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Civil Rights (Disabled Persons) Bill

Mr. Alan Howarth : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will carry out a cost/benefit analysis of the proposals in the Civil Rights (Disabled Persons) Bill.


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Mr. Portillo : I have been asked to reply.

No, but I understand that the Secretary of State for Social Security is in the process of preparing a compliance cost assessment.

WALES

Farmers (Suicides)

Mr. Llwyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will publish for the last five years (a) the number of suicides among farmers in Wales, (b) the proportion of suicide cases per 1,000 among farmers in Wales and (c) the average suicide rate for Wales.

Mr. Redwood : The information requested is given in the following table :


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Residents of Wales                                               

                                   |1988|1989|1990|1991|1992     

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Number of suicides<1> of farmers   |9   |8   |10  |9   |6        

Suicides per 1,000 farmers         |0.26|0.23|0.29|0.26|0.17     

Suicides per 1,000 total residents |0.08|0.07|0.08|0.08|0.09     

<1> Suicides and undetermined deaths of farmers,                 

horticulturalists and farm managers.                             

Source: Office of Population Censuses and Surveys                

Council Tax

Mr. Henderson : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what has been the total cost of the valuation exercise, including the appeals process, since the introduction of the council tax.

Mr. Redwood : The cost of the valuation banding exercise was £4.81 million. In 1993-94 the voted provision for the Valuation Office Agency for council tax, including the handling of appeals and new valuations, is £2.53 million. Valuation of tribunal costs for council tax appeals to date are small and cannot be separately identified.

Mr. Henderson : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is the average cost of each appeal against council tax evaluations.

Mr. Redwood : The estimated average cost of dealing with each council tax banding appeal is some £115.

Education Expenditure

Mr. Hanson : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is the standard spending assessment for education for each Welsh education authority.

Mr. Redwood : There is no standard spending assessment for education for Welsh local authorities. The standard spending assessments for county councils in Wales include provision for education.

Welsh Development Agency

Mr. Llwyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will consult (a) hon. Members and (b) local authorities during his review of the working of (i) the Welsh Development Agency and (ii) the Development Board for Rural Wales.


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Mr. Redwood : I have no plans at present for a review of the Welsh Development Agency. I have already written to hon. Members about the review of the Development Board for Rural Wales. Local authorities will also be consulted.

Correspondence

Mr. Llwyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make it his practice to sign personally letters in reply to hon. Members which are written in the Welsh language.

Mr. Redwood : I sign all my replies to hon. Members' letters. However, I do not sign letters I do not understand. Therefore, when I reply in bilingual form to letters written in Welsh, I will sign the English version only.

Departmental Projects

Mr. Dafis : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will publish for each department within his office details of each project of less than £100,000 which has been contracted out to the private sector during 1992-93 and 1993-94 ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Redwood : This information is not available and could be collected only at disproportionate cost.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL

Malaysian Airlines

Mr. Redmond : To ask the Attorney-General if he will list the dates on which Ministers or officials from his Department, including his Department's agencies, have used the Malaysian airline MAS for each year since 1985, including this year to date, on official business ; and what was the cost to his Department of each flight.


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The Solictor-General : No such flights have been made.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Management Systems

Dr. Lynne Jones : To ask the President of the Board of Trade how much his Department's computer-aided facilities management systems cost ; from whom they were purchased ; how many person hours were required to commission them ; what the estimated and actual saving has been from their operation ; and to what extent the use of such systems accounts for the apparent rise in theft noted in his answer to the hon. and learned Member for Fife, North-East (Mr. Campbell) of 18 February, Official Report, columns 1012-14.

Mr. Eggar : The Department uses computerised databases to collect among other things information on the theft of equipment. They contributed some data in the answer of 18 February to the hon. and learned Member for Fife, North-East (Mr. Campbell). The Department's main asset register uses packaged software supplied by Britannia Software PLC and has been run by the Department's Accounts Services Agency in Newport since 1 April 1993. In 1993-94 the cost of operating the register is expected to be approximately £80,000. Three staff are employed on the work. The Department's executive agencies maintain their own computerised assets registers using mainly Britannia or Sun software. While it is too early to quantify the direct savings from these asset registers, availability of data is likely to highlight theft in the short term while helping to reduce it in the long term.

Time Zones

Dame Angela Rumbold : To ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) what estimate his Department has made of the cost to British business of the one-hour time difference between the United Kingdom and continental Europe ;

(2) what studies his Department has commissioned on the advantages for British businesses of a harmonisation of the United Kingdom's time zone with that of the rest of continental Europe ; and if he will make a statement ;

(3) what representations his Department has received on the subject of Britain's time zone.

Mr. Sainsbury : My Department has made no estimate of the cost to British business of the one hour time difference and has commissioned no studies on the advantages of harmonising time zones. My Department has received a small number of representations.

Nuclear Safety

Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what financial resources his Department commits to (a) nuclear safeguards and (b) nuclear safety.

Mr. Eggar : In 1993-94 my Department expects to spend £1.7 million on nuclear safeguards support programmes and £2 million on its nuclear safety and health programme.


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Manufacturing Challenge

Sir Thomas Arnold : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment he has made of the progress of the manufacturing challenge ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Eggar : I welcome the progress of this business-to-business programme in the north-east and my Department is fully supporting it. I am encouraged that a number of projects are being developed targeted on priorities identified by the regional business community and discussions are continuing between manufacturing challenge and programmes in other regions of the country.

Rolls-Royce Aeroengine

Mr. Cousins : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will state the total expenditure on, and receipts expected from, Rolls-Royce in respect of launch aid estimated up to 1 April ; and what expenditure and receipts are planned for 1994-95 to 1996-97 for Rolls-Royce.

Mr. Sainsbury : Rolls-Royce has received £505.5 million in launch aid (at current prices) and has paid receipts of approximately £292 million up to 1 April this year.

No launch aid expenditure for Rolls-Royce is currently planned for the years 1994-95 to 1996-97. Rolls-Royce currently estimates repayments of £82.5 million for these years.

Chemical Industry

Mr. Cousins : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will place in the Library the results of his study into the competitive success of the British chemical industry.

Mr. Sainsbury : I have placed a copy of Dr. Jon Bird's study, "Competitiveness in the United Kingdom Chemical Industry", from which commercially sensitive information has been deleted, in the Library of the House. The study was a preliminary investigation into this important area and is being circulated for consideration by experts in the industry and will be used as a basis for further discussion between my Department and the chemical industry.

Engineering Steel Industry

Mrs. Helen Jackson : To ask the President of the Board of Trade when he will next be meeting the European Council of Ministers to discuss the engineering steel industry.

Mr. Sainsbury : The next meeting of the Council of Industry Ministers is due to take place on 22 April 1994. The agenda for the meeting is not yet available, but current steel issues will be discussed.

Radiocommunications Agency

Mr. Jenkin : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what plans he has to increase the charge made by the Radiocommunications Agency in cases of interference to domestic broadcast reception where complainants ask the agency to inspect their equipment.

Mr. McLouglin : I have decided that there should be a modest increase in the charge from £31 to £35. This charge


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is applicable when the private sector is unable to effect a cure and complainants ask for an inspection by the agency. It is the first rise in two years and is in line with rises in costs in the private sector.

The work of curing domestic interference, which is often due to poor immunity to unwanted signals in television and radio receiving equipment, should be done in the first instance by the private sector. This enables the Radiocommunications Agency to devote greater resources to investigating illegal radio use and to business radio users. In 1993 the agency received 556 requests for help with interference to broadcast reception.

There is still no charge for investigating a named source of interference.

Collieries (Ministerial Visits)

Mr. Tipping : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list which collieries he has visited and those where he has made an underground visit (a) since taking his present office and (b) since the publication of "Prospects for Coal".

Mr. Eggar : My right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade has not visited any collieries since taking up his present office. However, as Minister for Energy, I have visited Ollerton, Rufford, Whitemoor, Ashfordby and Bilsthorpe. The visits to Ashfordby and Bilsthorpe took place after the publication of the coal review White Paper and all except Bilsthorpe included a visit underground.

Civil Servants

Mrs. Clwyd : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list for each civil service grade in his Department (a) the total number of persons employed and (b) the percentage of this figure who are women.

Mr. Eggar [holding answer 17 March 1994] : The information requested in respect of permanent staff in post on 16 March 1994 is set out in the following table :


                                            |Total       |Percentage               

                                            |staff       |of staff who             

                                                         |are female               

Grade                                       |Number      |Per cent.                

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grade 1                                     |1           |0.0                      

Grade 2                                     |8           |0.0                      

Grade 3                                     |52          |9.6                      

Grade 4                                     |7           |28.6                     

Assistant Comptroller (Patent Office)       |2           |0.0                      

Grade 5                                     |204         |15.2                     

Executive Director Lower Insolvency Service |3           |0.0                      

Superintendent Examiner (Patent Office)     |8           |0.0                      

Reservoir Evaluation Specialist 1           |1           |0.0                      

Grade 6                                     |181         |16.6                     

Grade 7                                     |922         |15.0                     

Insolvency Grade A                          |12          |0.0                      

Insolvency Grade B                          |70          |5.7                      

Principal Examiner (Patent Office)          |26          |7.7                      

Senior Examiner (Patent Office)             |168         |10.1                     

Chief Investigations Officer                |1           |0.0                      

Reservoir Evaluation Specialist 2           |2           |0.0                      

Petroleum Specialist 2                      |1           |0.0                      

Reservoir Evaluation Specialist 3           |8           |12.5                     

Petroleum Specialist 3                      |3           |0.0                      

Senior Electrical Engineer 1                |4           |0.0                      

Senior Executive Officer                    |381         |17.6                     

Higher Executive Officer D                  |35          |45.7                     

Higher Executive Officer                    |1,008       |30.0                     

Executive Officer                           |1,521       |44.0                     

Administrative Trainee                      |13          |30.8                     

Senior Economic Assistant                   |15          |60.0                     

Economic Assistant                          |5           |20.0                     

Senior Assistant Statistician               |4           |50.0                     

Assistant Statistician                      |6           |33.3                     

Senior Information Officer                  |18          |44.4                     

Information Officer                         |28          |32.1                     

Assistant Information Officer               |13          |38.5                     

Higher Graphics Officer                     |1           |100.0                    

Legal Officer                               |5           |60.0                     

Senior Librarian                            |8           |50.0                     

Librarian                                   |20          |50.0                     

Assistant Librarian                         |27          |59.3                     

Photographic Officer                        |1           |0.0                      

Process and General Supervisory C           |2           |0.0                      

Process and General Supervisory D           |2           |0.0                      

Senior Scientific Officer                   |296         |12.5                     

Higher Scientific Officer                   |335         |25.4                     

Scientific Officer                          |181         |32.6                     

Senior Personal Secretary                   |45          |97.8                     

Senior Professional and Technical Officer   |99          |1.0                      

Higher Professional and Technical Officer   |81          |4.9                      

Professional and Technical Officer          |28          |3.6                      

Professional and Technical Officer IV       |1           |0.0                      

Senior Telecommunications Technical Officer 13            0.0                      

Higher Telecommunications Technical Officer 44            0.0                      

Telecommunications Technical Officer        |110         |0.0                      

Insolvency Grade C                          |132         |23.5                     

Insolvency grade D                          |311         |31.8                     

Insolvency grade E                          |138         |53.6                     

Examiner (patent office)                    |32          |9.4                      

Translator I                                |2           |0                        

Translator II                               |9           |77.8                     

Translator III                              |1           |0                        

Deputy chief investigations officer         |8           |0                        

Investigations officer                      |42          |2.4                      

Communications officer IV                   |3           |66.7                     

Chief typing manager                        |6           |83.3                     

Typing manager                              |29          |100                      

Support manager 1                           |1           |0                        

Legal trainee                               |0           |0                        

Higher scientific officer D                 |11          |36.4                     

Senior management trainee                   |3           |33.3                     

Chief gas examiner                          |1           |0                        

Reservoir evaluation specialist 4           |20          |35                       

Petroleum specialist 4                      |9           |0                        

Area gas examiner                           |1           |100                      

Reservoir evaluation specialist 5           |2           |100                      

Petroleum specialist 5                      |2           |0                        

Gas examiner                                |4           |0                        

Chief gas meter examiner                    |1           |0                        

Assistant chief gas meter examiner          |1           |0                        

Gas meter examiner 1                        |2           |0                        

Gas meter examiner 2                        |9           |0                        

Gas meter examiner 3                        |10          |0                        

Higher mapping and charting officer         |1           |0                        

Administrative officer                      |2,192       |59.5                     

Administrative assistant                    |1,103       |57.8                     

Graphics officer                            |2           |100                      

Support manager 2                           |9           |44.4                     

Support manager 3                           |38          |71.1                     

Support grade 1                             |134         |75.4                     

Support grade 2                             |653         |65.8                     

Senior photographer                         |2           |0                        

Photographer                                |1           |0                        

Industrial                                  |140         |5.7                      

Technical grade 1                           |9           |22.2                     

Part time graduate trainee                  |6           |16.7                     

Technican 2A                                |0           |0                        

Assistant telecommunications technical      |23          |0                        

officer                                                                            

Trainee telecommunications technical        |1           |100                      

officer                                                                            

Personal secretary                          |353         |99.4                     

Typist                                      |438         |98.4                     

Assistant scientific officer                |87          |41.4                     

Graphics technical grade                    |1           |100                      

Mapping and charting officer                |3           |0                        

                                            |-------     |-------                  

Total                                       |12,016      |43.2                     

NATIONAL HERITAGE

Arts Council Membership

Sir Fergus Montgomery : To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage when he will announce the membership of the Arts Council of England.

Mr. Brooke : In December I announced that Lord Gowrie would be the first chairman of the Arts Council of England. I have today appointed the following to the council :

Professor Christopher Frayling

Maggie Guillebaud

Peter Gummer

Sir Ernest Hall

Thelma Holt

Michael Holroyd

Clive Priestley

Stella Robinson

Prudence Skene

Robert Southgate

Announcements on the remaining members will be made in due course. I have also written to Lord Gowrie setting out the main tasks and objectives for the chairman and council, and a copy of that letter has been placed in the Library.


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Consultants

Mr. Milburn : To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage how many contracts his Department has had with consultants ; and what has been the total cost in each of the last five years.

Mr. Sproat [holding answer 23 March 1994] : Since it was established in April 1992, my Department and its two agencies have entered into 58 contracts with consultants. The cost has been £5.13 million in 1992-93 and £3.15 million in 1993-94.

HEALTH

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list for the last 12 months how many parliamentary questions she has referred to one of her Department's agencies for answer ; and what percentage of parliamentary questions to her Department this represents.

Mr. Sackville : No such referrals have been made during the last 12 months.

Nurses and Midwives

Mr. Kirkwood : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will publish details of the numbers of qualified NHS nurses and midwives, unqualified NHS nursing staff and nursing learners representing these as a percentage of the total NHS nursing and midwifery staff, including Project 2000 students for each year since 1989.

Mr. Sackville : The information available is shown in the table.


Column 459


Whole time                   1989                1990                1991                1992                         

equivalent                                                                                                            

                                      |per cent.          |per cent.          |per cent.          |per cent.          

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total nursing and midwifery                                                                                           

 staff plus project 2000    |398,050  |100.0    |398,360  |100.0    |402,700  |100.0    |397,080  |100.0              

Qualified nursing and                                                                                                 

 midwifery staff            |242,190  |60.8     |242,340  |60.8     |243,250  |60.4     |246,570  |62.1               

Unqualified nursing and                                                                                               

 midwifery staff            |90,880   |22.8     |90,450   |22.7     |90,550   |22.5     |90,850   |22.9               

Learners                    |63,310   |15.9     |58,840   |14.8     |47,340   |11.8     |34,740   |8.7                

Others                      |1,680    |0.4      |3,730    |0.9      |11,050   |2.7      |6,630    |1.7                

Project 2000                |-        |-        |3,000    |0.8      |10,500   |2.6      |18,300   |4.6                

The number of qualified staff has gone up both as an absolute figure and as a proportion of the overall NHS work force.

London Ambulance Service

Mrs. Bridget Prentice : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the expenditure on the London ambulance service for each of the past five years ; what is the budget for the current year and for the next financial year ; what representations have been made to him by the London ambulance service about the adequacy of such expenditure ; and if she will make a statement.

Mr. Sackville : The Government are committed to providing sufficient revenue and capital to the London ambulance service to ensure an improving ambulance service in the capital.


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The London ambulance service identifies revenue as :


Year            |Including      |Excluding                      

                |capital charges|capital charges                

                |£ million      |£million                       

----------------------------------------------------------------

Actual                                                          

1988-89         |n/a            |46.3                           

1989-90         |n/a            |<1>53.0                        

1990-91         |n/a            |51.3                           

1991-92         |66.5           |59.8                           

1992-93         |72.2           |64.0                           

                                                                

Budget                                                          

1993-94         |75.5           |67.8                           

1994-95         |78.3           |71.0                           

<1> 1989-90 includes additional costs during the ambulance      

dispute.                                                        

The LAS received extra revenue of £6.8 million in 1993-94, and in this coming financial year (1994-95) an


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extra £14.8 million will be invested in the LAS, tied to specific improvements in performance. The extra resources will enable the LAS to recruit an additional 240 front-line staff and will also buy 120 new ambulances, replacing a third of its fleet.

Spongiform Encephalopathies

Mr. Martyn Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many recorded human deaths from spongiform encephalopathies there have been in the United Kingdom in each year since 1964 ; and how many of each were diagnosed as being specifically Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Mr. Sackville : Surveillance of human spongiform encephalopathies (SEs) in the United Kingdom is primarily concerned with the identification of cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). However, since 1990 when the UK CJD surveillance unit was established, there have been improvements in the methods of identification of Gerstmann-Strausser-Scheinker syndrome, an extremely rare familial form of human SE. There have also been considerable advances in the methods of identification of human SEs generally since the 1960s. The tables show recorded cases of CJD and GSS from 1964-1993. During this period there have been five separate studies using differing methodologies. The figures are therefore not directly comparable.


Table 1: CJD by year of onset 

(Retrospective study: England 

and Wales)                    

Year      |Number of          

          |cases              

------------------------------

1964      |4                  

1965      |1                  

1966      |4                  

1967      |1                  

1968      |7                  

1969      |4                  

          |--                 

Total     |21                 


Table 3: Deaths   

from definite and 

probable cases of 

CJD               

and incidence of  

GSS               

(Prospective      

study: England    

and Wales)        

Year   Number of c

      |CJD|GSS    

------------------

1980  |23 |1      

1981  |22 |-      

1982  |24 |-      

1983  |21 |-      

1984  |32 |-      

      |-- |--     

Total |122|1      


Table 3: Deaths   

from definite and 

probable cases of 

CJD               

and incidence of  

GSS               

(Prospective      

study: England    

and Wales)        

Year   Number of c

      |CJD|GSS    

------------------

1980  |23 |1      

1981  |22 |-      

1982  |24 |-      

1983  |21 |-      

1984  |32 |-      

      |-- |--     

Total |122|1      


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Table 4: Deaths from definite   

and probable cases of CJD       

and incidence of GSS (United    

Kingdom retrospective study     

by CJD surveillance unit)       

Year     Number of cases        

        |CJD    |GSS            

--------------------------------

1985    |28     |-              

1986    |26     |-              

1987    |22     |1              

1988    |23     |-              

1989    |31     |-              

        |-------|-------        

Total   |130    |1              


Table 5: Deaths from definite   

and probable cases of CJD       

and incidence of GSS (ongoing   

United Kingdom prospective      

study                           

by CJD surveillance unit from 1 

May 1990)                       

Year     Number of cases        

        |CJD    |GSS            

--------------------------------

1990    |<1>30  |-              

1991    |36     |-              

1992    |49     |2              

1993    |<2>29  |<3>2           

        |-------|-------        

Total   |144    |4              

<1> 12 from 1 January to 30     

April. 18 from 1 May to 31      

December.                       

<2> Provisional total.          

<3> One of these patients is    

still alive.                    

The final figure for 1993 may show some increase over the provisional total as diagnoses of people dying in 1993 is confirmed restrospectively. It is most unlikely, however, to reach the 1992 figure.

Hospital and Community Services

Mr. Matthew Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many written complaints have been made relating to hospital and community services by type of complaint and method of investigation in each year since 1979 to the latest available date.

Dr. Mawhinney : Details for England about written complaints for hospital and community services from 1981 to 1991-92 will be placed in the Library.

The increase over the last 10 years shows the impact of three factors. Firstly, the greater awareness of the complaints procedure ; secondly, the reinforcement in the patients charter of the right to have a complaint dealt with thoroughly and quickly ; thirdly, an increase in willingness on the part of the health service personnel to listen to the patient.

General Practitioners

Dr. Marek : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans she has to commission a medical audit of the quality of treatment being received by (a) patients of fundholding general practitioner practices and (b) patients of non-fundholding general practitioner practices, and what studies have already been carried out.

Dr. Mawhinney : We have no plans to do so.

Limb Defects

Mr. Mandelson : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if she will widen the Government's examination of the incidence of babies born with missing hands in


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coastal areas to include evidence of similar defects in Germany ; and if she will involve the Medical Research Council in this wider inquiry ;

(2) when the inquiry announced by the Government into the incidence of babies born with deformed or missing hands in coastal areas will announce its findings ; and what further action her Department has taken regarding this issue.

Mr. Sackville : I refer the hon. Member to the reply that I gave him on 1 March at column 678. In the light of the reports of similar limb defects in the German North sea coastal region, the Department is in contact with the relevant German authorities for further information.

Commercially Sponsored Posts

Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what restrictions exist and what guidance has been issued regarding commercially sponsored posts in the national health service.

Dr. Mawhinney : Guidance about commercially sponsored posts in the national health service is contained in departmental circular HSG(93)5, copies of which are available in the Library.

National Continence Week

Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what projects her Department instigated in respect of national continence week.

Mr. Bowis : The Department granted extra funding to the Continence Foundation to set up a full-time telephone helpline for members of the public. Nearly 2 million posters, leaflets and stickers advertising this helpline and encouraging sufferers to seek treatment were distributed. A national newspaper advertising campaign carried the same message. The Department also sponsored a national conference of women's organisations on "Women and Continence" and helped continence advisers and commercial organisations to run local events around the country.

Women Employees

Ms Lynne : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many women returning to work in the NHS in each of the last five years following maternity leave or a career break returned to a job of similar status to that which they left ; and what measures she has taken in that time to ensure that this takes place.


Column 464

Dr. Mawhinney : This information is not available centrally. General Whitley Council agreements (sections 6 and 10 of the council's handbook) provide for an employee who has taken maternity leave or a career break to return to a job of similar status. Copies of the handbook are available in the Library.

Ambulance Service

Ms Armstrong : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the ambulance service spent on information technology and communications in 1992-93 and 1993-94, by authority ; and what are the spending plans for 1994-95.

Mr. Sackville : This information is not available centrally.

Hospital Closures, London

Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list by (a) health authority, (b) borough and (c) year all London hospitals closed since 1978.


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