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Education Vouchers

Ms Corston: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what sums of money (a) have been and (b) will be paid to Capita Managed Services Ltd. for issuing and redeeming nursery education vouchers for phase 1 of the voucher scheme. [3373]

Mr. Robin Squire: The Government's contract with Capita Managed Services Ltd. to administer phase 1 of the nursery voucher scheme was awarded after a competitive tender. The financial details are commercially confidential.

HEALTH

Nurses

Mr. Robin Cook: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) district nurses and (b) health visitors were in training for each of the years between 1988 and 1995 inclusive broken down by real frequency and whole-time equivalents. [1270]

Mr. Bowis: This information is not available centrally. I refer the hon. Member to the English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting annual reports, copies of which are available in the Library.

Ms Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many nurses (a) entered and (b) left the profession in each year since 1990; and if he will make a statement. [3140]

Mr. Bowis: This information is not available centrally.

Clinical Depression

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of the incidence of clinical depression in the United Kingdom. [2223]

Mr. Bowis: The report of the first national survey of psychiatric morbidity in Great Britain, commissioned by my Department, was published in May 1995. This described the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among adults aged 16 to 64 living in private households and

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showed that in this population 77 per 1,000 adults were suffering from mixed anxiety and depressive disorder and 21 per 1,000 adults from a depressive episode.

Family Health Service Authorities

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will instruct family health service authorities to include in the public papers of their meetings details of all cases where they have withheld remuneration from general practitioner practices to the value of £500 or more. [2240]

Mr. Malone: No. Decisions to withhold remuneration from a general practitioner are taken by family health services authorities under the National Health Service (Service Committee and Tribunal) Regulations 1992, as amended. Regulation 9(9) provides for the FHSA's decision to be communicated only to the parties to the proceedings, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and where reasonably requested to do so by either party, to any Member of either House of Parliament.

Prozac

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the prescription by psychiatrists of Prozac to children. [2229]

Mr. Bowis: The use of Prozac for children is not recommended under the terms of the product licence but the application of this advice is a matter for individual clinical judgment.

Adoption and Fostering

Mr. John Townsend: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) adoptions there have been in the United Kingdom and (b) children have been put out to foster in each of the last 10 years; and what has been the total cost to public funds of fostering in the last year. [2133]

Mr. Bowis: Numbers of adoptions in England and Wales are published in "Marriage and Divorce Statistics: England and Wales 19XX. OPCS series FM2", copies of which are available in the Library. Information about adoptions in Scotland and Northern Ireland is a matter for

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my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Numbers of children placed with local authority foster parents in England in the 10 years to 31 March 1993 are contained in historical tables in "Children Looked After by Local Authorities, 14 October 1991 to 31 March 1993. A/F 93/12", copies of which are available in the Library. The provisional figure for 31 March 1994 was 32,000.

Net expenditure by local authorities on children boarded out in 1993-94, the latest year for which the information is available, was £244 million.

West Midlands Regional Health Authority

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if the unauthorised ex gratia payment to the former director of regionally managed services of the West Midlands regional health authority has been recovered. [2473]

Mr. Malone: The prospects for recovering this payment are presently being reviewed, taking account of recent legal advice.

Dental Amalgam

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what evaluation his Department has carried out in the past two years of the level of toxicity of mercury fillings in current use in dentistry; and if he will make a statement; [2488]

(2) what assessment he has made of the cost to the NHS of a ban on the use of mercury-based amalgams in dentistry and the use of alternative non-mercury based amalgams; and if he will make a statement; [2522]

(3) what recent research has been undertaken or commissioned by his Department into the exposure of patients to mercury following the use of dental silver amalgam; and if he will make a statement; [2489]

(4) what representations he has received in respect of the ban imposed by the German Ministry of Health on the use of mercury amalgam in dentistry; and if he will make a statement; [2654]

(5) what assessment his Department has made of the ban by the Austrian Government of the use of mercury amalgams in dental fillings for children from 1996; and if he will make a statement; [2521]

(6) what research his Department has undertaken into mercury hypersensitivity from dental amalgam in patients giving rise to oral lichen planus lesions; and if he will make a statement; [2529]

(7) what research his Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated into the level of mercury concentration in the hippocampus, the amygdala and the nucleus basalis of people who have died of Alzheimer's disease; and if he will make a statement; [2523]

(8) if he will evaluate the research material upon which the Swedish Government have now introduced a gradual phasing out of the use of mercury amalgam for dental fillings; and if he will make a statement. [2671]

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Mr. Malone: The Committee on Toxicity advised in 1986 that the use of dental amalgam is free from the risk of systemic toxicity and that only a few cases of hypersensitivity occur. The subsequent research findings and recent evaluations by other authoritative national and international expert committees are consistent with that advice. The Department continues to monitor and evaluate research in this area.

There are neither reasons to ban dental amalgam nor to carry out a cost assessment of the use of amalgam or alternative materials.

In 1994, the South and West regional health authority commissioned research by Bristol dental school into whether amalgam-related treatment should be avoided during pregnancy.

A European working group, which includes United Kingdom representatives, is currently reviewing dental amalgam in the context of the requirements of the European medical devices directive.

The Department is aware that the European Commission has received notification from German authorities of an intention to restrict the use of amalgam for certain patients. However, the Department has not received any formal notification of any German or Austrian ban on the use of amalgam.

There are only a few documented cases of hypersensitivity to dental amalgam in literature and there has been no evidence to suggest an increase. The Committee on Toxicity advised that there was no need for further research.

The Department has commissioned no research into the preponderance of mercury concentration on the brains of people who have died of Alzheimer's disease. An information sheet, prepared for the Alzheimer's Disease Society by Professor Jim Edwardson director of the MRC Neurochemical Pathology unit, concludes that there is very little evidence to link this metal with Alzheimer's disease.

The Department has received and considered the 1994 report from Sweden which states that the expert group found no evidence that there is a connection between dental amalgam and general or specific ill health except in rare cases of hypersensitivity.

Alzheimer's Disease

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated into the causes of high concentrations of mercury in the brain cells of deceased victims of Alzheimer's disease; if he will list the conclusions of his Department in respect of the causes; and if he will make a statement. [2524]

Mr. Bowis: The Department has not commissioned any such research.

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Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of Alzheimer's disease were reported in the United Kingdom (a) 1970, (b) 1975, (c) 1980, (d) 1985, (e) 1990 and (f) 1995; and if he will make a statement. [2525]

Mr. Bowis: This information is not available centrally. It is estimated that there are currently around 600,00 sufferers from dementia in England and Wales.

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