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HEALTH
Redundancy Payments
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what have been the gross redundancy payments made by each (a) health authority and (b) trust in each region in each year since 1990. [4187]
Mr. Malone: The information will be placed in the Library. The figures for 1994-95 are provisional.
Residential Homes
Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many long-stay geriatric beds have been closed since 1979; and how many private residential nursing home beds opened since that date. [5592]
Mr. Bowis: Information is not available in the form requested.
Mental Health
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what checks and safeguards are in place in respect of inmates in institutions for the criminally insane ordering goods by mail order for individuals outside that institution who do not wish to receive them. [6025]
Mr. Bowis: This is a matter for the Special Hospital Services Authority. Decisions to withhold mail are subject to review by the Mental Health Act Commission.
Dr. Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he proposes to take to bring up to the average the spending of those English local authorities which is below the average expenditure of personal social services budgets on mental health services. [6748]
Mr. Bowis: None. It is for the elected member of local authorities to decide how much to spend on particular services in the light of local needs and priorities.
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Dr. Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he plans to take in response to the sixth biennial report of the Mental Health Act Commission on acute hospital beds in (i) all major conurbations, (ii) Devon, (iii) East Anglia and (iv) Cheshire. [6750]
Mr. Bowis: We shall be responding in due course.
Mr. Litherland: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many detained non-UK national hospital patients have been removed to a country abroad since 1983, under the provision in the Mental Health Act 1983. [6926]
Mr. Litherland: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of detained non-UK national hospital patients requiring mental health treatment and removed to a country abroad have had their cases considered by the mental health review tribunal; and to how many of these the tribunal has refused to give its approval for removal since 1983. [6922]
Mr. Bowis: This information is not available centrally.
Mr. Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what checks and safeguards are in place to regulate the use of telephones by inmates in institutions for the criminally insane. [6024]
Mr. Bowis: This is a matter for the Special Hospital Services Authority.
Dr. Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps are being taken by his Department and by the relevant professional organisations to organise training for their members in respect of the provisions of the Mental Health (Patients in the Community) Act 1995, and their duties under the Act. [6749]
Mr. Bowis: The Department will be issuing comprehensive guidance on the implementation of the Act's provisions which will assist in training.
Advertising
Mr. Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the expenditure of his (a) Department, (b) agencies and (c) non-departmental public bodies on newspaper advertising by title for each year since 1990-91; and what estimate he has made for 1995- 96 based on expenditure to date and existing plans. [6561]
Mr. Horam: This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Lindane
Ms Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the level of risk to human health from the use of lindane as a pesticide. [6216]
Mr. Horam: The Government are advised on the safety of pesticides by the independent expert statutory Advisory Committee on Pesticides. It has reviewed the use of lindane as a non-agricultural pesticide and concluded that used in accordance with the conditions of approval there would be no undue risk to human health. Details of this review were published in December 1992 in the document "Evaluation of Gamma HCH (Lindane 2)", copies of
19 Dec 1995 : Column: 1134
which are available in the Library. A review of the agricultural uses of lindane is presently being undertaken by the committee and the results of this are expected early next year.
Ms Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what evidence he has evaluated in respect of a possible link between lindane and breast cancer. [6220]
Mr. Horam: The Department of Health's independent expert Advisory Committee on the Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment reviewed the available epidemiology data on breast cancer in women and levels of lindane in serum and breast fat tissue at its meeting on the 16 March 1995. The committee concluded that there was no clear evidence of an association between serum and fat levels of lindane and breast cancer at the present time, but recommended that the matter be kept under review.
Ms Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the countries which have banned the use of lindane as a pesticide and their reasons for doing so. [6221]
Mrs. Browning: I have been asked to reply.
This information is not collected by the Government. I am aware that approvals have been withdrawn for uses of lindane in Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
Ms Harman:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what is the statutory maximum safe level for lindane in milk for human consumption in each European country; [6218]
(2) what is the maximum recommended safe level for consumption of lindane by humans in each European country. [6219]
Mrs. Browning:
I have been asked to reply.
Statutory pesticide maximum residue levels--MRLs-- for all active ingredient/commodity combinations in the EU are being established through an EC Commission priority programme. The MRL for lindane in milk was included in directive 93/57/EC and is set at 0.008 mg/kg of milk.
Safety limits are expressed in terms of the acceptable daily intake--ADI--of a particular pesticide from all sources, which is the level that can be consumed every day for an individual's entire lifetime in the practical certainty, on the basis of all known facts, that no harm will result. ADIs are agreed internationally through a World Health Organisation procedure, and for lindane the recommended level is 0.008 mg/kg/bodyweight.
Ms Harman:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the maximum safe level of lindane in milk for human consumption; and how many times in each of the last five years milk has been found to contain higher amounts than the maximum safe level. [6217]
Mrs. Browning:
I have been asked to reply.
For lindane in milk, the current maximum residue level is 0.008 mg/kg, and at no time during the last five years has monitoring by the Government's working party on pesticide residues revealed an exceedance of this limit.
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Mr. Congdon:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what progress his Department has made in assessing the cost to the NHS of skin diseases caused by certain types of latex surgical gloves; and if he will make a statement; [6316]
(2) if the Medical Devices Agency has now issued a device bulletin to the health service in respect of latex sensitivity. [6318]
Mr. Horam:
The Medical Devices Agency expects to publish the device bulletin on latex sensitivity in the health care setting early in the new year. Information on the cost of particular skin diseases to the national health service is not available centrally.
19 Dec 1995 : Column: 1136
Ms Harman:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many people are suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus in England; what is the age-sex distribution of the disease; and if he will make a statement on systemic lupus erythematosus; [6296]
(2) what was his total budget for (a) self-help groups and (b) self-help groups dealing with systemic lupus erythematosus in each of the last five years; [6298]
(3) what was the total amount of research money given for systemic lupus erythematosus by his Department in each of the last five years. [6297]
Mr. Bowis:
The information available centrally is shown in the table. The information covers admissions to hospitals.
| All ages | 0-4 | 5-14 | 15-44 | 45-64 | 65-74 | 75-84 | 85 and over | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 317 | 5 | 45 | 136 | 82 | 41 | 7 | 1 |
| Female | 2,296 | 9 | 135 | 1,386 | 604 | 134 | 26 | 2 |
| Total | 2,613 | 14 | 180 | 1,522 | 686 | 175 | 33 | 3 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics.
19 Dec 1995 : Column: 1135
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