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Caribbean
100. Mr. Butler : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the current level of assistance given to islands in the Caribbean.
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Mrs. Chalker : We provide assistance both bilaterally and through multilateral institutions. Bilateral aid in 1988 (the latest year for which figures are yet available) was :
|Country |£'000s
|programmes<1>|Commonwealth
|Development
|Corporation
-------------------------------------------------------------
Anguilla |1,599 |-
Antigua |1,164 |-
Barbados |505 |-
British Virgin
Islands |511 |2,200
Cayman Islands |- |1,600
Cuba |2 |-
Dominica |1,973 |-
Dominican Republic |114 |-
Grenada |1,225 |-
Haiti |9 |-
Jamaica |5,367 |-
Montserrat |2,286 |-
St. Kitts/Nevis |2,095 |-
St. Lucia |808 |2,040
St. Vincent |869 |-
Trinidad |146 |-
Turks and Caicos
Islands |4,233 |-
<1> There is also a regional technical co-operation
allocation of about £2 million a year from which all the
developing Commonwealth countries in the Caribbean region
benefit, but it is not possible to attribute specific
amounts to individual recipients.
We also provide disaster relief when the need arises. In 1988, we committed £3 million to Jamaica, following Hurricane Gilbert, of which £348,000 was spent in 1988.
It is also possible to calculate the share of multilateral aid attributable to the United Kingdom. In 1987 (the latest year for which the calculation can be made) the total was £15.540 million, of which £9.9 million was through the European Community.
Eastern Europe
101. Mr. Matthew Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether any aid planned for eastern Europe will come from the overseas development budget.
Mrs. Chalker : The expenditure on aid for eastern Europe for which we have sought parliamentary approval in main estimates is additional to the official United Kingdom aid programme.
Rain Forests
102. Mr. Tom Clarke : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what percentages of Overseas Development Administration funds intended to help protect tropical rain forests, including and excluding funding for the Oxford Forestry Institute, are to be channelled through the tropical forestry action plan.
Mrs. Chalker : The tropical forestry action plan is not a fund or organisation to which donors contribute funds. It is a mechanism under which recipient countries review their forestry sectors and donors can co- ordinate assistance. Of the 51 bilateral projects currently under consideration for funding from the further £100 million for tropical forestry announced by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister last November, 19 are in the context of national forestry action plans. Some of the future projects which come forward for funding from the £100 million will
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also be so. Most of the support we give the Oxford Forestry Institute is for research, outside the context of national forestry action plans.EDUCATION AND SCIENCE
Learning Difficulties
Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will ensure that CATE criteria include a provision for professional studies of the needs of pupils with specific learning difficulties in reading and writing.
Mr. Alan Howarth : The Government's revised criteria for the accreditation of initial teacher training courses, which are set out in DES circular 24/89, include a requirement that the educational and professional studies of all students should develop in them the capacity to identify pupils with special educational needs or with learning difficulties and to understand the ways in which the potential of such pupils can be developed.
Universities (London)
Mr. Beith : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what assessment he has made of the additional financial problems facing universities within the London area.
Mr. Jackson : This is a matter for the Universities Funding Council and for the universities concerned.
Mr. Beith : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether in its bid to his Department as part of the 1990-91 Public Expenditure Survey Committee round, the Universities Funding Council supported the case for an additional £10 million per annum for universities in London facing exceptional costs because of their locations ; and whether such a sum was included in the Universities Funding Council allocation for 1990-91 and identified as such.
Mr. Jackson : In line with long-established practice, advice from the Universities Funding Council on aggregate funding levels is confidential. It is entirely for the council to allocate its share of the 1989 public expenditure settlement between universities. Parliamentary sanction would be required under the Education Reform Act 1988 before my right hon. Friend could direct the council's action in relation to a particular university.
In-service Training
Mr. Win Griffiths : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will publish for each local authority area the number of teachers in each of the last three years who have undertaken in-service training and other courses of professional development (a) during school hours and (b) after school, at weekends and during school holidays.
Mr. Alan Howarth : This information is not collected centrally. However, the Department does collect data on volumes of training for which release is or is not required, expressed as training days. I will reply as soon as possible.
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Education Expenditure
Sir Michael McNair-Wilson : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what was the total expenditure in education in the years 1978-79 and in 1988-89 ; and if he will give the relevant figures for higher education.
Mr. Jackson : Total DES expenditure on education and science (covering schools, further education, polytechnics and colleges of higher education in England, universities in Great Britain, and the science budget for the United Kingdom) in the years in question was as follows :
£ million 1978-79 |1988-89 (outturn) |(estimate) --------------------------------- 7,754 |18,412
Within these totals, DES expenditure on higher education (covering grants to universities in Great Britain, funding for local authority higher education in England, expenditure on mandatory awards for undergraduates in England and Wales and postgraduate awards) in the years in question was as follows :
£ million 1978-79 |1988-89 (outturn) |(estimate) --------------------------------- 1,668 |3,891
Teachers
Mr. Straw : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) if he will now publish the final report of the university of Bath study on teacher shortage initiatives referred to by the right hon. Member for Mole Valley (Mr. Baker), Official Report, 22 February 1989, column 634 ;
(2) if, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Blackburn, Official Report, 26 March, column 31, he will publish in full the evidence received and the results of his Department's survey of bursary holders referred to in his answer.
Mr. MacGregor : Yes. I shall place a copy of the report in the Library.
Exchange Programmes
Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the outcome of the first scientific support and exchange (stimulation) programme of the European Communities ; and what progress has been made in developing a successor programme to SCIENCE within the European Communities and European Free Trade Association member states.
Mr. Jackson : Overall, 417 projects were financed under the first EC stimulation programme (1985-88) linking 1,257 laboratories all over Europe and involving 3,721 researchers (counted on a full-time equivalent basis). The successor to the first stimulation programme, SCIENCE (1988-92), is already operating successfully in the European Community. Agreements to include Austria, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland in the SCIENCE programme are at present under discussion.
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Student Awards
Mr. Win Griffiths : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many undergraduate students in each local authority area received discretionary awards ;
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and what percentage they formed of all undergraduates in receipt of awards in the last year for which figures are available.Mr. Jackson [holding answer 30 March 1990] : The information requested is as follows :
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|c|England and Wales-1987-88|c|
|Mandatory and |HE discretionary|Percentage in
|HE discretionary|award-holders<1>|receipt of an
|award-holders<1> |HE discretionary
|award
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local Education Authority
Barking |343 |36 |10
Barnet |4,023 |204 |5
Bexley |1,303 |50 |4
Brent |2,811 |185 |7
Bromley |3,115 |164 |5
Croydon |3,071 |128 |4
Ealing |2,713 |247 |9
Enfield |2,137 |19 |1
Haringey |1,923 |132 |7
Harrow |2,539 |106 |4
Havering |1,198 |67 |6
Hillingdon |1,590 |83 |5
Hounslow |1,625 |45 |3
Kingston-Upon-Thames |1,438 |83 |6
Merton |1,631 |63 |4
Newham |1,164 |83 |7
Redbridge |1,878 |75 |4
Richmond-Upon-Thames |2,082 |119 |6
Sutton |1,385 |27 |2
Waltham Forest |1,169 |84 |7
ILEA |22,908 |6,033 |26
Birmingham |7,327 |368 |5
Coventry |2,586 |143 |6
Dudley |1,941 |47 |2
Sandwell |1,368 |110 |8
Solihull |2,208 |94 |4
Walsall |1,825 |83 |5
Wolverhampton |1,941 |82 |4
Knowsley |800 |26 |3
Liverpool |3,580 |126 |4
St. Helens |1,444 |47 |3
Sefton |3,462 |99 |3
Wirral |3,523 |13 |0
Bolton |2,361 |137 |6
Bury |1,870 |133 |7
Manchester |3,035 |259 |9
Oldham |1,437 |36 |3
Rochdale |1,394 |42 |3
Salford |1,242 |92 |7
Stockport |3,448 |200 |6
Tameside |1,221 |69 |6
Trafford |2,763 |130 |5
Wigan |2,256 |159 |7
Barnsley |1,260 |39 |3
Doncaster |1,924 |101 |5
Rotherham |1,667 |51 |3
Sheffield |3,864 |305 |8
Bradford |3,412 |518 |15
Calderdale |1,388 |78 |6
Kirklees |3,201 |392 |12
Leeds |5,198 |237 |5
Wakefield |1,878 |77 |4
Gateshead |1,147 |38 |3
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne |2,132 |122 |6
North Tyneside |1,516 |79 |5
South Tyneside |1,028 |64 |6
Sunderland |1,803 |126 |7
Isles of Scilly |28 |1 |4
Avon |8,377 |734 |9
Bedfordshire |4,170 |339 |8
Berkshire |7,127 |214 |3
Buckinghamshire |6,865 |235 |3
Cambridgeshire |5,263 |189 |4
Cheshire |10,186 |414 |4
Cleveland |4,458 |249 |6
Cornwall |3,547 |151 |4
Cumbria |3,567 |97 |3
Derbyshire |6,410 |209 |3
Devon |7,917 |505 |6
Dorset |4,745 |289 |6
Durham |3,916 |175 |4
East Sussex |5,302 |196 |4
Essex |10,374 |500 |5
Gloucestershire |4,921 |304 |6
Hampshire |13,970 |1,909 |14
Hereford and Worcester |5,501 |413 |8
Hertfordshire |10,352 |589 |6
Humberside |6,125 |502 |8
Isle of Wight |856 |49 |6
Kent |12,102 |793 |7
Lancashire |13,528 |1,098 |8
Leicestershire |7,411 |312 |4
Lincolnshire |4,298 |52 |1
Norfolk |4,628 |539 |12
North Yorkshire |7,616 |328 |4
Northamptonshire |3,582 |218 |6
Nothumberland |2,543 |153 |6
Nottinghamshire |6,723 |476 |7
Oxfordshire |5,517 |226 |4
Shropshire |3,443 |146 |4
Somerset |3,582 |165 |5
Staffordshire |8,065 |622 |8
Suffolk |4,064 |215 |5
Surrey |12,356 |562 |5
Warwickshire |6,894 |158 |2
West Sussex |5,808 |247 |4
Wiltshire |4,273 |254 |6
Clwyd |3,508 |102 |3
Dyfed |3,756 |510 |14
Gwent |3,819 |268 |7
Gwynedd |2,782 |25 |1
Mid-Glamorgan |3,438 |4 |0
Powys |1,040 |52 |5
South Glamorgan |4,357 |400 |9
West Glamorgan |3,529 |310 |9
England and Wales |423,135 |29,253 |7
<1>Excludes award-holders on postgraduate courses.
History Teaching
Mr. Janner : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science when he intends to publish the final report of the national curriculum working party on history ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Straw : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) when he first received the draft of the final report of the history working party ;
(2) when he first received the final report of the history working party ;
(3) on what dates in the last year he has met Commander Saunders-Watson, chairman of the history working party ;
(4) when he expects to publish the final report of the history working party.
Mrs. Rumbold [pursuant to her reply 28 March 1990, c. 184] : The final report of the national curriculum history working group will be published tomorrow, Tuesday 3 April. Copies of the report will be placed in the Library.
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HEALTH
Food Poisoning
Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will identify the general locations of the food poisoning outbreaks occurring in 1989 in which the food vehicle was suspected to be mayonnaise made with fresh shell eggs.
Mr. Freeman : The three outbreaks of food poisoning in 1989 in which mayonnaise made from fresh shell eggs was suspected to be the cause occurred within the boundaries of the Trent, Oxford and Wessex health regions.
Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what criteria his Department uses to assess whether an outbreak of food poisoning has been caused by eggs ;
(2) what distinction his Department draws between the phrases "associated with" and "caused by" in relation to food poisoning.
Mr. Freeman : The evidence linking eggs and salmonella infection in man is based on many different kinds of
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information. There is no absolute distinction between the phrases "caused by" and "associated with" ; both include these different kinds of information. I also refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Honiton (Sir P. Emery) on 14 March at column 281.Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he has issued any specific guidance to caterers who use raw shell eggs for the production of mayonnaise as to how to prevent the multiplication of salmonella or other organisms.
Mr. Freeman : I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave her on 9 March at column 896. The Department asked chief environmental health officers to advise caterers in a letter of 2 September 1988.
Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many laboratory confirmed cases of salmonella food poisoning were reported by the communicable disease surveillance centre in the weeks ended 23 February, 2 March and 9 March ; if he will show in tabular form how many were salmonella typhimurium, salmonella virchow and salmonella enteritidis ; and of the enteritidis figures how many were phase type 4.
Mr. Freeman : The information is as follows :
Week ending
|23 February|2 March |9 March
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Salmonellas total |208 |175 |77
Salmonella typhimurium |33 |48 |19
Salmonella virchow |6 |3 |1
Salmonella enteritidis |130 |88 |46
Phase type 4 |99 |67 |33
Any weekly reporting system will inevitably be subject to short-term anomalies. I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave her on 9 March at columns 895-96. A local postal strike has resulted in fewer reports being received by PHLS communicable disease surveillance centre in recent weeks. This has now ended and coming weeks may therefore show spuriously high totals.
Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the food poisoning outbreak associated with coleslaw made with commercial mayonnaise at a golf club in the north-west, referred to in the memorandum submitted by the public health laboratory service to the Agriculture Committee, first report, Session 1988-89, HC 108, arose from the use of mayonnaise which had been made with pasteurised eggs.
Mr. Freeman : Coleslaw made using commercial mayonnaise was reported to the PHLS communicable disease surveillance centre as a suspected vehicle of infection in this outbreak. No further information as to the type, or manufacture, of the mayonnaise is available.
Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many Crown premises have been associated or involved with food poisoning in each of the last five years in which eggs or egg products have been identified or suspected of being vehicles of infection.
Mr. Freeman : The outbreaks formally reported to the PHLS communicable disease surveillance centre as having occurred in Crown premises in the past five years, where eggs or egg containing food were suspected vehicles of infection are as follows :
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|Number
---------------------
1985 |0
1986 |1
1987 |0
1988 |4
1989 |2
Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many food premises and National Health Service hospitals have been prosecuted or are under consideration for prosecution under the Food Act 1981 or the Food Hygiene (General) Regulations 1970 for offences relating to outbreaks of food poisoning in which eggs or egg products were identified or suspected of being vehicles of infection.
Mr. Freeman : This information is not held centrally for commercial food premises. We are not aware of any prosecutions or proposed prosecutions against NHS hospitals in relation to food poisoning involving eggs or egg products.
Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is his assessment of the balance between the incidence of food poisoning caused by eggs and by egg products.
Mr. Freeman : In the context of outbreaks, the balance between the incidence of food poisoning caused by eggs, or by egg products or egg containing foods, is overwhelmingly in the direction of egg containing foods. This is because the only egg dishes which are normally free of other components are single cooked eggs such as a boiled egg, and a boiled egg is, by its nature, unlikely to cause an outbreak, because it is normally eaten by only one person. A study of sporadic cases of infection with S. enteritidis PT4 (BMJ 1989 ; 299 : 771-3) has shown an association between illness and eating egg dishes lightly rather than well cooked, and with other egg products. Without such a study most cases of sporadic food poisoning cannot be linked to a particular food vehicle with any confidence. Consequently there are insufficient data in sporadic cases to assess the overall balance of risk between eggs and egg products.
Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he has any plans to ask the chief medical officer to withdraw his warning on eggs.
Mr. Freeman : The chief medical officer continues to keep under review all circumstances and evidence relevant to his current advice on the consumption of eggs.
Mr. Alex Carlile : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the risk to humans of contracting salmonella from eating cooked salmonella-infected hens ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Freeman : Birds from laying flocks which are infected with salmonella and are to be disposed of under special licence and controlled conditions will be slaughtered and sent to processing plants which use an industrial heat treatment process which achieves the temperatures necessary for the destruction of salmonella. Providing poultry is cooked thoroughly and subsequently is handled hygienically there is minimal risk to health. I also refer the hon. and learned Member to the reply that I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Billericay (Mrs. Gorman) on 9 March at column 896.
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Registered Homes Act 1984
Sir Richard Body : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he will introduce legislation to extend the provisions of the Registered Homes Act 1984 to all caring establishments irrespective of size and establishment.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : We intend to seek a legislative opportunity to bring homes with fewer than four residents under statutory control.
HIV
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he has any plans to enact policies to prevent discrimination against carriers of HIV.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : As the Government's response to the Social Services Committee (Cm 925) made clear, one part of our strategy on HIV infection and AIDS is :
"Through a range of measures to foster a climate of understanding and compassion, to discourage discrimination, and to safeguard confidentiality, within the wider context of public health requirements."
We believe these objectives will best be achieved by educating and informing people, and not by adding to existing legislation.
Bathing Waters (Pollution)
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what evidence is available to his Department that differs from that included in the 10th report of the Royal Commission on environmental pollution regarding the health risks posed by bathing in grossly polluted bathing waters ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Freeman : There is no evidence to dispute the conclusion of this report that the risk of contracting serious illness from bathing in the sea off the United Kingdom appears to be extremely small. Research outside the United Kingdom has reported a small risk of contracting minor illnesses such as gastro-enteritis and skin complaints, but gives conflicting reports of which sewage indicator organisms give the best correlation with illness. We wish to be better informed about the position of minor illnesses in United Kingdom waters and the Department of the Environment has already carried out a pilot study to test the proposed methodologies.
Hepatitis E
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether there have been any cases in England whereby hepatitis E has been contracted from faecally infected drinking water.
Mr. Freeman : The information requested is not available because there is, as yet, no diagnostic test for hepatitis E virus, though one is under development in the United States of America.
NHS Trusts
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Health on what grounds a formal application for National Health Service trust status will not be approved by his Department.
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Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : No units will apply for NHS trust status until Parliament has approved the necessary legislation. Each application will be considered by my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State on an individual basis in the light of local circumstances, following consultation by the region.
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many of the Health Service units listed in his Department's press release 89/471 have now indicated that they do not wish to proceed with a first wave application for National Health Service trust status.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : As my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State indicated in press release 89/471, formal applications for NHS trust status will not be invited until Parliament has given approval to the necessary legislation. It will be only at this stage that the number of units applying for trust status in April 1991 will be known.
I understand that five of the original 79 units intending to prepare draft applications for NHS trust status in 1991 have indicated that they may wish to develop their application over a longer time scale. However, I also understand that a number of other units have since indicated that they may prepare draft applications for trust status in 1991.
Waiting Lists
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will give the waiting lists for each district health authority, SHA and regional health authority for 30 September 1989.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : I am arranging for these summaries to be published in the next couple of weeks. Copies will be placed in the Library.
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health with what frequency waiting list information is collected ; and if he will consider publishing the regional and national totals on a quarterly basis.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : I refer the hon. Member to the reply that I gave him on 8 March at column 828 . We intend to continue the practice of routine twice-yearly publication of waiting list information so as to maintain a consistent series of statistics, without incurring unnecessary expense.
Manpower Statistics
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects to be able to give the figures published in section III (manpower) of the health and personal social services statistics for 1988.
Mr. Freeman : The information will be published in full in this year's edition of health and personal social services statistics, which is expected to be available in August.
Menopause
Mr. Alex Carlile : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he proposes to make resources available to organisations which specialise in helping women overcome the trauma of menopause ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : We already provide funds under the section 64 scheme to two voluntary
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organisations, Women's Health Concern and the Amarant Trust, which specialise in offering advice to women who are undergoing the menopause.Health Authority Membership
Mr. Battle : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the membership of the 14 regional health authorities and details of the members' role, as under part I of schedule 5 to the National Health Service Act 1977.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Details of the membership of regional health authorities have been placed in the Library.
Members of regional health authorities are appointed by my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State to help him discharge his duties to promote a comprehensive health service. Broadly, the role of members is to guide the work of their authority's chief officers, and help them to determine regional policies within the constraints of national policies and priorities.
Private Nursing Homes
Mr. John Evans : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish his Department's guidelines on the transfer of the infirm from National Health Service care to the private sector with special reference to the procedure to ensure that a person's medical needs are met.
Mr. Freeman : Circular HC(89)5 which was issued to health authorities in February 1989, together with a booklet "Discharge of Patients from Hospital" emphasised that proper arrangements should be made for any necessary continuing care before patients are discharged from hospital. A copy has been placed in the Library.
Mr. John Evans : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations he has received about the problem of the premature removal of old people from private nursing homes on the instructions of owners, in circumstances where such individuals have been accepted by the owners and then a decision by the owners taken subsequently that the home could not cope with a person's medical needs ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Freeman : None. The primary role of a nursing home is to meet the nursing needs of its residents and the person responsible for the home has a duty to ensure that sufficient and suitable services are provided.
Health authorities inspect each home at least twice a year to ensure that the conditions of registration are being met. But inevitably some patients will deteriorate to a point where they need the level of medical care that can be provided only in a hospital.
Abortion
Sir Michael McNair-Wilson : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of the foetuses aborted during 1988-89 showed signs of handicap or disability.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : This information is not collected centrally, but in 1988, the latest full year for which figures are available, 1,797 abortions were performed in which the ground of substantial risk of the child being born seriously handicapped was mentioned by the certifying medical practitioners. The provisional equivalent figure for the first six months of 1989 is 818.
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