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Quarantine Regulations

Mr. Tony Banks: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he has completed his review of the current quarantine regulations; and if he will make a statement. [9893]

Mrs. Browning: Our work is not yet complete.

Arable Area Payments

Mr. Garnier: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what proportion of arable area aid payments in 1996 were made within the 31 December deadline. [11580]

Mr. Douglas Hogg: I am pleased to say that arable area payments were sent out to 99 per cent. of claimants in England by 31 December, covering around 98 per cent. of payments by value. This successful result bears testimony both to the prompt and accurate return of claims by farmers and to the efforts made by the Ministry's staff to process payments as required by EU rules.

WALES

Class Sizes

Mr. Win Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will collate and publish the figures provided in the Office of Her Majesty's chief inspector's school inspection reports of maintained primary schools on class size in each year. [9589]

Mr. Jonathan Evans: The Office of Her Majesty's chief inspector does not collect information on class size in each year group. Statistics on the average size of registered classes within maintained primary schools are published in "Statistics of Education and Training in Wales: Schools No. 4 1996".

Staff

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list for his Department (a) how many people in total are employed, (b) how many of the total number of staff are (i) male and (ii) female and (c) how many (I) men and (II) women are employed on a (1) full time and (2) part time basis. [9485]

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Mr. Hague: The information requested as at December 1996 is as follows:

	Full-time	Part-time	Total staff
Male	1,146	17	1,163
Female	970	273	1,243
Total	2,116	290	2,406

Figures shown include staff in the Executive Agency, Cadw.

Health Service Expenditure

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales on what date the sections of the appropriation account for Wales concerning central Government expenditure on the NHS in Wales were published. [10280]

Mr. Hague: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 16 December 1996, Official Report, column 446-47.

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the principal areas to which the additional £30 million for the national health service provided for in the winter supplementary estimates will be applied. [9956]

Mr. Hague: Of the £30 million end-year flexibility entitlement take-up in the winter supplementary estimate, £18 million related to capital expenditure--£6 million for NHS trusts and £12 million for slippage on centrally funded schemes--mainly Wrexham Maelor phase 2, Ynys-y-Plwm, Princess of Wales phase 2 and Torfaen community hospital. The remaining £12 million was taken up for a number of revenue expenditure items including 2.5 million for GP fundholder carry-forward, £3 million for the dental initiative, £1 million for the clinical effectiveness initiative and £3 million for health authority liquidity.

Ambulance Services

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what (a) sanctions and (b) incentives he has to encourage ambulance trusts to meet the targets of 60 per cent. of ambulance staff trained as paramedics and one paramedic on each emergency call-out ambulance within his timetable; and if he will make a statement. [10268]

Mr. Hague: No sanctions have been introduced. Training funds are provided centrally to encourage the ambulance trusts to meet the set targets.

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to the Government response to the Third Report of the Welsh Affairs Committee, HC 91, Session 1996-97, what is his current estimate of the proportion of ambulance staff trained as paramedics in each ambulance trust; and what assessment he has made of the probability of their meeting the 60 per cent. target within his timetable. [10270]

Mr. Hague: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 16 December 1996, Official Report, column 446.

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to the Government response to the Third Report of the Welsh Affairs Committee on the Training of Ambulance Paramedics, HC 91, Session 1996-97, if he will make a statement on (a) the proposed new patients charter standard in relation to life-threatening call-outs,

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(b) the pilot study on prioritisation of emergency calls and (c) the research project into the costs and benefits of calls prioritisation, with particular reference to sparsely populated areas. [10269]

Mr. Hague: Any new patients charter standard in Wales in relation to life-threatening calls will be announced after my Department has fully researched the benefits and costs of calls prioritisation. No pilot study will be introduced until I am satisfied with the results of the research which is likely to be completed by April 1997.

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to the Government response to the Third Report of the Welsh Affairs Committee, HC 91, Session 1996-97, on the Training of Ambulance Paramedics what (a) interim arrangements for funding training and (b) top-sliced funds he has agreed with the Ambulance Trusts for (i) first time paramedic training and (ii) re-training for 1997-98. [10267]

Mr. Hague: Current funding arrangements, including the continuation of one-off funding for refresher training, will be kept in place in 1997-98. There will be no change in top-sliced funding in 1997-98 in respect of ambulance paramedics training.

Ministerial Leave

Mr. Ian McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many days of leave he plans to take during the Christmas Adjournment. [9825]

Mr. Hague: Five.

Mr. Ian McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many days leave he has taken in the Easter, Whitsun and summer Adjournments; and how many days leave he took during the time in which Parliament was prorogued this year. [9824]

Mr. Hague: The following is the information:

Easter: three
Whitsun: three
Summer: nine
Prorogued: none.

General Practitioners

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many (a) trainee GPs and (b) GP training places there were in each Welsh GP training centre in (i) August 1995 and (ii) August 1994; and if he will make a statement on the vacancy rate for the 1994, 1995 and 1996 GP training schemes. [9958]

Mr. Hague: Information obtained from the University of Wales college of medicine, relating to August 1995, is given in the following table. The college is unable to provide information relating to August 1994.

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GP training places

	Number of places
Training centre	Available	Filled
Aberystwyth	10	2
Bridgend	9	9
Carmarthen	5	3
Clwyd North (Rhyl)	Not known
Clwyd South (Wrexham)	6	5
East Glamorgan	8	3
Gwynedd (Bangor)	15	7
Haverfordwest	4	1
Gwent North (Abergavenny)	6	1
Gwent South (Newport)	6	2
South Glamorgan (Cardiff)	6	5
Swansea Bay	8	8

Hospital Beds

Mr. Barry Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what specific action he has taken to eliminate bed blocking in north-east Wales; and if he will make a statement. [9962]

Mr. Gwilym Jones: This is a matter for local resolution by the health and local authorities concerned.

Mr. Barry Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what action he is taking to enable general practitioners in north Wales to obtain hospital emergency medical beds for frail elderly patients; and if he will make a statement. [9964]

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Mr. Gwilym Jones: The North Wales health authority has confirmed that for all categories of patient, emergency care remains the authority's highest priority and will have first call on the additional resources available to it during 1996-97.

The improved arrangements for forecasting and managing need in 1996-97 are working well.

Treatment Centres

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to his answer of 16 December, Official Report, column 448, if he will place in the Library a copy of the consultation letter and the responses on the future of the treatment centres. [10285]

Mr. Hague: I have placed copies of the Department's consultation letter of 28 June together with a summary of the responses on the future of the treatment centre initiative in the Library.

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what are the funding arrangements and the numbers of cases to be dealt with in 1997-98 in each treatment centre indicating funding and numbers of cases in each health authority area; and what are the equivalent figures for 1995-96 and 1996-97. [10286]

Mr. Hague: For 1997-98 ring-fenced funding for the treatment centre initiative will be put into health authorities allocations. The allocation of places at each centre next year, and hence the funding to be made available, is currently being determined in discussion with the centres themselves. Activity at and funding for the treatment centres in 1995-96 and that currently planned for 1996-97 is shown in the following table:

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Treatment centres--funding and number of cases1995-96 activity

Health authority	Treatment Centre
	Bridgend ophthalmic		Bridgend surgical		Rhydlafar orthopaedic
				Hips		Knees		Joint revisions
	Procedures	Funding	Procedures	Funding	Procedures	Funding	Procedures	Funding	Procedures	Funding
		£		£		£		£		£
Clwyd	0	0	8	3,893	8	23,656	14	51,016	0	0
Dyfed	156	138,134	65	31,627	35	103,495	14	51,016	2	12,986
Gwent	235	208,087	158	76,879	29	85,753	23	83,812	8	51,944
Gwynedd	0	0	2	973	0	0	0	0	0	0
Mid Glamorgan	445	394,036	541	263,237	31	91,667	21	76,524	7	45,451
Powys	11	9,740	1	487	8	23,656	4	14,576	2	12,986
South Glamorgan	60	53,128	172	83,691	26	76,882	19	69,236	7	45,451
West Glamorgan	173	153,187	113	54,983	23	68,011	12	43,728	5	32,465
Total	1,080	956,312	1,060	515,770	160	473,120	107	389,908	31	201,283

1996-97 current allocations

Health authority	Treatment centre
	Bridgend ophthalmic		Bridgend surgical		Rhydlafar orthopaedic(28)
					Hips		Knees		Joint Revisions
	Allocation	Funding	Allocation	Funding	Allocation	Funding	Allocation	Funding	Allocation	Funding
		£		£		£		£		£
North Wales	0	0	2	1,000	10	28,440	30	105,750	0	0
Dyfed Powys	200	175,226	93	46,495	31	88,164	19	66,975	12	77,916
Gwent	340	297,884	190	94,992	25	71,100	20	70,500	15	97,395
Bro Taf	245	214,652	374	186,982	24	68,256	17	59,925	18	116,874
Iechyd' Morgannwg	295	258,458	401	200,481	17	48,348	12	42,300	15	97,395
Total	1,080	946,220	1,060	529,950	107	304,308	98	345,450	60	389,580

(28)Does not include mid-year reallocations for the Rhydlafar centre--discussions are currently on-going.

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