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Harlow Wood Hospital
Mr. Tipping : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many letters she has received concerning the proposed closure of Harlow Wood hospital, Nottinghamshire ; what proportion of these letters were for and against closure ; if she will place copies of the correspondence in the Library ; and if she will make a statement.
Mr. Sackville : Changes in the provision of orthopaedic services and the proposed closure of Harlow Wood orthopaedic hospital were the subject of public consultation between 1 December 1993 and 2 March 1994. Letters about this consultation were for the district health authority to take into account when considering the way ahead. The hon. Member may wish to contact Mr. Alan Tolhurst, chairman of North Nottinghamshire health authority, for details.
NHS Trusts
Mr. Hardy : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the total cost of the employment of chairmen and directors of NHS trusts in 1993-94.
Dr. Mawhinney : Audited accounts containing this information for 1993-94 will not be available until the end of 1994. The codes of conduct and accountability which my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State issued on 28 April require national health service boards to establish remuneration and terms of service committees and to publish details of board members' remuneration in an annual report.
Foetuses (Research)
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations she has had from the Research Defence Society about research involving the human foetus.
Mr. Sackville : None. Research involving the use of foetuses and foetal material is covered by the code of practice drawn up by the Polkinghorne committee and published in 1989 in its report entitled "Review of the Guidance on the Research Use of Fetuses and Fetal Material". Copies are available in the Library.
Social Workers
Mr. Soley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many social workers in the employment of the health service have been (a) assaulted and (b) murdered in the course, or in consequence, of their work in each year since 1990.
Mr. Bowis : I refer the hon. Member to the reply my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State gave the hon. Member for Houghton and Washington (Mr. Boyes) on 27 January at column 373.
Mr. Soley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many work- related (a) assaults and (b) murders of social workers occurred in each year since 1990.
Mr. Bowis : This information is not available centrally.
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Children's Hospital Services
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to her answer of 11 May, Official Report, column 160, how much time has been set aside for the validation, aggregation and analysis of the survey results ; and if she will estimate a date for the publication of those results.
Dr. Mawhinney : Analysis of the returns is under way. An announcement will be made when it is complete.
Heart Bypass Surgery
Ms Primarolo : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what evidence her Department has concerning the number of people dying while waiting for heart bypass surgery ;
(2) how many people died while waiting for heart bypass surgery in each region in each of the last five years.
Dr. Mawhinney : Information is collected on removals from waiting lists but does not differentiate between the various reasons, which include death. Patients may die from a wide range of causes, in common with the rest of the population, while waiting for treatment. Emergencies are always treated immediately and patients who need urgent treatment are given priority.
Ms Primarolo : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what is the average length of time a person waits for a heart bypass operation in each region ;
(2) how many patients, according to latest figures, have waited for heart bypass surgery for more than 12 months, in each region.
Dr. Mawhinney : Such information as is available is given in "Hospital Episode Statistics, Volume 2". The latest year for which information has so far been published is 1990-91. Copies are available in the Library.
NHS (Private Capital)
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many schemes using private sector capital in the NHS were refused approval by her Department and the Treasury (a) before April 1993 and (b) since April 1993.
Mr. Sackville : Since April 1993 two schemes using private sector capital in the national health service have been formally refused approval. These were :
a proposal from North Tyne Health Alliance (Newcastle and North Tyneside Health Authorities and Newcastle and North Tyneside Family Health Services Authorities) to lease office accommodation. a proposal from South Western Regional Health Authority to provide residential accommodation at Glenside for students attending Avon and Gloucestershire College of Health.
The Department issued guidance on "Use of private sector capital in the NHS" (EL(89)MB142) in 1989. Between then and April 1993 no schemes that were formally submitted were refused approval. Information is not available on schemes abandoned at a draft stage as a result of advice received from the Department in response to informal inquiries. Copies of the guidance will be placed in the Library.
HIV/AIDS
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps are being taken by her Department to ensure that a strategic approach is secured across Government
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Departments on issues related to HIV and AIDS ; and what plans she has to introduce a formal national strategy in respect of HIV and AIDS.Mr. Sackville : "The Health of the Nation" White Paper sets out the strategic direction for HIV/AIDS and sexual health to be followed by all relevant Departments. This is supported by a Government strategy paper issued in 1993 which reiterated the continuing commitment to HIV/AIDS in the light of recent research into prevalance of HIV infection in this country.
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment has been undertaken by her Department of the efficacy of needle exchange schemes in reducing levels of transmission of the HIV virus among intravenous drug users ; and what plans she has to introduce such a scheme on a nationwide basis.
Mr. Bowis : Monitoring and evaluation of needle and syringe exchange schemes since 1987 has shown that they contribute towards the adoption of safer injecting behaviour among those who continue to inject drugs. It is too soon to judge their success in reducing the levels of transmission of HIV among intravenous drug users. Specific funding has been given to health authorities towards the costs of expanding the range of drug misuse services available, including the development of needle exchange schemes. This funding totals £25.238 million in 1994-95 of which £2.778 million is available for the expansion of needle exchange schemes within pharmacies.
It is the responsibility of health and local authorities to assess the needs of drug misusers for services, including needle exchange schemes, and to contract for services to meet those needs.
Ambulance Service
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the number of ambulance staff in England employed by the NHS in 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993, using whole-time equivalents.
Mr. Sackville : The information available is shown in the table.
Ambulance staff in
national health
service employing
authorities and
trusts
|Number
---------------------
1990 |18,130
1991 |17,630
1992 |17,840
Figures fell between
1990 and 1991 due
largely to a number
of ambulance
officers taking up
separate senior
manager terms and a
fall in the demand
for Patient
Transport Services
in the London
Ambulance Service.
Sources:
For 1990: Department
of Health
Non-Medical
Workforce Census.
For 1991 and 1992:
Department of Health
form KM 49.
Notes:
1. All figures are
at 30 September and
are rounded to the
nearest 10.
2. All figures
include ambulance
men and women,
ambulance officers
and control
assistants.
3. The figure shown
for 1992 is a
corrected one from
previously published
figures.
4. Figures for 1993
are not yet
available.
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the number of control assistants, using whole-time equivalents, for each ambulance service in each year since 1990.
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Mr. Sackville : The information available is shown in the table. Separate figures for control assistants are not centrally available.
Control Assistants and Ambulance Officers at 30
September
(Whole time equivalents by region)
|1990 |1991 |1992
-------------------------------------------------
England total |2,780|2,340|2,420
Northern Region |180 |170 |180
Yorkshire Region |240 |220 |220
Trent Region |290 |280 |270
East Anglian Region |130 |130 |120
North West Thames Region |80 |40 |80
North East Thames Region |70 |70 |70
South East Thames Region |80 |120 |120
South West Thames Region |100 |100 |100
Wessex Region |140 |140 |140
Oxford Region |130 |130 |130
South Western Region |220 |220 |220
West Midlands Region |340 |260 |320
Mersey Region |120 |90 |90
North Western Region |240 |200 |170
London Ambulance Service |410 |170 |210
Notes:
1. Figures for individual ambulance services are
not available centrally.
2. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
3. The England total and North West Thames
Region figures shown for 1992 are corrected ones
from previously published figures.
Source:
For 1990: the Department of Health Non-Medical
Workforce Census.
For 1991 and 1992: the Department of Health form
KM49.
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of ambulances in each service in England responded within (a) eight minutes and (b) 14 to 20 minutes to emergency calls in 1993-94.
Mr. Sackville : Information on ambulance service response times in 1993-94 will be published shortly.
NHS Reform
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health which organisations have submitted proposals on the reform of the NHS whether written or orally in presentations to her or her ministerial colleagues in the last year.
Dr. Mawhinney : Ministers routinely have meetings on various subjects with many organisations. Detailed records are not kept of all the subjects discussed.
GPs (Deprivation Payments)
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was (a) the total number of general practitioners and the whole-time equivalent and (b) the total number of, and amounts paid to, general practitioners receiving deprivation payments in each of the low, medium and high categories for 1993-94 ; and what are the comparable figures in each case for fundholding general practitioners.
Dr. Mawhinney : In April 1993, the total number of general practitioners in England was 26,116 amounting to a whole-time equivalent of 25,231.
Of the 26,116 GPs, the following numbers received deprivation payments :
Low level 10,392
Medium level 6,430
High level 4,611
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Note : A GP may receive deprivation payments at more than one level.The amounts of deprivation payments made to general practitioners in England, in 1992-93, the last year for which figures are available, were :
Low level £14,846,862
Medium level £9,764,321
High level £8,496,343
Financial data on deprivation payments specifically made to fundholding general practitioners are not available.
HOUSE OF COMMONS
Private Members' Bills
Mr. Sheerman : To ask the Lord President of the Council, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Manchester, Wythenshawe (Mr. Morris) of 6 May, Official Report, column 651, what was the cost to his Department of the drafting of the amendments to the Civil Rights (Disabled Persons) Bill.
Mr. Newton : I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the right hon. Member for Manchester, Wythenshawe (Mr. Morris) on 12 May, Official Report, column 213.
State Ceremonial Occasions
Ms Mowlam : To ask the Lord President of the Council which Government Departments or Offices other than the Department of National Heritage fund state ceremonial occasions.
Mr. Sproat : I have been asked to reply.
In addition to my own Department the following Government Departments meet some of the costs of state ceremonial occasions : Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Ministry of Defence
Home Office
Department of Transport
Scottish Office
Welsh Office
HM Treasury
The Parliamentary Works Directorate meets the costs of certain ceremonial events in the Palace of Westminster.
SCOTLAND
Entertainment Venues
Mr. Foulkes : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what consideration he has given to strengthening the arrangements for the licensing and supervision of entertainment venues, with particular reference to the elimination of drug dealing ; what consideration he has given to introducing legislation on the licensing of stewards at such venues ; and if he will make a statement.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : District and islands councils have powers to license places of public entertainment under section 41 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. The maximum penalty for holding an unlicensed public entertainment in circumstances where a licence under this provision is required was increased to £20,000 and/or six months' imprisonment by the Entertainments (Increased Penalties) Act 1990.
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Authorities take account of the views of the police and local authority departments such as environmental services and building control on such applications and may attach a wide range of conditions designed to improve control at entertainment venues. Such conditions may include a requirement that stewards be employed. Entertainment venues may also be licensed under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976 where a licensing board considers that premises are suitable for the sale of alcoholic liquor. Again the board may attach conditions to such a licence and may require the presence of door stewards.Stewards may search persons who attend such functions with the person's consent. If consent is withheld, the person can be refused admission. In cases where suspect substances are found the person can be refused entry and police assistance summoned. There are no plans at present to introduce legislation on the licensing of stewards employed at entertainment venues. General guidelines on stewarding are contained in the "Guide to Health, Safety and Welfare at Pop Concerts and Similar Events" published by the Health and Safety Commission, the Home Office and the Scottish Office in October 1993.
Local Government Finance
Mr. Spellar : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the number of changes to the community charge register in Scotland in the latest available year ; and what was the estimate of the level of under registration for the community charge.
Mr. Stewart : This information is not held centrally.
Junior Doctors
Ms Primarolo : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the cost of measures designed to reduce the hours worked by junior hospital doctors in each year since 1991-92.
Mr. Stewart : A total of £1.88 million was allocated to health boards for additional posts to help reduce juniors' hours in 1991-92, and £1.87 million was allocated to health boards and trusts in 1992-93 and £4.25 million in 1993-94, making a total of £8 million. In addition £1.2 million is available for allocation in 1994-95.
Training Schemes
Mr. Wallace : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps he has taken to ensure that funds made available to training providers in the course of the youth training and employment training schemes are used solely for training purposes.
Mr. Lang : The chief executives of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise are answerable for the way in which the public funds provided to their respective bodies are spent. I have asked the chairman of Scottish Enterprise and of Highlands and Islands Enterprise to write to the hon. Member.
Mr. Wallace : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many training providers have ceased commercial activities in each local enterprise company ; and how much public money had been given to those companies in the two years prior to them ceasing commercial activities.
Mr. Lang : The information is not held centrally. This is primarily an operational matter best taken up direct with the local enterprise companies.
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Education Department (Promotional Material)
Mr. Wallace : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much expenditure has been incurred by the Scottish Office Education Department for the production and distribution of all promotional materials, including leaflets and video tapes, for each year since 1979 both in actual and real terms ; and if he will set out in table form a list of each item of promotional material issued by the Scottish Education Office Department since June 1987 together with the total cost for each item.
Mr. Lang : This information is not held centrally and could be obtained only at a disproportionate cost to the Department.
Trunk Roads
Mr. Kynoch : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement about progress on construction of trunk road schemes during 1993-94, and those schemes the Government propose to start in Scotland in the next three financial years.
Mr. Lang : Excellent progress is being maintained in the development of a safe, high-quality trunk road network providing benefits to the whole of Scotland. The schemes I am announcing today continue our policy towards the upgrading of those key routes on our core network of major economic importance to Scotland's future. I am particularly pleased that we have been able to keep up the momentum of our plans to dual the A1. The emphasis of major projects is directed towards achieving progress on :
(1) the upgrading of the A74 to motorway ;
(2) the completion of the Central Scotland motorway/near motorway network ; and
(3) the upgrading of the A1.
Projects are currently being prepared to permit in the medium term :
(1) completion of the M77/A77 motorway and near motorway link between Glasgow and Ayrshire ;
(2) completion of the M80 Glasgow--Stirling motorway ;
(3) completion of the M8 Edinburgh--Glasgow motorway ;
(4) completion of the M6 Carlisle--Glasgow motorway ;
(5) completion of the A1 Edinburgh--Dunbar to near motorway standard and dualling schemes between Dunbar and the Border.
Feasibility and other studies are also being conducted on an M6-M8 fastlink and on complementary roads and transport provision around the firth of Forth.
This is an ambitious programme requiring substantial levels of investment. The Government see an increasing role for private sector finance and management skills and a number of projects are now at construction, being developed, or explored in line with the private finance initiative.
Significant progress has already been made. Seven major schemes, with a total value in excess of £100 million, were completed in 1993-94. The opening of the Brechin bypass in March this year completed the dualling of the strategically important A30 Edinburgh-Perth-Aberdeen route. The M8 St. James interchange, completed in August 1993, is the largest single "design and build" project to be built to date within the United Kingdom.
The schemes completed in 1993-94 were as follows :
|Cost £ million
-------------------------------------------------------------------
A74(M) Nether Abington and Elvanfoot |41
M8 St. James Interchange |17
A9 Broomhill to Logie Easter |7
A90 Brechin Bypass |12
A90 Tarbrax to Forfar |13
A92 Bankhead Interchange |4
A96 Bucksburn Diversion |7
In the course of 1993-94, 17 schemes with a cost of more than £3 million were either under way or started. These schemes represent an investment in excess of £370 million. The projects include eight schemes valued at more than £240 million to upgrade the A74 to motorway. About two thirds of the A74 upgrading will be open to traffic by spring 1995. Construction of the M8 Newbridge-Edinburgh city bypass scheme has also started. This will provide important relief to the network west of Edinburgh once the scheme is completed in 1995. Progress continues on the construction of the privately financed Skye bridge, scheduled to open in 1995.
I am now able to announce those major schemes with an estimated cost of over £3 million each which are expected to start between April 1994 and March 1997, as follows :
Route
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1994-95
A74(M) |Paddy's Rickle Bridge to Beattock (advance works)
A1 |Tranent to Haddington
M77 |Ayr road route
A74(M) |Ecclefechan to Eaglesfield phase II
1995-96 and 1996-97
A74(M) |Paddy's Rickle Bridge to Beattock (main works)
A74(M) |Beattock to Cleuchbrae
M8 |Baillieston to Newhouse phase I
M77 |Fenwick to B764 (Floak)
A68 |Dalkeith advance works
A1 |Haddington to Dunbar
A96 |Kintore Bypass
A9 |Logie Easter to Garrick Bridge
A830 |Loch Nan Uamh to Polnish Bridge
A828 |Creagan Bridge
These schemes have a total value of more than £300 million. Our plans are, of course, subject to schemes satisfying the usual value for money criteria together with satisfactory completion of statutory procedures and the necessary preparatory work.
In addition to the major starts, funding for route action plans, road safety and other schemes is being maintained throughout the trunk road network. This will enable work improvements to be taken forward on the A76 Kilmarnock-Dumfries route and the A9 Perth-Thurso route and further good progress on the route action plans for the A1 between Edinburgh and Newcastle ; the A96 between Aberdeen and Inverness ; the A90 between Perth and Dundee ; and the A7 from Hawick southwards.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Government Expenditure
Mr. William Ross : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to his oral answer to the right hon. Member for Strangford (Mr. Taylor) of 28 April, Official Report, column 372, by what means citizens of the United Kingdom benefit from educational and other activities in the Irish Republic ; what are those other
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activities ; what sums were expended by his Department on United Kingdom citizens being educated in the Republic for the current and each of the last two years ; what is his estimate of the sums of public money expended by the Republic on those students ; and what were the sums expended on the other activities referred to by (a) his Department and (b) the Irish Republic authorities.Sir John Wheeler : United Kingdom citizens are free to choose to study in the Republic of Ireland or any other country of the European Community. In the current year 1,124 students from Northern Ireland are benefiting from higher education provision in the Republic of Ireland ; the latest statistics available indicate that some 378 students from other parts of the United Kingdom attended full-time higher education courses there in 1991-92.
A number of children with hearing impairments, from Northern Ireland, are receiving special education at a special school in the Republic of Ireland.
Other educational activities include a range of collaborative ventures between the universities in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland which bring mutual benefits.
Some patients are referred to hospitals in the Republic of Ireland specifically for treatments which are not available in Northern Ireland.
The sums to be expended by the Northern Ireland Departments on Northern Ireland students and pupils educated in the Republic of Ireland are not yet available for the current financial year. However, the following figures are available for the last two years :
Year |£ ------------------------------ 1992-93 |2,232,524 1993-94 |3,486,347
Figures for the sums expended on students from other parts of the United Kingdom are not the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Departments.
Sums expended on the other educational activities are usually borne by the education institutions themselves but sometimes with the assistance of European funding. The Department of Health in Great Britain has responsibility for the financial aspects of referral of patients to hospitals in the Republic of Ireland.
The sums expended by the Government of the Republic of Ireland on educational and other activities is a matter for the Irish authorities.
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