clinical grading and improved London allowances ; administrative and clinical local pay flexibility ; flexible grading in scientific and professional staff groups and local pay flexibility for other staff groups the amount spent on agency staff should reduce in future.
The expenditure remains predominately in the Thames regions, which together with the London postgraduate SHAs accounted for some 76 per cent. of the national total (£252 million).
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will give the numbers of agency nurses used on the latest date for which figures are available and on comparable dates for the two preceding years.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The information is as follows :
Number of agency nursing
and midwifery staff (
whole-time
equivalent) in England
|Number
---------------------------
30 September
1988 |6,240
30 September
1987 |6,130
30 September
1986 |5,450
Health and Social Service Statistics
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish, for the latest available year, the figures given in table 3.1 of "Health and Personal Social Services Statistics, 1989".
Mr. Freeman : The information requested is shown in the table :
Column 826
Health and personal social services manpower summary<1>
England
|Unit |As at 30
|September
|1988
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Health service staff and practitioners,
and local authority social services
staff: Total |1,077,894
Health service staff and practitioners:
Total |842,090
Directly employed staff: Total |Wte |793,391
Medical and dental staff<1>: Total |44,749
Hospital medical and dental staff:
Total |Wte |40,643
Medical staff |37,559
Medical locum staff |1,852
Dental staff |1,183
Dental locum staff |48
Community health service medical and
dental staff: Total |Wte |4,106
Medical staff |2,789
Medical locum staff |45
Dental staff |1,262
Dental locum staff |10
Nursing and midwifery staff: Total |Wte |403,883
Nursing staff: Total |Wte |380,265
Administrative staff |2,601
Centrally based services |1,854
Blood transfusion service |1,145
Hospital staff |330,669
Primary health care services<2> |37,295
Health visitor students |786
Agency nursing staff |5,915
Midwifery staff: Total |Wte |23,618
Administrative staff |198
Hospital staff |18,993
Community health services |4,106
Agency midwives |321
Professional and technical staff
(excluding works): Total |Wte |79,775
Health authorities staff |78,203
Other statutory authorities staff |1,572
Works professional staff: Total |Wte |5,323
Health authorities staff |5,301
Other statutory authorities staff |22
Maintenance staff (building and
engineering): Total |Wte |17,331
Health authorities staff |17,224
Other statutory authorities staff |107
Administrative and clerical staff<3>: Total |Wte |115,951
Health authorities staff |112,312
Other statutory authorities staff |3,639
Ambulance officers and control
assistants |Wte |2,980
Ambulancemen/women |15,781
Ancillary staff: Total |Wte |107,618
Health authorities staff |107,051
Other statutory authorities staff |567
Family practitioner committee service:
Practitioners: Total |No. |48,699
General medical practitioners: Total<4> |No. |27,419
Unrestricted principals |25,322
Restricted principals |159
Assistants |253
Trainees |1,685
General dental practitioners: Total |No. |15,070
Principals |14,840
Assistants |230
Ophthalmic medical pratitioners<5> |No. |832
Ophthalmic opticians |5,378
Local authority social services staff: Total |Wte |235,804
Senior directing, managing,
professional and advisory staff |5,846
Field social work staff |27,867
Other headquarters, area office and
field staff |21,903
Home help service staff |59,968
Day care staff for adults |18,481
Day care staff for children |9,526
Residential care staff for adults |70,346
Residential care staff for children |18,292
Other staff |3,575
Note: Headquarters, blood transfusion centre and mass radiography unit
staff are included in the group of staff to which they relate eg
"Medical".
<1> Includes all full time, part-time, honorary, locum and agency locum
staff, but excludes medical practitioners participating in hospital staff
funds and occasional sessional staff in community health services.
<2> Includes District nurse students.
<3> Exludes ambulance officers and includes general managers.
<4> At 1 October.
<5> At 31 December. Dispensing opticians FPC contracts terminated 30 June
1986.
<6> All figures are provisional.
Hepatitis B
Mr. Nellist : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how he seeks to ensure that no member of the hepatitis B high risk group, as defined by the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation, or their family, is denied vaccination ; and if he will make a statement ;
(2) if he will institute a Government information and monitoring programme on hepatitis B and add hepatitis B to the screening study currently in progress on the incidence of AIDS and HIV ; and if he will make a statement ;
(3) whether the Health Education Authority has any plans to conduct an education campaign on hepatitis B targeted at specific groups and their families as well as prescribing physicians ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Freeman : The Health Education Authority is currently reviewing all its publications on sexually transmitted diseases, including information on hepatitis B.
Viral hepatitis B is a notifiable disease and the public health laboratory service continues to monitor its incidence. The Department does not believe additional monitoring or screening procedures are required. Reported cases to the PHLS for the last five years for which figures are available are shown in the table :
Acute hepatitis B; laboratory reports 1985-89 Year |Reported cases --------------------------------------------- 1985 |1,785 1986 |1,329 1987 |785 1988 |644 1989 |<1>608 <1> Figure provisional. Note: Acute hepatitis B reported from laboratories in England, Wales and Ireland includes all illnesses with or without jaundice, diagnosed as acute hepatitis and confirmed as type B by positive hepatitis B surface antigen tests or other serological markers of current or recent infection.
These figures show a welcome decline in the incidence of the disease.
A new edition of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation's memorandum, "Immunisation against Infectious Disease", to be issued shortly, will remind doctors of the high risk groups. However, the responsibility for ensuring vaccination is for occupational health services and for individual doctors, as appropriate.
Census
Mr. Hayes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will publish the proposed forms of questionnaire which people will be required to complete in next year's census of the population.
Mr. Freeman : I have today laid before the House the Census Regulations 1990, which include reduced-size facsimilies of each of the census forms to be completed by the public in England and Wales. The regulations provide for the detailed arrangements necessary for the conduct of the census.
Corresponding Census (Scotland) Regulations 1990 have been laid before the House today by my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland.
Cancer and Leukaemia
Mr. Beggs : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the incidence of cancer and leukaemia confirmed in children in Great Britain.
Mr. Freeman [holding answer 5 March 1990] : The data cover the years 1980-85, later data for Great Britain as a whole not yet being available.
Number of cases of (a) all malignant
neoplasms<1> (b) leukaemia<2>
ages 0-14 years, Great Britain, 1980-85
(a) All malignan(b) Leukaemia
neoplasms
Year |Males |Females|Males |Females
------------------------------------------------
1980 |666 |515 |204 |161
1981 |640 |553 |208 |183
1982 |625 |502 |204 |173
1983 |681 |525 |241 |188
1984 |670 |549 |217 |181
<3>1985 |619 |472 |197 |152
<1> Assigned to the International
Classification of Diseases (ICD) 9th revision
codes 140-208.
<1> Assigned to the 9th revision ICD codes
204-208.
<3> Provisional.
Mr. O'Brien : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many people in the area of the Pontefract health authority have been diagnosed or treated for cancer or cancer-related diseases including leukaemia over the past five years ; and if he will make a statement ;
Column 829
(2) how many people in the area of the Wakefield health authority have been diagnosed or treated for cancer or cancer-related diseases including leukaemia over the past five years ; and if he will make a statement.Mr. Freeman [holding answer 5 March 1990] : The exact information requested is not available.
The Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) publishes annual cancer statistics using data collected by the 11 regional cancer registries and the Welsh cancer registry. Data concerning newly diagnosed cases of (a) malignant neoplasms and (b) leukaemias for Pontefract and Wakefield district health authorities (DHAs) are shown in the table, which covers the years 1982 (when DHAs were established) to 1985 (the latest year available) :
Newly diagnosed cases of (a) malignant neoplasms<1> and (b)
leukaemias<2> in Pontefract and Wakefield DHAs 1982-85
Wakefield DHA Pontefract DHA
Year |Malignant |Leukaemias|Malignant |Leukaemias
|neoplasms |neoplasms
------------------------------------------------------------------
1982 |571 |4 |660 |12
1983 |535 |7 |621 |16
1984 |509 |9 |695 |8
1985<3> |503 |11 |693 |6
<1> International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 9th revision
codes 140-208.
<2> International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 9th revision
codes 204-208.
<3> Provisional data.
SOCIAL SECURITY
Pensions
Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many persons have benefited from a home responsibilities protection for retirement pension since 1978.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : I regret that information is not available in the form requested. Records are not kept of the number of persons whose awards of retirement pension had periods of home
responsibilities protection taken into account.
Mr. O'Brien : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will end the transitional payments scheme to people on pensions ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : We have no plans to do so.
I refer the hon. Member to my reply to him on this subject on 12 February at column 89.
Benefits
Mr. Battle : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what specific financial efficiency and quality of service targets he has approved for (a) contributory national insurance benefits, (b) non- contributory national insurance benefits, (c) means-tested benefits and (d) the social fund.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : In a statement to the House on 17 May 1989, my right hon. Friend the former Secretary of State announced the publication of a definition of the service to be provided to the public and said that the definition would be backed up by specific targets for performance.
Column 830
Subsequent to the statement on 17 May, national performance targets for the years 1989-90 to 1991-92, in terms of clearance times in working days (unless otherwise indicated) and percentage error rates, were lodged in the Library.Targets for 1990-91 to 1992-93 are currently being reviewed. There are no specific financial efficiency targets for individual benefits at present.
Administration Costs
Mr. Battle : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the unit cost of administering (a) contributory national insurance benefits, (b) non-contributory national insurance benefits, (c) means- tested benefits and (d) the social fund.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The latest information available is for the 1987-88 financial year. The unit cost of administering the following benefits in that year were :
|£
---------------------------------------------------------
(a) Contributory national insurance benefits |66
(b) Non-contributory non-income-related benefits |14
(c) Income-related benefits |111
The social fund was introduced in a limited way in 1987-88 for funeral and maternity payments only, but no separate figures are available--the costs for 1987-88 are included in the overall income related benefits figure.
The unit costs are calculated by dividing the estimated administrative costs of the benefits involved by the average number of beneficiaries.
Hostels
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what representations he has had from hon. Members regarding the effects on claimants of different levels of housing benefit payable to residents in Salvation Army hostels in Nottingham, Grimsby and Leeds ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : Hostel dwellers on income support became eligible for housing benefit from 9 October 1989. Since that date we have received a small number of representations about the level of housing benefit in Salvation Army hostels generally.
Benefit Payments (Part-weeks)
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make it his policy to pay, by direct payment, part-weeks of benefit (a) general and (b) where claimants are resident in hostels and are transient.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : Part-week deductions from benefit for direct payment to third parties would be administratively complex and are not generally warranted. However, part-week deductions are available for claimants in night shelters.
Claimants
Mr. Frank Field : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many young claimants have so far gained extensions of benefit in order to prevent severe hardship ; and how many who were pregnant.
Column 831
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The number of awards of income support to 16 and 17-year-olds on grounds of severe hardship for the period 12 September 1988 to 23 February 1990 is 16,206. Figures on the number of severe hardship directions made to those 16 and 17-year-olds who are pregnant have not been collected for this period. However, we are looking more closely at the situation of young pregnant girls.Mr. Wareing : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people depended entirely on state benefits for their income in each of the years 1978 to 1989 (a) nationally, (b) regionally and (c) in each local Department of Social Security area.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Hackney, South and Shoreditch (Mr. Sedgemore) on 5 March at column 520 .
Column 832
Benefit Changes
Mr. Frank Field : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if, in pursuance of the reply to the hon. Member for Birkenhead, Official Report, 20 February, column 675-76, he will detail the number affected by the changes to national insurance benefits over the 1981 to 1988 period and give the cash effect and the cash effect in 1988 prices for each of the changes during 1988 to 1990.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : As stated in my reply to the hon. Member of 20 February 1990, details of the numbers affected by changes prior to 1988 could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Details of the cash effect of the changes set out in the reply of 20 February are given in the table. All the changes were, in whole or in part, introduced part way through the year and details are therefore given for both the year of introduction and the year following.
Column 831
Cash-£ million
(1988-89 prices in brackets)
1988-89 1989-90 1990-91
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unemployment benefit abatement for occupational/personal pension reduced from
age 60 to 55 |-15 |(-15)|-63 |(-59)|- |(-)
Weekly earnings rule introduced for unemployment benefit
Unemployment benefit "full extent normal" rule-de minimis provision |- |(-) |-21 |(-20)|-49 |(-44)
"Actively seeking work" test for unemployment benefit
Abolition of pensioners' earnings rule |- |(-) |190 |(178)|375 |(334)
Widows: revised entitlement conditions for women widowed before April 1988 |- |(-) |<1>22|(21) |13 |(12)
<1> First year expenditure included payments of arrears from April 1988.
Employers' National Insurance Contributions
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, what is his estimate of the total which should be collected and which has been collected in employers' national insurance contributions for the latest five years for which figures are available ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The table shows the national insurance fund income expected from class 1 contributions (employees and employers schemes) compared with the contributions received from employers during the financial years from 1984-85 to 1988-89. The estimates were contained in the Government Actuary's reports which were laid before Parliament together with the draft Contributions Re-rating Orders for those years and exclude the SSP, SMP and abatement of contributions on SSP and SMP that employers were expected to recover from the Class 1 contributions they were due to remit.
(£ Thousands)
Year |Estimated
|income from |contributions
|class 1 |received from
|contributions|employers
--------------------------------------------------------
1984-85 |20,291,000 |21,380,595
1985-86 |22,687,000 |22,564,779
1986-87 |23,571,000 |24,254,179
1987-88 |25,577,000 |26,522,035
1988-89 |28,349,000 |29,759,614
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many visits by his Department's national
Column 832
insurance inspectors were planned to employers' premises in each of the last 10 years ; how many were made ; and if he will make a statement.Mrs. Gillian Shephard : National insurance inspectors conduct several thousand visits to employers each week to resolve inquiries and to investigate recording errors. In addition, inspectors conduct more searching visits in order to ensure compliance with social security legislation. Such visits are part of combined survey which, since 1986, has been undertaken in cooperation with Inland Revenue. No firm target was set for the overall number of visits because the time taken to complete them can vary widely but the expectation was to undertake around 100,000 each year. The actual number of these visits in each of the last three years was as follows :
Year |Number ------------------------ 1986-87 |103,630 1987-88 |92,034 1988-89 |80,568
Figures for comparable visits undertaken in earlier years are not readily available.
Social Security Spending
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what has been the expenditure change in real terms between 1979-80 and 1989-90 for each of the beneficiary groups in table 14.9 of the public expenditure White Paper ; and what is the total expenditure change on benefits in real terms during the same period.
Column 833
Mrs. Gillian Shephard [holding answer 5 March 1990] : The information is given in the table.Column 833
£ million
|1979-80 cash|1979-80 at |1989-90 |Percentage
|1989-90 |increase
|prices
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elderly people |10,130 |20,411 |25,550 |25
Sick and disabled people |2,780 |5,601 |9,520 |70
Family |3,570 |7,193 |9,200 |28
Unemployed people |1,470 |2,962 |4,740 |60
Widows and orphans |760 |1,531 |1,240 |-19
|---- |---- |---- |----
Total benefit expenditure |18,780 |37,837 |50,246 |33
Commercial Consultants
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if his Department observes a ceiling for charge-out rates for work commissioned from commercial consultants.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard [holding answer 5 March 1990] : The Department of Social Security does not observe a ceiling for charging-out rates for work commissioned from commercial consultants. The Department pays the appropriate commercial rate for the grade and quality of work to be undertaken.
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will give the total number of studies and reports commissioned from commercial consultants in each year 1978-79 to 1989-90, giving their total cost for each year.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard [holding answer 5 March 1990] : The total number of reports and studies on social security matters commisssioned from commercial consultants from 1986-87 onwards and their cost is in the table :
Year |Number of reports |Total cost of such
|and studies |work in that year
|commissioned |(£ million)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1986-87 |12 |0.620
1987-88 |15 |0.853
1988-89 |21 |1.372
1989-90 |40 |2.993
Records were not maintained in a form that enables information to be provided prior to 1986-87.
Expenditure up to and including the 1988-89 financial year has been from a joint health and social security budget. When the work involved both social security and health aspects the cost of the report or study has been apportioned accordingly.
Income Support
Mr. Frank Field : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many claimants aged under 18 years are claiming income support in their own right ; and if he will give details of each month's figures since the 1988 changes in entitlement.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : As indicated in my reply to the hon. Member for Birmingham., Ladywood (Ms. Short) on 26 October 1989 at col. 539-40 the total number of 16 and 17-year-olds claiming in their own right ceased to be collected after October 1988 and could now be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Column 834
Monthly figures are available on the number of awards of income support under the severe hardship provision. These are shown in table A.Our monitoring of the changes introduced in July 1989 gives monthly figures on the number of awards of income support to 16 and 17-year-olds other than under the severe hardship provisions. These are shown in table B.
Month ending |Awards made 31 July 1989 |645 31 August 1989 |1,012 30 September 1989 |1,008 31 October 1989 |910 30 November 1989 |753 31 December 1989 |566 31 January 1990 |868
AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD
Apples and Pears
14. Mr. Carrington : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the new arrangements made by apple and pear growers to organise research into their crops.
Mr. Curry : The new research body for apples and pears, the Apple and Pear Research Council, which came into being at the end of last year, has got off to an energetic start. It has already held an open meeting to which all
Column 835
growers were invited in order to ensure that growers' views are fully taken into account in assessing the council's research priorities.Farming (New Entrants)
15. Mr. Batiste : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what policies he is pursuing to encourage new entrants into farming.
23. Mr. Butler : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what actions he is taking to assist young farmers wishing to enter agriculture.
74. Miss Widdecombe : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he is taking to assist young farmers wishing to enter agriculture.
Mr. Gummer : My Department gives grants to young farmers under the farm and conservation grant regulations at rates 25 per cent. higher than for other farmers.
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
16. Mr. Morgan : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what new evidence he has on the vertical transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
| Next Section
| Home Page |