| Previous Section | Home Page |
Homelessness
Mr. Atkinson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much extra money will be available to Bournemouth borough council under his new proposals to tackle homelessness.
Mr. Michael Spicer : The extra £112 million resources for 1990- 91 which I announced recently will go to local authorities in London and the south-east where homelessness pressures, particularly the numbers in bed-and-breakfast accommodation, are greatest. Authorities outside this area, including Bournemouth, generally face less severe pressures of homelessness.
Wales (Official Visits)
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish the dates on which he has made an official visit to Wales since his appointment to his present post.
Mr. Chris Patten : Since my appointment to my present post I have made no official visit to Wales.
Column 867
Correspondence
Mr. Steen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for South Hams dated 26 March concerning the position regarding the community charge facing Mr. R. J. Bray of Dovedale, Brixham.
Mr. Chope : I will write to my hon. Friend shortly.
Mr. Pawsey : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he will reply to a letter from the hon. Member for Rugby and Kenilworth dated 23 January referring to Mr. George Chadwick of Rugby.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : I wrote to my hon. Friend on 6 April.
Caravan Sites (Bradford)
Mr. Madden : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information his Department gathered in the process of granting designation to the local authority on (a) the location of private caravan sites in Bradford, (b) by whom they are owned and managed, (c) who has applied to operate and manage additional private sites, (d) rentals being charged by private site owners and (e) rental charges levied by Bradford council at caravan sites owned by the council.
Mr. Chope : We are aware that there are two private gipsy caravan sites in the metropolitan district which can accommodate a total of 12 gipsy caravans and that the city council's policy will be to encourage provision of small-scale private sites. We have no detailed information on the operation of these sites or on rental charges levied by Bradford council at the caravan sites that it owns.
Expenditure (Rotherham)
Mr. Hardy : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) how he expects his decision on the new expenditure levels within the metropolitan borough of Rotherham will affect the work of this authority to promote the economic regeneration of the derelict or non-derelict areas of the borough ;
(2) if he will make it his policy to take steps to ensure that his recent decision to reduce the expenditure of the metropolitan borough of Rotherham will not affect the capacity of that authority or of the South Yorkshire hazardous waste unit to maintain supervision of the public and environmental needs of the area concerned ;
(3) what is his estimate of the cuts in expenditure in 1990-91 which will now have to be made by the metropolitan borough of Rotherham in the fields of education, social services, highway maintenance, amenities and recreation, museums and libraries, environmental health and in the accommodation and housing provision for the elderly and disabled.
Mr. Chope : Spending priorities within any lower overall budget will be a matter for the metropolitan borough of Rotherham ; as my right hon. Friend made clear to the House on 3 April, we are prepared to consider alternative proposals from Rotherham about the overall level of its budget.
Mr. Hardy : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his estimate of the costs which will
Column 868
have to be met by the metropolitan borough of Rotherham in enabling it to implement his decision that the community charge shall be reduced.Mr. Chope : As he informed the House on 3 April, my right hon. Friend estimates the costs of community charge capping will be about £200,000 per charging authority and that the total costs will be between £6 million and£7 million.
Hospital Incinerators
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment by what date all hospital incinerators are required to comply with the specifications contained in Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution waste management paper No. 25 on clinical waste.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : Department of the Environment waste management paper No. 25 is a technical memorandum providing general advice and guidance. Specific control of clinical waste incinerators with a capacity of more than one tonne per hour is exercised by Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution. The inspectorate is also currently drawing up specific guidance on standards for smaller incinerators which we propose to schedule for local authority air pollution control under the Environmental Protection Bill. This guidance will be published before any incinerator is scheduled for local authority control, and authorities will be obliged to have regard to it in setting standards in legally binding authorisations for individual hospital incinerators.
Bathing Water
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the definitions that have been used by his Department to define a bathing beach since the 1976 Bathing Waters Directive of the European Commission was issued ; and on what dates the definitions were changed.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : The definition of a bathing water is given in article 1(2)(a) of directive 76/160/EEC. Further advice on relevant criteria for assessing whether waters should be identified under the bathing water directive was given by the Commission of the European Communities in October 1985, in an answer given in the European Parliament.
Water Pollution
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish a revised version of table 3.5(a) in the 1989 Digest of Environmental Protection and Water Statistics which would show a nothing found category separately from the total number of water pollution incidents.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : Separately available figures for reported pollution incidents where nothing was found relate to the years 1986, 1987 and 1988 and are as follows :
|1986 |1987 |1988
------------------------------------------
Anglian |- |- |-
Northumbrian |- |53 |100
North West |579 |705 |798
Severn-Trent |- |- |-
Southern |147 |126 |227
South West |145 |327 |374
Thames |367 |745 |551
Welsh |- |- |522
Wessex |241 |243 |259
Yorkshire |278 |415 |441
England and Wales |1,757|2,614|3,272
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in the Official Report a revised version of table 3.5(b) in the 1989 Digest of Environmental Protection and Water Statistics, separately distinguishing for each category of pollution the nothing found column.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : The information requested is not available.
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will specify in the Official Report, what footnote 4 should be for the Welsh Water Authority in table 3.2, on page 27 of his Department's Digest of Environmental Protection and Water Statistics No. 12, 1989.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : The footnote which was inadvertantly omitted from table 3.2 of the "Digest of Environmental Protection and Water Statistics No. 12" referred to sewage treatment works in the Welsh Water area and should have been as follows :
"The majority of the works with numerical consents which were not tested for compliance are understood to be small works for which the authority are asking for descriptive consents."
Cleaning Services
Mr. Cousins : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how and by whom cleaning services are provided to Wellbar house, Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Mr. Chope : Cleaning services at Wellbar house are currently contracted to ISS Servisystem Ltd. and the City and Suburban Window Cleaning Company Ltd.
Mobile Homes
Mr. Paice : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what official research has been undertaken with local authorities' practices and policies with regard to mobile homes ; and what conclusions have been drawn.
Mr. Chope : The Department is currently engaged in research on the mobile homes sector including a postal survey of local authorities in England and Wales and physical and social studies of selected sites. We expect to have the full results of the research programme early next year.
Hedgerows
Mr. Colvin : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many miles of hedgerows have been removed and how many miles planted (a) since 1 January 1960 and (b) since 1979.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : Various estimates have been made for past periods but none covers precisely the periods to which my hon. Friend refers.
Column 870
A survey of landscape change in England and Wales carried out for my Department and the Countryside Commission in 1986 by Huntings Survey and Consultants Limited showed annual losses in England and Wales of some 2,600 miles of hedgerow between 1947 and 1969, 2,900 miles between 1969 and 1980, and 4,000 miles between 1980 and 1985. A postal survey of farmers on environmental topics carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1985 however showed annual losses of 500 miles between 1980 and 1985. The two surveys used different methodologies and neither can be regarded as definitive.Since 1973 grants have been available to farmers for planting of new hedgerows and for hedgerow laying. In the two years 1987 and 1988, grant was paid for the equivalent of almost 1,200 miles of new hedge planting.
Work is continuing to improve information both on the rate of removal and on the extent of new planting.
Mr. Colvin : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what discussions he has had, and with whom, on the introduction of landscape conservation orders as a means of preserving hedgerows.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : No such discussions have taken place.
Defective Housing, Nottingham
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assistance his Department is giving to Nottingham city council to rebuild those Tarran Newland design houses designated as defective in the Beechdale area of Nottingham.
Mr. Chope : Nottingham city council's housing investment programme allocation for 1990-91 took full account of the condition of the housing stock in its area. Where private owners of Tarran or Newland properties qualify for assistance by way of reinstatement an exchequer contribution of 90 per cent. is made.
Caravan Sites
Mrs. Maureen Hicks : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether gypsies living on official local authority sites are subject to the payment of individual community charges ; and whether those sites are classified as non-domestic premises.
Mr. Chope [holding answer 5 April 1990] : A caravan used as a sole or main residence is domestic property and its occupiers are liable to the personal community charge unless they are exempt. In general those parts of a caravan site consisting of non-domestic property are subject to business rates.
HEALTH
South Manchester Health Authority
Mr. Bradley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hospital beds have been available within the South Manchester health authority in each of the past 15 years.
Mr. Freeman : Information regarding the number of hospital beds available within the South Manchester health authority is given in the table.
Column 871
Average number of hospital beds available per day in South Manchester Year |Beds ----------------------- 1974 |2,387 1975 |2,342 1976 |2,409 1977 |2,390 1978 |2,454 1979 |2,407 1980 |2,423 1981 |2,389 1982 |2,401 1983 |2,417 1984 |2,355 1985 |2,277 <1>1986-87 |2,187 1987-88 |2,112 1988-89 |2,068 <1> Change in 1985 from calender to financial years.
Census Material
Mr. Andrew F. Bennett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions have taken place between officials of his Department or of the census office and the Post Office about use of postal codes in the publishing of census material.
Mr. Freeman : Officials of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys hold regular meetings with the Post Office to discuss the maintenance of OPCS's central postcode directory, which is used by Government Departments and the Health Service to allocate data already held on a post code basis to administrative areas. The use to be made of post codes in statistics to be published from the 1991 census has not yet been discussed in detail at these meetings, although agreement has existed since 1985 that aggregates of post codes could be used to define areas for census statistics.
Consultants (Merit Awards)
Mr. Corbyn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many consultants who served on regional consultants and specialist committees receive merit awards on their retirement ; and what percentage this is of all consultants serving on such committees.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : This information is not available centrally. The Government's White Paper "Working for Patients" proposes a number of reforms to the distinction awards system, including a proposal aimed at preventing awards being given close to retirement age. This is currently under discussion with the profession.
Children (Illegal Employment)
Mr. Dunnachie : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the latest official estimate of the number of children illegally employed in Great Britain ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Battle : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he intends to publish an official estimate of the number of children engaged in illegal employment in Great Britain ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he plans to publish official statistics on the number of children illegally employed in Great Britain ; and if he will make a statement.
Column 872
Mr. Martyn Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to publish official figures for the number of children illegally employed in Great Britain ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : I refer the hon. Members to the reply I gave the hon. Members for Glasgow, Pollock (Mr. Dunnachie) and for Sunderland, South (Mr. Mullin) on 9 March 1990 at columns 893-94.
Royal Colleges
Mr. Hood : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he next expects to meet the presidents of the royal colleges ; and what subjects will be discussed.
Mr. Norman Hogg : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he next expects to meet the presidents of the royal colleges ; and what subjects will be discussed.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Whilst no firm date has been set for the next meeting with the presidents of the royal colleges, the previous pattern of formal and informal meetings, either with individual presidents or collectively, is expected to continue, for discussing a range of important health issues.
British Medical Association
Mr. McAllion : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he next expects to meet the president of the British Medical Association ; and what he intends to discuss.
Mr. McAvoy : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he next expects to meet the president of the British Medical Association ; and what he intends to discuss.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : My right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State has no present plans to meet the president of the British Medical Association.
Fluoride
Mr. Shersby : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is his policy towards the use of fluoride as a means of arresting and preventing dental caries ; what evaluation he has made of its effectiveness as an agent ; and what measures he is adopting to ensure that it is available to population groups most at risk.
Mr. Freeman : The Government's view is that fluoridation of drinking water constitutes a safe and effective means of reducing tooth decay. Evidence of the efficacy of fluoridation in this country is well documented and recent studies confirm the view that further reductions in caries levels in children's teeth, over and above the general decline in caries which has occurred, are achievable through fluoridation of domestic water supplies. These benefits are particularly cost effective in areas where caries levels are otherwise high.
The Government believe it right that decisions on fluoridation should be taken at a local rather than national level. The Water (Fluoridation) Act 1985 imposes a statutory duty on district health authorities to engage in widespread public consultation before any decisions on the implementation of fluoridation schemes are taken. While it is our general view that we should support local initiatives, it is the task of the district health authority to weigh the advantages of fluoridation when deciding to ask water
Column 873
undertakers to fluoridate water supplies in the area. The final discretion whether to agree to fluoridation must, however, rest with water undertakers who need to be satisfied that the health authorities' proposals are technically feasible.Nurses
Mr. Win Griffiths : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will review the current levels of nurse staffing.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Responsibility for setting levels for nursing staff is a matter for individual health authorities, which determine those levels as part of the regular planning process, in the light of local needs and priorities and the available resources.
Heart Transplants
Mr. Paice : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many heart transplant operations have been conducted in (a) Harefield hospital and (b) Papworth hospital in each of the last 12 years.
Mr. Freeman : Available information from Harefield and Papworth hospitals, for the 11 years from 1979 to 1989, is shown in the table.
Harefield Papworth
|Heart |Heart/lung|Heart |Heart/lung
------------------------------------------------------------------
1979 |- |- |3 |-
1980 |14 |- |11 |-
1981 |13 |- |13 |-
1982 |21 |- |16 |-
1983 |34 |1 |19 |-
1984 |78 |7 |39 |3
1985 |87 |31 |44 |6
1986 |109 |42 |52 |10
1987 |140 |55 |58 |15
1988 |133 |69 |58 |22
1989 |131 |53 |53 |17
Mr. Paice : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients who have undergone heart transplant operations in the last 12 years have died either as a primary or secondary result of cytomegalavirus.
Mr. Freeman : The information requested is not collected centrally.
Junior Hospital Doctors
Mr. Paice : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of junior hospital doctors in the Eastern region worked rotas of one in three or worse during the years 1987, 1988, 1989 and estimated for 1990.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The information is not available in the form requested. We do, however, have a report from the East Anglian regional health authority on the results of our June 1988 initiative on junior doctors' hours. Some 40 per cent. of junior doctors in the region were on one in three rotas or worse in 1988. By September 1990, some 24 per cent. of junior doctors are expected to be on onerous one in three rotas or worse. This compares with an expected national total of around 13 per cent. on such rotas by that date.
Allergies
Mr. Paice : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research projects financed by his Department are being carried out into allergies.
Column 874
Mr. Freeman : None. I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, East (Mr. Atkinson) on 3 April 1990, at column 519.
Christie Hospital
Mr. Bradley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of the costs of providing treatment at Christie hospital will flow back to Christie hospital from those districts which purchase care from Christie hospital in circumstances in which Christie remains (a) a directly managed hospital or (b) a National Health Service trust.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : It is intended that contracts between purchasing authorities and hospitals, whether directly managed or under trust status, will cover the full costs of treatment.
Haemophiliacs
Sir Michael McNair-Wilson : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many haemophiliac victims of HIV contaminated factor VIII have died from AIDS ; and how many have died since November 1989.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The total number of haemophiliacs with AIDS who have died up to the end of February 1990 is 118. Of that figure 11 have died since November 1989. It is not known how many died as a result of AIDS or from any other cause.
Sir Michael McNair-Wilson : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many writs from haemophiliac victims of HIV-contaminated factor VIII have been filed against his Department, regional health authorities and the Committee on Safety of Medicines ; and how many were received (a) by 31 December 1989 and (b) since 1 January 1990.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Health authorities are separately represented and the Department does not routinely receive information on the number of writs issued against them. I understand that 928 writs have been filed against the Department and Committee on Safety of Medicines, of which around 650 were received by 31 December 1989.
Cosmetics
Mr. Matthew Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he has made an assessment of the health implications in respect of the clearance given for use as additives in cosmetics of (a) silver nitrate, (b) ammonia and (c) aluminium-based substances ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Freeman : No separate assessment has been made. Certain substances used in cosmetics are controlled by the Cosmetic Products (Safety) Regulations 1989 (SI 1989 No. 2233) which implements European Council directive 76/768/EEC as amended by EEC directive 82/368/EEC and subsequent Commission directives. The regulations detail substances that are either not permitted in cosmetics or are permitted subject to specified restrictions. Colouring agents other than those used solely to colour hair, preservatives and UV filters are not permitted unless listed in the schedules to the regulations. Advice on the safety in use of substances used in cosmetics is provided by the EEC Scientific Committee on Cosmetology.
Column 875
Silver nitrate, ammonia and aluminium based substances are allowed in cosmetics only up to specified limits and the products must be labelled as containing these substances. They are listed in schedule 2, part I of the regulations as "substances which cosmetics must not contain except subject to the restrictions laid down."Mr. Matthew Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he has made an assessment of the implications for human health of the clearance given to additives for use in cosmetics which are banned for use as additives in food products.
Mr. Freeman : Exposure to substances approved for use in cosmetics, that is those substances covered by the EEC cosmetics directives, is not comparable to exposure to approved food additives which are invariably ingested. Both are approved only after careful assessment of the health implications. If the hon. Member has any particular substance in mind perhaps he would let me know the details.
Mr. Matthew Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will outline his Department's responsibilities in respect of the safety of cosmetic products.
Mr. Freeman : The Department of Health provides advice to the Department of Trade and Industry on all matters pertaining to the safety assessment of cosmetics. Also a toxocologist from the Department is a member of the EEC's Scientific Committee on Cosmetology, established under the terms of the cosmetics directives to advise on the toxicity of cosmetic ingredients and products.
Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research
Mr. Key : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he next plans to meet the director of the centre for applied microbiology and research at Porton Down ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Freeman : We have no immediate plans to do so. However, officials both of the Department, and of the public health laboratory service of which the centre forms a part, are in regular contact with the director.
Correspondence
Ms. Harman : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will now answer the letter to him from the hon. Member for Peckham of 26 March about community care services in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.
Mr. Freeman : I replied yesterday.
NHS Trusts
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will give details about the consultation which will precede the establishment of self-governing trusts ; and if he will give (a) when consultations will begin, (b) how long they will last for, (c) who will be involved, (d) how they will be monitored and (e) where the results will be published.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Applications for NHS trust status will not be invited until after parliamentary approval of the necessary legislation. The relevant region
Column 876
will publicise the proposals and make arrangements for consultation. It will be for regions to determine how best to do this. However, in general we would expect consultation to last for a period of three months. We expect regions to seek the views of those with an interest, particularly the health authorities concerned, staff at the unit, general practitioners, community health councils and the local community. Regions will forward applications, responses received during consultation, and any comments they may have on them to my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State so that he can consider them with the application. If my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State decides to approve an application he will make an order to establish the trust.AIDS
Mr. Cousins : to ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list (a) the number of HIV-positive persons, (b) the number of AIDS patients and (c) the number of deaths from AIDS in each year and in total to the latest available date both for the United Kingdom and for each National Health Service region since the AIDS epidemic began ; and if he will show (i) the numbers of haemophiliacs so affected and (ii) the numbers of non-haemophiliacs so affected as a consequence of infected blood products.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley [holding answer 4 April 1990] : The tables showing the information reported to the communicable disease surveillance centre and the communicable diseases (Scotland) unit have been placed in the Library. Numbers below 10 in tables showing AIDS data are represented by an asterisk in line with the procedure followed in reports under the AIDS (Control) Act, to safeguard confidentiality.
| Next Section
| Home Page |