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Royal Marsden, Sutton
(The Hammersmith Hospital)
University College Hospital
Trent RHA
Lincoln County Hospital
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Derbyshire Royal InfirmaryLeicester Royal Infirmary
Royal Hallamshire Hospital
University Hospital Nottingham
Wessex RHA
Southampton General Hospital
Queen Alexandra's Hospital, Portsmouth
Poole General Hospital
West Midlands RHA
The Royal Hospital, Wolverhampton
North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary
Selly Oak Hospital
Yorkshire RHA
*Leeds General Infirmary
*Bradford Royal Infirmary
Hull Royal Infirmary
Wales-- Cardiff Royal Infirmary
Morriston Hospital
Ysbyty Gwynedd
Elderly People
Mr. Ieuan Wyn Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans his Department has to introduce a new code of practice for day and domiciliary care for elderly people.
Mr. Dorrell : There are no plans, at present, to publish such a code of practice. The need for central guidance will be considered as part of the development of the new community care arrangements.
Junior Doctors
Mr. Ieuan Wyn Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what financial resources will be made available to support the recommendations of the departmental working party on the hours worked by junior doctors.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : I am currently chairing a ministerial group on junior doctors' hours. The group, representing all key parties, aims to reach broad agreement in principle on specific changes before the end of the year. Resource implications are being discussed in the context of that agreement.
Disabled People
Mr. Hannam : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will list the local authority associations which have responded to his letter inviting costings estimates on sections 1 to 3 of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986 ; and if he will list those which gave detailed costings ; (2) what procedures have local authority associations identified as incurring costs under sections 1 and 2 of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986 ; and if he will list the estimated cost of each procedure ;
(3) what procedures have local authority associations identified as incurring costs under section 3 of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986 ; and if he will list the estimated cost of each procedure.
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health(1) whether advocates appointed under sections 1 and 2 of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986 will receive payment for their service ;
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(2) if he will make it his policy that a doctor's certificate which states that an individual is unable to appoint his own authorised representative under sections 1 and 2 of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986 will be issued free of charge.Mr. Dorrell : The Association of Metropolitan Authorities and the Association of County Councils have both responded in detail to our invitation to submit cost estimates for these sections. The associations have provisionally identified a number of areas as incurring extra costs, to an estimated annual total in England in excess of £20 million. This estimate includes some provision for payment from local authority funds to authorised representatives and to doctors providing medical opinions in some circumstances. It does not include any provision for increase in services in response to the extra demand which these sections would generate. Our discussions with the local authority associations are continuing.
Mr. Hannam : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on his visit to Cleveland social services department to view the pilot implementation of sections 1 to 3 of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986.
Mr. Dorrell : My hon. Friend the Minister for Health met representatives of Cleveland social services department on 3 October to discuss the pilot exercise. The meeting was a useful source of information on the potential practical implications which implementation of these sections would involve, and on the extent of the overlap which could arise between these provisions and those to be introduced as a result of the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990. We are giving further consideration to these aspects in the context of our on-going discussions with the local authority associations.
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he is taking in the light of the recommendations in the sixth and 11th reports of the Social Services Select Committee to implement sections 1 to 3 of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986 as soon as possible.
Mr. Dorrell : The Government will reply to the Select Committee's recommendations as soon as possible.
Child Abuse
Mr. Cox : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the reported number of child abuse cases in each of the 32 London boroughs in each of the last three years.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The number of reported cases of child abuse is not collected centrally. Information is collected centrally about the number of children and young persons on child protection registers and the number of names added to the register. This is published in "Children and Young Persons on Child Protection Registers for the year ending 31 March" and is available in the Library. Data for the year ended 31 March 1990 are provisional. Data for the year ended 31 March 1988 represent the results of a pilot survey.
Neurosciences (Transfer)
Mr. Peter Bottomley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the relationship between the increase in the cost of transferring
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neurosciences from the Brook hospital to the King's and Maudsley hospitals complex, the calculation involving the original cost of £27 million announced on 11 April 1989 by the then Minister of State and the present cost estimated at £50 million or more.Mr. Dorrell : When the scheme was first submitted to the Department for approval in 1987 the cost at national average building rates was estimated to be £27 million. This figure subsisted throughout the approval in principle stage for comparative purposes.
In April 1989 the estimated costs were £42.5 million taking account of the rise in national building costs since 1987 and the additional costs of building in London.
The most recent estimate is that the total cost, taking full account of inflation since 1989 and the additional costs of building in London, has risen to £50.5 million.
Residential Care
Mr. Steinberg : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of pensioners in Durham county and the United Kingdom live in sheltered housing and residential care.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Information is not available in the form requested.
In the local authority of Durham at 31 March 1989, 2.6 per cent. of the population aged 65 and over were in residential care accommodation, compared with 3.1 per cent. in England as a whole. Local authorities in England report annually the numbers of sheltered dwellings in their areas to the
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Department of the Environment. The latest figures, for April 1990, are available in the Library. I understand that there are no estimates of the proportion of pensioners who live in sheltered dwellings.
Residents aged 65 and over in residential accommodation in England
at 31 March 1989
|Durham |England
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homes for Elderly and Younger Physically Handicapped People |2,458 |232,336
All Homes |2,469 |235,703
Population aged 65 and over |93,201 |7,522,568
Mr. Steinberg : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many private registered homes, voluntary registered homes, and local authority homes for the elderly there were in (a) Durham county and (b) the United Kingdom in 1980, 1985 and for the latest available year ; how many places these provided and how many residents there were in each of these years.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The information available is given in the table. Data refer to homes catering primarily for people who are elderly or younger people who are physically handicapped. Data for these two groups were not collected separately for all of the years requested.
Information relating to Scotland is a matter for my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and information for Northern Ireland and Wales is a matter for my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland and for Wales.
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Number of homes, places and residents in residential homes
primarily for elderly people and younger people who are physically handicapped, by sector
Homes Places Residents
|Local |Voluntary|Private |Local |Voluntary|Private |Local |Voluntary|Private
|authority |authority |authority
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Durham
1980 |43 |2 |5 |1,745 |33 |113 |1,728 |30 |102
1985 |44 |4 |62 |1,842 |141 |217 |1,766 |114 |196
1989 |44 |6 |108 |1,829 |161 |1,026 |1,585 |144 |905
England
1980 |2,638 |1,107 |2,278 |114,103 |34,957 |35,764 |107,852 |30,665 |30,495
1985 |2,672 |1,108 |5,200 |116,080 |37,466 |80,041 |105,864 |31,423 |69,000
1989 |2,602 |1,068 |8,303 |109,194 |34,166 |135,369 |98,269 |30,663 |114,106
Influenza Vaccine
Dame Jill Knight : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure that general medical practitioners are aware that extra influenza vaccine has been made available to fulfil all needs of at risk patients.
Mr. Terry Davis : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department has obtained enough influenza vaccine to meet the demand from general practitioners ; and what arrangements are being made to publicise the availability of this vaccine.
Mr. Dorrell : A number of steps have been taken to ensure an adequate supply of influenza vaccine. Over 3,600,000 doses of vaccine were made available this autumn. The Department has also arranged for the manufacture of a further 1 million doses which will be available from this week, providing a total supply of 45 per cent. more than last year.
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The Department wrote to all family health services Authority general managers on 22 November informing them of the arrangements made to provide the further 1 million doses, a copy of which is available in the Library.Mentally Handicapped People
Mr. O'Brien : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will give details of the scheme to provide facilities for the relocation of mentally handicapped people in the community in the Normanton constituency, described in the Official Report, 16 October, column 1039.
Mr. Dorrell : The scheme in question is the Wakefield and Pontefract case management scheme. I suggest the hon. Member contacts Sir Bryan Askew, the chairman of the Yorkshire regional health authority, for further details.
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Smoked Salmon
Mr. Morley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to protect the trade in postal orders for smoked salmon which may be affected by the new regulations in the food Bill.
Mr. Dorrell : The Food Hygiene (Amendment) Regulations 1990 will require certain foods to be kept chilled unless the processing of the food or the method of packaging can be shown to prevent the growth of pathogenic micro-organisms at ambient temperature. Smoked fish is one of the relevant foods. Research is taking place to see how the industry can best adapt to the new regulations.
Sheep Dips
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research is currently being undertaken into the effect on human health of those exposed to organo-phosphorus sheep dips.
Mr. Forth : I have been asked to reply.
The Health and Safety Executive's south-west region is conducting a regional project on the risk from organo-phosphorus sheep dip. The study aims to develop information about the uptake of
organo-phosphorus and possibly other solvents and phenols by operators and bystanders in the sheep-dipping season and relate this information to symptoms reported in the farming community.
SOCIAL SECURITY
Income Support
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the current level of income support benefits received by (a) a single householder aged under 25 years, (b) a single householder with disabilities aged under 25 years, (c) a pensioner couple, (d) a pensioner couple with disabilities and (e) an unemployed man with dependent wife and two children aged five and 11 years ; and in each case what would they have received if the pre-April 1988 system of supplementary benefits were still operating.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The question is not sufficiently specific concerning the circumstances of each beneficiary to enable an assessment to be made of what benefit they might have been entitled to under the old scheme. In addition, it would not be possible to calculate the likely entitlement of these individuals today, had the old scheme stayed in place, since it is not possible to say how the scheme would have evolved in response to changing circumstances.
Mr. Madden : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is his estimate of (a) the effect on the future number of income support claimants of the proposal to reduce the definition of full-time work from 24 hours to 16 hours and (b) the number of existing claimants who would lose entitlement if there were no transitional protection ; and, in each case, if he will subdivide the figures into the childless, two-parent families and one-parent families.
‡ Mrs. Gillian Shephard : Many families who are working part time will be better off as a result of the reduction in
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the remunerative work from 24 hours to 16 hours, because they will become entitled to family credit. Some people who are currently claiming income support will also be encouraged to take up employment, and therefore transfer from income support to family credit. We will introduce protection for those claimants who need it at the point of change.The information requested is in the table.
------------------------------------------- Childless |nil |15,000 Couples with children |10,000|15,000 Lone parents |25,000|30,000 Source: Modelled using data drawn from the 1985-86-87 Family Expenditure Surveys. Note: The figures do not allow for the effects of the introduction of Disability Working Allowance.
PRIME MINISTER
European Energy Charter
Mr. Wray : To ask the Prime Minister whether Her Majesty's Government will actively support the proposal of President Delors and the Netherlands for a European energy charter for the whole of Europe.
The Prime Minister : We have supported the development of this initiative to date and expect to be able to do so in the future.
Cambodia
Mrs. Clwyd : To ask the Prime Minister how many letters, cards, messages and phone calls she has received concerning Cambodia since 8 October.
The Prime Minister : I have received over 1,000 representations concerning Cambodia.
Press Secretary
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Prime Minister by what authority her press secretary issued any briefings to the media in regard to her leadership campaign for the Conservative and Unionist party.
The Prime Minister : My press secretary has represented my interests as Prime Minister.
EDUCATION AND SCIENCE
Medical Research Council
16. Mr. Strang : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how much funding has been provided for the Medical Research Council in the current year.
Mr. Alan Howarth : Grant in aid to the council this financial year will total £185.7 million.
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Grammar Schools
17. Mr. Roger King : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many grammar schools there presently are in England and Wales.
Mr. Fallon : In January 1989 there were 150 grammar schools in the maintained sector in England. The provisional estimate for January 1990 is the same. Welsh schools are a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.
Education Administration Budgets
18. Mr. Jack : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps he is taking to ensure that children's education is not adversely affected by the size of a local authority's budget for education administration.
Mr. Fallon : My right hon. and learned Friend and I have made it clear that we are determined that LEAs should reduce the proportion of resources which they hold back for spending on central bureaucracies and other central services. We shall be publishing a draft circular next month which will consult on proposals to that end.
Bradford CTC
19. Mr. Cryer To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the total amount of grant aid in 1989 and 1990 for the city technology college in Bradford.
Mr. Eggar : Total grant aid to the Bradford CTC was £2.9 million in the 1989-90 financial year for management and capital costs. So far this financial year, costs, including running costs, total £4 million.
Education Policies
20. Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what representations he has received as to the impact of the Government's policies for education on the north and north-west of England.
Mr. Eggar : My right hon. and learned Friend receives such representations from time to time.
Student Loans Company
21. Mrs. Margaret Ewing : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what has been the total cost to date of establishing in Glasgow the headquarters of the Student Loans Company.
Mr. Alan Howarth : The Student Loans Company opened for business early in September. The total costs of establishing the student loans scheme to 31 August 1990 were £9.3 million, exclusive of VAT.
Stratford School, Newham
22. Mr. Tony Banks : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science on what grounds he approved the local management of schools application on behalf of Stratford school, Newham.
Mr. Eggar : I presume that the hon. Member means "grant-maintained status" and not "local management of
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schools". My right hon. Friend the then Secretary of State approved grant-maintained status for Stratford school because he judged that it was capable of providing cost-effectively for pupils aged 11 to 18, and that it was capable of maintaining and improving its performance under new management.Education Expenditure (London)
23. Mr. Fraser : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the current annual expenditure per child at (a) Sylvan city technology college and (b) local authority secondary schools in London.
Mr. Fallon : Funding for Sylvan city technology college has not yet been finalised, but the provisional annual per capita grant (APG) for 1990- 91 is some £2,845 per pupil. The annual school-based expenditure at local authority secondary schools in London in 1988-89, the latest year for which this information is available, was some £2,095 per pupil.
It should be noted that these figures are not comparable in coverage. The local authority figure excludes central local education authority spending on such items as home to school transport and central administration ; Sylvan's APG has to cover such items, and also includes an element to cover diseconomies of scale in the early years of operation. Sylvan CTC is also eligible for earmarked annual grant for particular purposes, in addition to its APG but not on a per capita basis.
Teacher Training
24. Mr. Harry Barnes : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many representations he has received in the current year concerning the funding of in-service teacher training.
Mr. Fallon : The Department receives many letters and other representations about in-service teacher training generally. This year we have had around 40 letters which have raised funding issues. These are in addition to the bids which LEAs have submitted for support for training under next year's grants for education support and training programme.
Nursery Education
25. Mr. Steinberg : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what plans he has to provide access to nursery education for children in every local education authority.
Mr. Eggar : The Government believe in a diversity of provision for the under-fives. Maintained nursery schools and classes are an important element within this diversity and the numbers of pupils attending them have increased by over 40 per cent. during the period of the present Government.
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