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North Tees General Hospital
Mr. Frank Cook: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many vacancies there are for (a) nurses, (b) junior doctors, (c) middle-range doctors and (d) consultants at North Tees general hospital, Stockton on Tees; if his Department is meeting patient charter requirements for waiting times in accident and emergency; and if he will make a statement about the future of accident and emergency services at the hospital. [23303]
Mr. Horam: Vacancies for nurses, junior doctors, middle-range doctors and consultants at North Tees general hospital are a matter for North Tees Health national health service trust. The hon. Member may wish to contact Mrs. Judyth Graham-Bowman, chairman of the trust, for details.
Details of the proportion of patients assessed within five minutes of arrival in accident and emergency departments are contained in the NHS performance guide 1994-95, copies of which are available in the Library.
Accident and emergency services on Teeside are a matter for Tees health authority. The hon. Member may wish to contact the chairman of the authority, Mr. Tom O'Connor, for details.
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Mr. Deva:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what arrangements he has to publish the Adoption Bill for England and Wales; and if he will make a statement.[24067]
Mr. Bowis:
I am pleased to announce that the Adoption Bill has been published today in the form of a consultation document and is being distributed widely. Copies will be placed in the Library. Comments on the content of the Bill will be welcome and three months will be allowed for this.
Mr. Simon Hughes:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 11 December, Official Report, column 522, if Dr. Janet Derbyshire, Professor Michael Rawlins or Professor Michael Langman were present at the meeting of the Committee on Safety of Medicines held on 13 October 1995. [22525]
Mr. Malone:
Proceedings of the committee are confidential.
Mr. Hughes:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 14 December, Official Report, column 811, how many orders under schedule 1 to the Medicines Act 1968 have been made with respect to sub-committees of advisory committees set up under the terms of section 4 of the Medicines Act 1968; and if ministerial approval has been given for the establishment of any sub-committee of the Committee on Safety of Medicines as provided for by (a) regulation 6 of the Medicines Commission and Committee Regulations 1970 and (b) paragraph 1(c) of schedule 1 to the Medicines Act 1968. [22526]
Mr. Malone:
Schedule 1 to the Medicines Act 1968 does not contain any power to make orders but I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave the hon. Member for Gordon (Mr. Bruce) on 14 December 1995 at column 811, which stated that one set of regulations has been made under that schedule.
Ministers have approved the establishment of each of the three sub-committees of the Committee on Safety of Medicines as required by regulation 6(1) of those regulations.
Mrs. Ewing:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what have been the levels of expenditure in 1996 prices of Government-sponsored medical research into the incidence of (a) scrapie in sheep, (b) BSE in cattle and (c) Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans for each five-yearly period since 1970; and if he will provide a breakdown of that research with regard to (i) epidemiological and (ii) neuro-pathological studies. [23369]
Mr. Horam:
The Government have carried out extensive veterinary and basis biological research on the epidemiology of scrapie and bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Much of this work has been done at the Central Veterinary Laboratory and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council's--formerly the Agricultural Food Research Council's--Institute of Animal Health. Details of the funding of this work broken down in the way requested for the years specified would
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be available only at disproportionate cost. However, from 1991 to the present, the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food has spent about £20 million on research in these areas.
The Department of Health had provided £809,000 1 for epidemiological studies and £658,000 1 for neuropathological studies in relation to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease--CJD--in the period covering the financial years 1990-91 to 1995-96. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced on 20 March, the Department is making an additional £4.5 million available for further research.
The Medical Research Council contributes approximately £600,000 per year to the core costs of the joint Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council--BBSRC/MRC--neuropathogenesis unit which carries out research related to the epidemiology and neuropathology of CJD. In addition, the MRC awarded the national CJD unit £229,000 in January 1993 for a two-year study to investigate the prion protein in human spongiform encephalopathies. The MRC also awarded the NPU £274,000 in March 1994 for a three-year study to investigate the strain characterisation of the CJD agent by transmission to mice. The MRC funded a project in the 1980s on the epidemiology of CJD, risk factors and person to person transmission. Further information from the MRC could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Horam:
Since 1993, the European Community has funded a project to co-ordinate the surveillance of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in those European countries with existing or proposed national CJD surveillance programmes, that is, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. This project is co-ordinated by the national CJD surveillance unit in Edinburgh. The data collected for 1993 and 1994 were published in the national CJD surveillance unit's fourth annual report in August 1995, copies of which have been placed in the Library. The incidence of CJD in the UK is similar to that in the other European countries taking part in the project. The figures for 1995 are not yet available.
Dr. Strang:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health further to his oral statement of 20 March, Official Report, column 378, that the facts upon which the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee based its deliberations would be made public, if he will set out which journals and on what dates each paper will be published. [23206]
Mr. Horam:
Arrangements are in hand to publish the evidence about a previously unrecognised form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in a scientific journal as soon as is practicable.
Dr. Wright:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list those of his Department's advisory non-departmental public bodies which (a) the
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Government are required to consult prior to legislative proposals and (b) the Government are required to publish their response to advice supplied by them. [21858]
Mr. Horam
[holding answer 21 March 1996]: The Government are required to:
11. Mr. David Atkinson:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the external factors which will require common agricultural policy reform. [21614]
Mr. Douglas Hogg:
The current general agreement on tariffs and trade constraints, particularly on subsidised exports, will require reform of CAP regimes in due course to prevent re-emergence of unsaleable food surpluses. World Trade Organisation negotiations designed to take forward the process of reducing subsidies and protection, due to start in 1999, and enlargement of the EU will intensify the pressures for reform.
13. Mr. Dykes:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to ensure that common agricultural policy reform is addressed by the Commission. [21616]
18. Mrs. Gorman:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list those elements of the common agricultural policy which he has assessed as requiring to be reformed. [21622]
Mr. Baldry:
I refer my hon. Friends to the answer that my right hon. and learned Friend gave today to the hon. Member for Bradford, South (Mr. Sutcliffe).
Mr. Simon Hughes:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease have been detected in each European country in each of the last 10 years; and how many people are estimated to have died in each country in each of the last 10 years as a result of this disease. [23196]
1 Expenditure expressed in 1996 prices.
Consult the following advisory non-departmental public bodies prior to legislative proposals:
Committee on the Safety of Medicines;
Medicines Commission;
Publish its response to advice supplied by advisory non-departmental public bodies:
none.
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