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Mr. Kenneth Clarke : The internal review is being conducted by a team consisting of three officials in the Department and a member of the inspectorate. Their grades are as follows :
Assistant Secretary--DES team leader
Staff Inspector--HMI
Higher Executive Officer (Development)--DES
Personal Secretary--DES
Following normal practice, I do not intend to disclose the names of individual officials who are preparing advice for Ministers.
Mr. Straw : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Blackburn on 8 May 1991, at column 469, whether, under any new arrangements for the inspection of the education service, it is his intention that the head of Her Majesty's inspectorate of schools should continue to publish annual reports independent of, and unamended by, Ministers.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : I would expect any inspectorate to be free to publish annual reports independent of and unamended by Ministers. I am looking to the review to offer advice on this and any other related matter if the team wishes but I have no complaints about the present arrangements for HMI so far as reporting is concerned.
Government Scientists
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what involvement Government-employed scientists have had with the system for the analysis research and training programme operated by the international geosphere-biosphere programme of the International Council of Scientific Users.
Mr. Alan Howarth : No Government-employed scientist has been involved with the international geosphere-biosphere programme global change system analysis research and training (START) initiative, but a member of staff of the Natural Environment Research Council attended, in a personal capacity, the workshop in Bellagio, Italy at which the main objectives and the proposed implementation strategy of START were established.
HEALTH
Cancer
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish a table indicating the death rate from cancer for the United Kingdom and for each of the other members of the European Community.
Mr. Dorrell : A table listing death rates from malignant neoplasms, all ages for members of the European Community follows. The most recent data available for Spain is 1985, and for Belgium 1986. Data for 1987 are the
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latest available for all other members, with the exception of the United Kingdom, which is 1989. 1987 data for the United Kingdom are however also provided for comparison purposes.
Deaths from Malignant Neoplasms
Country |Year |Rate per
|1000 population
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spain<1> |1985 |1.72
Belgium<2> |1986 |2.24
Denmark<1> |1987 |2.87
Federal Republic of Germany<1> |1987 |2.73
France<1> |1987 |2.43
Greece<1> |1987 |1.86
Ireland<1> |1987 |1.95
Italy<1> |1987 |2.44
Luxemborg<1> |1987 |2.76
Netherlands<1> |1987 |2.39
Portugal<1> |1987 |1.64
United Kingdom<3> |1987 |2.80
United Kingdom<3> |1989 |2.51
<1> Source: Eurostat.
<2> Source: WHO Statistics Annual.
<3> Source: OPCS.
NHS Trusts
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations he has had from City hospital, Nottingham regarding NHS trust status ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : An application for NHS trust status from April 1992 has been received from the City hospital, Nottingham and is currently the subject of a three-month public consultation exercise conducted by Trent regional health authority.
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations has he had from University hospital, Queens medical centre, Nottingham regarding NHS trust status ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The University hospital, Queens medical centre, Nottingham expressed an interest in becoming an NHS trust from 1 April 1992. The unit subsequently decided to defer its application.
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on his policy on answering written parliamentary questions relating to NHS hospital trusts.
Mr. Waldegrave : I refer the hon. Member to the reply my right hon. and learned Friend the then Secretary of State gave the hon. Member for Rochdale (Sir C. Smith) on 30 October 1990 at column 445.
Low Income
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will consider extending the valid period of certificates issued under the health benefits low-income scheme from six to 12 months ; (2) if he will introduce a formal right of appeal for late claims for refunds of costs incurred for dental, optical and prescription charges.
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer, Official Report , 22 May, column 530 , if he will make a statement on the remit of the review of the health benefits low income scheme.
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Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The review of the low income scheme will be wide-ranging. It will examine all aspects of the administration of the NHS low income scheme, particularly the amount of information intending claimants are asked to provide, the adequacy of existing forms, leaflets and publicity, and current procedures for assessing entitlement under the scheme. In addition, we shall examine current exemption arrangements, including the present six-month period for which certificates are valid, the time limits for obtaining refunds for charges incurred and the scope for improving existing review arrangements.As my earlier reply made clear we aim to produce proposals for change by the end of 1991.
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department has conducted to establish that glasses are available at a cost not exceeding the full value of vouchers issued under the low income scheme.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The Department undertakes surveys each autumn to monitor the effectiveness of the voucher scheme.
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has received on the health benefits low income scheme ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has recently received a report from the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NACAB) concerning the NHS low income scheme. This detailed report is most welcome and particularly timely in light of the Department's review of this scheme. As the review is taken forward officials will be discussing with NACAB the issues and recommendations which they have made.
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will extend the period during which a person may apply for a refund of dental and optical charges under the health benefits low income scheme ;
(2) if his review of the health benefits low income scheme will examine the cost-effectiveness of replacing the health benefits low income scheme by transferring the costs to the national insurance contribution scheme.
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to improve the provision of leaflets and claim forms for the health benefits low income scheme in languages other than English.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Present arrangements already allow for refunds of most dental and optical charges to be made up to one month after payment of the charge and beyond that time if there is good cause for the claim being delayed. The review of the NHS low income scheme will provide a fresh opportunity for the question of time limits for refunds to be reconsidered.
Government policy on NHS charges are based primarily on the principle that those who can afford to
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make a contribution should do so, whilst those who have difficulty in paying the charges should be protected. There are no plans to change this policy.The provision of leaflets in languages other than English will be considered as part of a more general examination of the low income forms and leaflets.
Correspondence
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will now reply to the letter sent to his Department on 9 April by the hon. Member for Gower regarding a constituent resident in Mumbles, Swansea.
Mr. Dorrell : My noble Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State replied yesterday.
HIV
Dame Jill Knight : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what response he has given to inquiries from legal representatives of patients who have been infected with HIV through national health service blood transfusions.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : I have placed in the Library a copy of a reply which I have sent to Mr. Graham Ross of J. Keith Park and Co.
General Practitioners
Rev. Martin Smyth : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many general practitioners in Great Britain bought added years (old style) pension rights in 1975 ; how many of those general practitioners were under 43 years old in 1972 ; what were the figures for general practitioners aged under 44 years in steps of £500 based on average updated earnings to October 1972 ; and how many of the general practitioners are still paying for the added years.
Mr. Dorrell : In England and Wales, approximately 30,000 general medical and dental practitioners took advantage of the NHS pension schemes (old style) added years provisions. The majority of these have since retired with benefits from the scheme.
Further information is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. Information about parallel schemes in Northern Ireland and Scotland is a matter for my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland and for Scotland.
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to issue guidance to general practitioner fundholders on how they should respond to inquiries from hon. Members representing their area on matters of policy ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Dorrell : There are no plans to do so. If an hon. Member has a concern about the activities of a GP fundholder I would suggest he raises it with the relevant family health services authority.
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Rabies
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list incidents of rabies in humans recorded in Britain in each year since 1970.
Mr. Dorrell : Cases reported were as follows :
|Number
---------------------
1975 |2
1976 |1
1977 |2
1978 |1
1981 |1
1986 |1
1987 |1
1988 |2
No cases were reported in the remaining 13 years between 1970 and 1990 inclusive.
Health Benefits Scheme
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what obligation there is on opticians and dentists to provide information and advice on claiming under the health benefits low income scheme.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The National Health Service (General Ophthalmic Services) Regulations 1986 require opticians to display prominently a notice showing possible entitlement to vouchers under the low income scheme. Dentists are required by their terms of service (set out in the National Health Service (General Dental Services) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 1990) to display prominently a notice, indicating NHS charges which are payable under general dental services and entitlement to exemption from and remission of NHS charges.
Mobility Needs
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment has been made of the mobility needs of adults with arthritic and rheumatic diseases.
Mr. Dorrell : It is a matter for health authorities to assess the need for health care of their resident populations including help with mobility, and to make appropriate provision. Individual assessment is a matter for clinical judgment. Mobility allowance is also available, from the Department of Social Security, to assist with long-range mobility needs.
Local Authority Service Provision
Mr. Rowe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health in what areas of local authority service provision for which he has responsibility payments are required to be made to individuals who are not employees (a) in the form of a grant or one-off payment and (b) on receipt of paid invoices.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : There is no requirement on local authorities to make any such payments.
Private Ambulance Services
Dr. Kim Howells : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what conditions govern the issuing of operative licences to the proprietors of private ambulance services ;
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(2) if the applicants for licences to operate private ambulance services are vetted for details of previous criminal convictions.Mr. Dorrell : Private ambulance services are not subject to any vetting or licensing procedures.
Preventive Health Care
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he plans to include sections on maternal, child and mental health in the imminent Green Paper on preventive health care.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The health of pregnant women, infants and children and mental health, together with suggested objectives and targets, is discussed in the Green Paper "Health of the Nation" which my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State published on 4 June.
Social Services
Mr. Alan Williams : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what provision his Department has made to each county for social services (a) in 1991-92 and (b) the previous year.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Provision for the main part of personal social services revenue expenditure is determined through standard spending assessments. Figures for the English counties for 1990-91 and 1991-92 are shown in the DOE standard spending assessment handbooks for 1990-91 and 1991-92 respectively, copies of which are in the Library.
Nuclear Accidents
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many copies of his departmental report No. 39 on nuclear accident countermeasures have been printed ; at what cost ; and to whom copies have been distributed.
Mr. Dorrell : A total of 1,500 copies of this report were printed. The costs of printing and publishing were borne by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, which I understand aims to recover them from sales revenue.
Copies have been distributed to : regional and district health authorities ; family health services authorities ; local authority county emergency planning officers ; members of the United Kingdom working group on stable iodine prophylaxis ; and Government Departments with responsibilities for nuclear emergency planning. A copy is also available in the Library.
Disability
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what percentage of adults is visually impaired ;
(2) what percentage of the population has impaired hearing ; (3) what percentage of disabled people is receiving 24-hour help.
Mr. Dorrell : Information on the prevalence of different types of disability, and such information as is available centrally about the proportion of disabled people who receive 24-hour help, is given in the reports published in 1988-89 in the survey of disability carried out by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. Copies are available in the Library.
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Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of adults are registered as disabled in Britain.
Mr. Dorrell : At 31 March 1990, approximately 3.2 per cent. of people aged 16 years and over were registered with local authority social services departments in England as being physically disabled. Equivalent figures relating to Wales and Scotland are a matter for my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Wales and Scotland.
Residential Care
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will increase the number of residential care places in Britain.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Decisions about the amount of residential care provision required for people seeking public financial support must be based on the assessment by each social services authority of the needs of the population it serves.
Moves made under our community care policy towards increasing the amount and range of day and domiciliary services enable a greater proportion of people to remain in their own homes.
Social Work
Mr. Orme : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many social worker posts remained unfilled in local authorities in England and Wales on the most recent date for which figures are available.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : This information is not collected centrally. Estimates of the number of full-time vacancies among field workers will be included in the "Social Services Employment Survey", due to be published shortly by the Association of Directors of Social Services and the Local Government Management Board, a copy of which will be placed in the Library.
Mr. Orme : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information he has on the number of cases referred to local authority social services in England and Wales that remained unallocated on the most recent date for which figures are available.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : This information is not available centrally.
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WALES
Waste Disposal
Mr. Livsey : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will indicate the projected investment costs forecast to be incurred in 1991-92 and 1992-93 for landfill sites by each listed waste disposal authority in Wales.
Mr. Nicholas Bennett : This information is not available centrally. This is a matter for the waste disposal authorities.
Teachers
Mr. Livsey : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the number of women head teachers in each local education authority in Wales in (a) primary schools in 1985 and 1990 and (b) secondary schools in 1985 and 1990.
Sir Wyn Roberts : The information requested is given in the following table :
(a) Primary Schools
|1984-85|1990-91
----------------------------------------
Clwyd |80 |77
Dyfed |114 |133
Gwent |110 |112
Gwynedd |42 |48
Mid Glamorgan |139 |153
Powys |33 |37
South Glamorgan |74 |75
West Glamorgan |64 |65
|-- |--
Wales |656 |700
|1984-85|1990-91
Clwyd |0 |2
Dyfed |0 |0
Gwent |1 |4
Gwynedd |1 |1
Mid Glamorgan |3 |4
Powys |0 |0
South Glamorgan |2 |4
West Glamorgan |2 |1
|-- |--
Wales |9 |16
(b) Secondary Schools
1984-85 1990-91
Clwyd 0 2
Dyfed 0 0
Gwent 1 4
Gwynedd 1 1
Mid Glamorgan 3 4
Powys 0 0
South Glamorgan 2 4
West Glamorgan 2 1
Wales 9 16
Mr. Livsey : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will state the amount of capital invested on landfill sites in Wales by each waste disposal authority in Wales since 1985.
Mr. Nicholas Bennett : Information on capital invested on landfill sites is not available centrally. However, the figures for capital spending on refuse disposal, which includes landfill, are given in the table.
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Gross capital expenditure on refuse disposal 1984-85 to 1989-90<1>
District |1984-85 |1985-86 |1986-87 |1987-88 |1988-89 |1989-90
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alyn and Deeside |71 |41 |33 |73 |81 |51
Colwyn |26 |38 |69 |2 |8 |0
Delyn |0 |0 |154 |341 |24 |5
Glyndwr |33 |16 |3 |64 |99 |83
Rhuddlan |46 |68 |0 |22 |28 |37
Wrexham Maelor |197 |170 |0 |100 |225 |116
Carmarthen |123 |14 |83 |25 |18 |31
Ceredigion |12 |29 |77 |57 |163 |315
Dinefwr |18 |25 |5 |0 |1 |53
Llanelli |9 |37 |24 |51 |52 |31
Preseli Pembrokeshire |217 |404 |36 |20 |21 |36
South Pembrokeshire |82 |38 |125 |95 |28 |0
Blaenau Gwent |95 |71 |91 |155 |11 |10
Islwyn |45 |56 |106 |24 |0 |43
Monmouth |218 |47 |201 |47 |44 |55
Newport |33 |129 |65 |184 |83 |615
Torfaen |86 |17 |0 |0 |0 |0
Aberconwy |40 |0 |0 |0 |0 |0
Arfon |48 |164 |6 |4 |10 |9
Dwyfor |287 |1,052 |426 |68 |30 |32
Meirionnydd |59 |0 |73 |24 |109 |53
Ynys Mon |48 |727 |769 |402 |197 |38
Cynon Valley |94 |38 |26 |228 |90 |50
Merthyr Tydfil |0 |1 |105 |127 |1 |11
Ogwr |0 |44 |0 |16 |0 |0
Rhondda |71 |1,284 |2,365 |525 |192 |124
Rhymney Valley |56 |64 |132 |178 |344 |90
Taff-Ely |1 |73 |112 |205 |241 |577
Brecknock |21 |77 |15 |16 |32 |0
Montgomeryshire |7 |38 |47 |34 |84 |187
Radnorshire |67 |18 |9 |9 |90 |162
Cardiff |187 |399 |729 |166 |173 |65
Vale of Glamorgan |36 |17 |43 |4 |21 |0
Lliw Valley |15 |33 |32 |37 |13 |22
Neath |48 |152 |160 |170 |161 |74
Port Talbot |0 |11 |0 |0 |0 |0
Swansea |186 |259 |372 |474 |258 |490
|------- |------- |------- |------- |------- |-------
Total Wales |2,581 |5,650 |6,492 |3,947 |2,932 |3,465
<1> Capital outturn returns were revised in 1986-87 and hence data for previous
years are not strictly comparable.
Disability
Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the organisations representing disabled people in Wales which have contacted his Department ; and on how many occasions since 1987 he has met each such organisation.
Mr. Nicholas Bennett : The Welsh Office maintains close contact with the major all-Wales organisations representing people with physical or sensory disabilities or mental handicaps.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales and his ministerial colleagues meet such organisations from time to time. For example, my right hon. Friend formally opened the new regional headquarters of the Spastics Society in Cardiff on 16 January this year ; and in June last year, my predecessor formally opened the new offices of the Wales Council for the Deaf.
Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what information he has on the number of disabled people in Wales, by category ; and if he will publish his latest estimate.
Mr. Nicholas Bennett : The latest available wide-ranging information on the incidence of physical and sensory disability is contained in the reports of the OPCS surveys published in 1988-89. These showed that 16.4 per cent. of adults and 3.1 per cent. of children in Wales have such disabilities, the proportions in the upper severity categories 6 to 10 being 6 per cent. of adults (the highest in the United Kingdom) and 2 per cent. of children (equal highest in the United Kingdom).
The latest available figures show that in 1989-90 there were 10,406 people in Wales known to have serious mental handicaps.
Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what policies he has initiated since 1987 to assist people with disabilities in Wales.
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