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LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT

Justices of the Peace, Wales

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many new justices of the peace were appointed in Wales during 1995; and what is the political affiliation of the new appointees. [27019]

Mr. Jonathan Evans: The total number of new justices of the peace appointed in Wales in 1995 was 112. Their political affiliation is as follows:


County Court, Northampton

Mr. Timms: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how much compensation for delay has been paid since the commencement of the current industrial action at the county court bulk issuing and summons production centres at Northampton. [26961]

Mr. Jonathan Evans: The question concerns a specific operational matter on which the chief executive of the Court Service is best placed to provide an answer and I have accordingly asked the chief executive to reply direct.

Letter from M. D. Huebner to Mr. Stephen Timms, dated 2 May 1996:


Mr. Timms: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department which organisations have received compensation for delays arising from the current industrial action at the county court bulk issuing and summons production centres in Northampton. [26962]

Mr. Evans: The question concerns a specific operational matter on which the chief executive of the Court Service is best placed to provide an answer and I have accordingly asked the chief executive to reply direct.

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Letter from M. D. Huebner to Mr. Stephen Timms, dated 2 May 1996:


HEALTH

Oral Cancer

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what plans his Department has to introduce a co-ordinated national programme of education in the early identification of oral cancer; and if he will make a statement; [27016]

Mr. Horam: All oral examinations include examination of both hard and soft tissue. Dentists are trained in the early recognition of abnormalities in the mouth. Oral cancer can result from excessive alcohol or tobacco consumption, the risks of which are widely publicised and recognised. There are no plans at present to introduce set targets for reducing oral cancer morbidity or mortality rates. The chief dental officer chairs the national advisory group on screening for oral cancer which was set up last October. The group co-ordinates the detecting and preventing of oral cancers. The national health service national cancer research and development programme commissioned in 1995 a systematic review of the early natural history of certain cancers, including oral cancer, where there was potential for screening to reduce mortality. This research item was one of 25 priority areas ratified by the NHS Central Research and Development Committee. The systematic review is being undertaken by the cancer screening evaluation unit based at the Institute of Cancer Research. It will take approximately one year.

GP Lists

Ms Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the grounds on which a general practitioner can remove an NHS patient from their list. [27146]

Mr. Malone: Under his terms of service "a general practitioner may have any person removed from his list and is required to notify the health authority in writing that he wishes to have a person removed from his list."

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Professional guidance issued by the General Medical Council in May 1992 states that "it is unacceptable to abuse the right to refuse to accept patients by applying criteria of access to the practice list which discriminate against groups of patients on grounds of their age, sex, sexual orientation, race, colour, religious belief, perceived economic worth or the amount of work they are likely to generate by virtue of their clinical condition."

HIV Tests

Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the cost of retesting the 25,000 stored samples which had previously been tested for HIV using the faulty Abbot kit; and who will be responsible for meeting this cost. [27151]

Mr. Horam: It is too early to say yet what the costs of the retesting exercise are likely to have been but national health service trusts have been asked to keep a record of their costs and the Department is liaising with the NHS and public health laboratory service on this. Abbott Laboratories Ltd. has stated that it will pay the cost of retesting.

East London and the City Health Authority

Ms Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will give the budget of the East London and the City health authority in each year from 1994-95 to 1997-98. [27112]

Mr. Malone: For details of the 1994-95 final revenue cash limit and the 1995-96 initial revenue cash limit for East London and the City district health authority, I refer the hon. Member to the reply my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State (Mr. Horam) gave her on 11 December 1995, Official Report, column 520.

The 1996-97 initial revenue cash limit for East London and the City health authority is £317,616,000.

Cash limits for 1997-98 have not yet been set.

HIV and AIDS

Mr. Kirkwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the changes from April in the system for commissioning national health promotion work on HIV and AIDS. [27176]

Mr. Horam: The Government's HIV-AIDS health promotion strategy 1 , published in November 1995, identifies the need for targeted and national campaigns and for greater voluntary sector involvement in this area. A contract to undertake a national campaign in the coming year has been awarded to the Health Education Authority. We are currently exploring the scope for greater voluntary sector involvement with targeted campaigns.


Elderly Patients

Mr. David Nicholson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many representations have been made to his Department about the practice of some general practitioners of removing elderly patients from their lists in each of the last four years; and what statistics he

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collates which show the number of patients aged over 70 years who are removed from general practitioner lists against their will each year. [27245]

Mr. Malone: The Department has received several representations from members of the public and from hon. Members concerning the removal of patients from general practitioners' lists. Information by age category on the number of patients removed is not available centrally.

Tuberculosis

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children were notified as having tuberculosis in each of the last five years; and how many in each year were from areas where health authorities stopped the school immunisation programme. [27441]

Mr. Horam: The number of notifications of all tuberculosis, excluding chemoprophylaxis, in children under 16 years old in England and Wales is shown below:


BCG immunisation to protect against tuberculosis is recommended for children between the ages of 10 and 14. District health authorities are responsible for the programme in their own areas and information on this is not available centrally.

Dental Provision

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made as to the adequacy of NHS dental provision; and if he will make a statement. [27418]

Mr. Malone: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave my hon. Friend the Member of Taunton (Mr. Nicholson) on 16 April columns, Official Report, 475-76.

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