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Existing work title |Total costs
|£
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Screening for foot problems in patients with |58,798
diabetes
2. Hormone replacement therapy |79,814
3. Ultra sound screening in abdominal aortic |89,063
aneurism
4. Breast cancer screening |1,284,000
5. Laser technologies in medical care |91,530
6. New technologies in general practice |301,899
7, Percutaneous nucleotomy compared to lumbar |87,840
microdiscectomy in lumbar disc disease
8. Programme of work at Brunel University's |511,308
Health Economics Research Group
9. Support to Cancer Screening Evaluation Unit |<1>343,000
|<2>365,000
Planned work
Picture Archiving and Communication System |350,000
(PACS)
<1> 1990-91.
<2> 1991-92.
Part III Homes
Mr. Andrew Bowden : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on local authorities' continuing
responsibilities for (a) residents of local authority part III homes which are closed down, (b) former residents of part III homes which were transferred to the private or voluntary sector before 25 June and (c) former residents of part III homes which are transferred to the private or voluntary sector between 25 June and the date on which directions issued under section 21(1) of the National Assistance Act 1948 and paragraph 2 of schedule 8 to the National Health Service Act 1977 take effect.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Local authorities have, and will continue to have a statutory duty to provide residential accommodation for people in need of care and attention which is not otherwise available. This duty is not affected by any arrangements local authorities may make to transfer or close their residential care homes.
Where residential accommodation previously provided under part III of the National Assistance Act 1948 is transferred to the private or voluntary sector the extent of the local authorities' continuing responsibility for residents in these homes currently depends upon the terms on which the transfer was made. It is our intention that the status of people who are resident in homes which are transferred after the introduction of the proposed directions will remain unchanged by the transfer, in that
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the full cost of the accommodation and care will continue to be the responsibility of the local authority which placed them there, subject to the relevant charging provisions.Health Service Commissioner (Annual Report)
Mr. Butler : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects to receive the annual report of the Health Service Commissioner for 1990-91.
Mr. Waldegrave : The Health Service Commissioner has, as in previous years, made a report on the performance of his functions in England, Scotland and Wales.
My right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Secretary of State for Wales and I presented the report to the House on 28 June.
It was published on 2 July (HC536) and copies are available from the Vote Office.
OPCS Staff (Confidentiality)
Mr. Robert G. Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps have been taken to ensure that all staff in the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys are covered by the additional confidentiality provisions inserted into the Census Act 1920 by the Census (Confidentiality) Act 1991 ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Dorrell : The Registrar General for England and Wales has designated the office of director of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys for the purposes of section 8 of the Census Act 1920 as amended. The post of director of OPCS is the other office that the registrar general holds. Its designation has ensured that all staff who are or have been under his control, and all those people who provided or have provided services to him, are now bound by the confidentiality provisions of the Census Act 1920 as amended if they have access to any personal census data. This applies whether they work or have worked for him as registrar general or as director of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys.
Sleeping Rough
Mr. Simon Coombs : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people sleeping rough were counted in the 1991 census in England and Wales.
Mr. Dorrell : The Registrar General for England and Wales informs me that 2,703 people--1,275 in London and 1,428 elsewhere--were counted as sleeping rough on the night of 21 to 22 April 1991 at 444 sites which had been identified beforehand by voluntary organisations, local authorities, and churches. These sites, spread throughout the country, were visited by specially recruited enumerators, many of whom also worked for voluntary organisations. The count does not include those who spent census night in a hostel or shelter or some other form of accommodation, but who occasionally sleep rough ; nor does it include any people who slept rough on census night but not on identified sites. Some of these will have been counted as part of the normal enumeration.
The corresponding figures for sites in individual local authority areas will be published around the end of July in a census monitor. Final figures for local areas, including any people sleeping rough who were enumerated away
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from the identified sites, will be given in the series of county reports scheduled for publication between December 1991 and October 1992. Those reports will include information about the age and sex of people sleeping rough.Steroids
Mr. Harry Barnes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list, for each of the past four yearsfor which figures are available, the numbers of prosecutions brought by his Department against people claimed to be dealing illegally in anabolic steroids ; and at which level of the courts such cases were pursued.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The information requested is as follows :
Year |Prosecutions |Court ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1990 |One (7 charges) |Magistrates 1989 |Two (2 charges) |Magistrates 1989 |Two (10 charges) |Crown 1988 |Two (48 charges) |Crown 1987 |Three (3 charges)|Crown
Fluoridation
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the water authorities which have agreed to a request from a health authority to supply floridated water.
Mr. Dorrell : I refer the hon. Member to the replies I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge (Mr. Shersby) on 14 June at columns 721-22 and the hon. Member for Peckham (Ms. Harman) on 27 June at column 547.
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the health authorities in which (a) the whole and (b) part of the authority's population receives fluoridated water.
Mr. Dorrell : The latest information relates to 1988 when a survey of artificial fluoride levels in England was conducted by the British Fluoridation Society. Table 1 lists the district health authority areas where all the population received water artificially fluoridated to at least 0.9 ppm. Table 2 shows those districts where some of the population received water artificially fluoridated to that level.
Table 1. Districts where artificially fluoridated water at 0.9 ppm was received by all population in the district in 1988.
North West Durham
Gateshead
Newcastle
Bassetlaw
Sandwell
Walsall
Solihull
North Birmingham
East Birmingham
Central Birmingham
West Birmingham
South Birmingham
Table 2. Districts where artificially fluoridated water at 0.9 ppm was received by some of the population in the district in 1988. East Cumbria
West Cumbria
Durham
South West Durham
Northumberland
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North TynesideGrimsby
Scunthorpe
Huddersfield
Chester
Crewe
North Derbyshire
South Derbyshire
North Lincolnshire
South Lincolnshire
Central Nottingham
Doncaster
Dudley
Wolverhampton
Worcester
Bromsgrove and Redditch
North Warwickshire
South Warwickshire
Rugby
Coventry
Mid Staffordshire
East Staffordshire
Oxford
Wycombe
North Bedfordshire
South Bedfordshire
South West Hertfordshire
Regional Health Authorities
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish the details of the request by the national health service management executive to regional health authorities to lend money to two of the Thames regional health authorities.
Mr. Waldegrave : No. Details of the NHS management executive's discussions with regional NHS management are not normally published.
Hexachlorocyclomexanes
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of the implication for human health of hexachlorocyclomexanes ; and what exposure limits there are.
Mr. Dorrell : The Department has been advised by the Committee on Toxicity and the Committee on the Safety of Medicines and has taken account also of the advice of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides, the joint meeting on pesticide residues--JMPR--convened by the World Health Organisation, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
The only hexachlorocyclohexane currently available for use in approved products with insecticidal properties in the United Kingdom is the gamma isomer more commonly known as lindane. Little information is available, and no occupational exposure limits are set, for the other isomers. Exposure limits for pesticide residues in food are determined on the basis of the acceptable daily intake--ADI. The United Kingdom has accepted on health grounds, the ADI for lindane of 0 to 0.008 mg per kg of body weight set by the JMPR in 1989. Worker exposure levels set, by the Health and Safety Commission, are 0.5 mg per cu m of air for eight hours time weighted average--TWA--for long-term exposures and 1.5 mg per cu m of air for 10 minutes TWA for brief exposures. Low concentrations are used as an insecticide in licensed medicinal products for external use.
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NHS Employees
Mr. Butler : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will give the percentage change in the number of administrative and clerical staff in the national health service in England between September 1979 and the latest available date.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Between 30 September 1979 and 30 September 1990 the number of administrative and clerical staff, including managerial staff, in the hospital and community health services in England increased by 26 per cent. to 129,700 whole-time equivalents. Within this overall rise, the greatest increase was among staff who work in direct support of clinicians whose numbers rose by 269 per cent. to 40,620 whole-time equivalents.
Centre for Applied Microbiological Research
Mr. Cousins : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (a) when he expects to reach a conclusion on the future of the Centre for Applied Microbiological Research, Porton Down and (b) when his Department's current review of the future of the Centre for Applied Microbiological Research commenced.
Mr. Dorrell : I expect to make an announcement very shortly about the future of the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research--CAMR. The latest review of the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research commenced in April 1989 and led to several detailed studies.
HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMISSION
Director of Works
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed, as representing the House of Commons Commission, if he will set out the series of procedures by which the Director of Works of the Palace of Westminster is to be appointed.
Mr. Beith : An internal public service trawl was conducted in late January and early February. The 17 potential candidates revealed by this method were considered insufficient in both number and qualifications to form the pool from which a successful candidate for this important post should be selected. The Commission therefore decided in February that the net should be cast wider by employing management consultants both to advertise the post and to identify further candidates by search. As a result of these latter exercises, a total of about 85 serious candidates was identified.
A group consisting of senior officers of both Houses, the Department of the Environment and the Civil Service Commission sifted all applications, with the assistance of the management consultants, in mid-April, and in early May the final shortlist was interviewed by a board including the Serjeant at Arms and Black Rod, a former Director General of Property Holdings and a senior vice-president of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. The board was chaired by a former chief valuer of the board of Inland Revenue.
The Commission agreed in March that the post of Director of Works should, like a number of other senior appointments in the House of Commons service, be made
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by Mr. Speaker, but in view of the intention that the director will serve both Houses it was also agreed that Mr. Speaker should consult the Lord Chairman of Committees before making his decision. In the light of the advice of the interview board, and after duly consulting the Lord Chairman, the appointment by Mr. Speaker of Mr. Henry Webber as the first Director of Works was announced on 27 June.HOUSE OF COMMONS
New Parliamentary Building
Sir David Steel : To ask the Lord President of the Council what criteria are being used in the allocation of rooms to Members and staff in the new Parliament street building ; and when he expects the allocation to be made.
Mr. MacGregor : The New Building Sub-Committee resolved at its meeting on 21 May 1991 that the allocation of offices in phase 1 as between Members of political parties should be on the following basis :
Second Floor :
Second Floor:offices for Labour (or other Opposition party) Members Third Floor: offices for Conservative Members Fourth Floor:offices to be divided between Labour (or other Opposition party) and Conservative Members Fifth Floor: offices for Conservative Members Sixth Floor: offices for Labour (or other Opposition party) Members.
Individual offices will be allocated to Members by the accommodation Whips of the Government and official Opposition parties on behalf of the Services Committee in the usual way.
European Study
Mr. McMaster : To ask the Lord President of the Council if there are any proposals to offer hon. Members who serve on European Standing Committees the opportunity to study the operations of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of Ministers ; what plans there are to arrange any study visits ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. MacGregor : There are no such proposals for Members in their capacity as members of the European Standing Committees.
Recycling and Energy Saving
Ms. Ruddock : To ask the Lord President of the Council if he will give consideration to implementing a policy of (a) recycling aluminium cans and (b) using ozone-friendly sprays where possible ; and if he will make a statement on his general policies regarding recycling and energy saving measures within the Palace of Westminster.
Mr. MacGregor [holding answer 8 July 1991] : The authorities of both Houses have been in consultation about arrangements for the collection of used aluminium cans. Although this does pose practical problems, the matter is to be considered by the Accommodation and Administration Sub-Committee.
The Departments responsible for cleaning the House and the parliamentary estate and the contracted cleaners are required to use cleaning materials which are environmentally acceptable. It is understood that this requirement governs the products themselves and, where appropriate, their propellants.
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Both Houses co-operate to promote practicable recycling measures. At present, this includes the collection of waste paper and bottles, which are recycled in accordance with the terms of a parliamentary works office contract ; and the supply of a wide range of stationery products made from recycled paper.Energy conservation work is treated both as a specific task and as an integral part of both the maintenance of the fabric of the buildings and services on the parliamentary estate and the design of new facilities. During the year the coverage of the building energy management system will be extended, further energy efficient lighting will be installed, another major step in the modernisation of the heating system will be completed and other minor work will be carried out as the opportunity arises.
Staff of the parliamentary works office have a continuing brief to draw the attention of energy liaison officers where lighting is left on repeatedly, and security staff are asked to switch off lighting in empty rooms. It is, of course, incumbent upon all occupants of the parliamentary buildings to adopt a commonsense approach to the use of lighting and other energy- consuming equipment.
Lords Amendments
Sir Peter Emery : To ask the Lord President of the Council what plans he has to conduct the trial to cover the proposals in the second report of the Procedure Select Committee for Session 1990-91 to deal with the documents required for Commons consideration of amendments from the Lords to Bills when they are considered by the House.
Mr. MacGregor [pursuant to his reply, 5 June 1991, c. 234] : I propose to extend the operational trial to include all Bills returning from the Lords until the House rises for the Summer adjournment.
AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD
Dioxins
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for South Shields of 2 July, Official Report , column 132 , to what guideline figure on the levels of dioxins in milk and other foodstuffs, in nanogrammes per kg, his Ministry was working prior to setting the level at 0.7 nanogrammes ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Gummer : In 1989, in the absence of any international evaluation, the Committee of Toxicity established a guideline level of 0.002 nanogrammes per kg bodyweight per day to assess intakes of dioxins from milk and other foodstuffs. This guideline was not a safety limit and has been superseded by the tolerable daily intake or 0.01 nanogrammes per kg bodyweight per day recommend by the World Health Organisation in 1990 from which the action level of 0.07 nanogrammes per kg of milk was calculated.
Mr. Skinner : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will supply the information as to the 27 locations in the Bolsover and North Derbyshire area where monitoring took place in respect of dioxin levels in milk.
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Mr. Maclean : I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Southwark and Bermondsey (Mr. Hughes) on 1 July at column 73 .
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