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WALES

Osiris Network

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list (a) the main software systems in use in his Department on the date of commencement of the Osiris network and (b) the purposes for which the systems were installed; and to whom the intellectual property rights belong. [14340]

Mr Hague: The following table gives details of the main software systems in use in the Welsh Office at the start of the Osiris contract. Intellectual property rights rest with the Welsh Office for bespoke systems and with the suppliers for commercial packages.

Type of purpose	Product	Commercial/Bespoke
Office automation	DisplayWrite	Commercial
	Lotus 123	Commercial
	Smart	Commercial
Financial package	JBA	Commercial
Statistical package	SPSS	Commercial
Highways information	Access
Grant administration	Dataflex
Financial information	Ingress	Bespoke
	Visual C
	Visual basic
	Smart

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if part of his Department's computer (a) hardware and (b) software systems was transferred to the Osiris project and its private owners; and what policy his Department agreed with the company installing Osiris under the

7 Feb 1997 : Column: 758

private finance initiative as to (i) the disposal of redundant computer hardware and software systems and (ii) the transfer of intellectual property rights. [14349]

Mr. Hague: Ownership of part of my Department's computer hardware passed to Siemens Business Services under the Osiris contract. There was no transfer of ownership for software systems. Siemens Business Services is required under the contract to remove unwanted equipment with minimum disruption and to meet the Department's security requirements for equipment no longer in use. As no software systems were transferred the question of the transfer of intellectual property rights does not arise.

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the main types of computers in use in his Department on the date of commencement of the Osiris network; and if he will categorise those computers by age and approximate capital value when new and after depreciation. [14348]

Mr. Hague: The following table gives details of the main types of computer in use in the Welsh Office at the start of the Osiris contract.

Type	Age range (years)	Original value (£)	Depreciated value (£)
Personal computers	1 to 10	--	(2)2,350,000
Machines under UNIX	1 to 6	154,727	99,317
AS400	2 to 6	415,895	59,413
Mainframe 4381	10	1,350,000	Nil

(2) Personal Computers have a depreciation life of three years, at the end of which their value is nil. To have replaced all the personal computers with new equipment would have cost about £2,350,00.

7 Feb 1997 : Column: 759

Hospital Statistics

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what consultations he has had with the chairmen of the Welsh health authorities concerning the supply of statistics on the number of non-emergency operations cancelled since Christmas 1996 to assist hospitals in coping with the surge in medical emergency admissions; if he will give such statistics as have been collected; and if he will make a statement. [14965]

Mr. Hague: None. I shall, however, be meeting health authority chairmen on 10 March 1997 when a range of issues, including emergency medical admissions, will be discussed.

Early Retirement

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on the financial payments for Treasury grant in aid to his departmental costs in running its voluntary early retirement scheme, with particular reference to the start and completion date of the scheme and the costs to (a) public funds and (b) his Department's budget in (i) 1994-95, (ii) 1995-96, (iii) 1996-97 and (iv) 1997-98. [14820]

Mr. Hague: No grant in aid was received from Treasury for the Department's early retirement scheme which ran from 1 April 1995 to 31 March 1996.

The cost of the scheme from the Department's own funds was:

1994-95: £0.7 million
1995-96: £0.7 million
1996-97: £1.8 million estimated
1997-98: £0.4 million estimated.

The Treasury meets its portion of the costs of early retirements directly from the civil superannuation vote. No funding is transferred to the Department.

Psychotic Diseases

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will estimate how many people in Wales were registered sufferers of (a) Alzheimer's disease, (b) schizophrenia and (c) other psychotic diseases in each of the last five years, and if he will make a statement.[14663]

Mr. Gwilym Jones: The information requested is not held centrally.

ENVIRONMENT

Parish Council Elections

Mr. Rendel: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment on what date each of the district councils concerned was informed of the Government's decision that parish elections, in areas due to hold their first unitary council elections in 1997, would not be held in 1997.[14822]

Sir Paul Beresford: As no ordinary parish council elections are due in 1997, it is not necessary to inform any district councils that they will not take place.

7 Feb 1997 : Column: 760

HEALTH

Sick Children Nurses

Mr. Chris Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list by trust the number of registered sick children nurses. [12055]

Mr. Horam: The information requested will be placed in the Library shortly.

Lariam

Ms Corston: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the safety of lariam.[14275]

Mr. Malone: Lariam (mefloquine) is an authorised medicine used in the treatment and prevention of malaria which is considered to have an acceptable level of safety in relation to its benefits. A rigorous evaluation of quality, safety and efficacy of mefloquine by the Licensing Authority and its expert advisory body, the Committee on Safety of Medicines was carried out before a marketing authorisation was granted in 1990. Mefloquine, like all medicines, has side effects, and the Medicines Control Agency and the CSM continue to monitor its safety. If new relevant evidence comes to light, this is reviewed in order to ensure the risk of possible side-effects is outweighed by the benefits. Information on how to use mefloquine, including its side effects and precautions in use, is available to health care professionals and to patients through the manufacturer's product information authorised by the MCA, the British National Formulary and the bulletin Current Problems in Pharmacovigilance.

Public Health Consultants

Mr. Chris Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many public health consultants there were in public health medicines in each health authority in 1980, 1985, 1990 and 1996. [14331]

Mr. Malone: The available information is shown in the table.

Consultants(3) in Public Health Medicine by region as at 30 September each year(whole time equivalent)

	1980	1985	1990	1995
Northern	40	30	40	30
Yorkshire	30	40	30	30
Trent	40	40	30	40
East Anglia	20	30	20	40
North-west Thames	30	40	30	40
North-east Thames	20	30	30	30
South-east Thames	20	30	30	30
South-west Thames	30	40	20	30
Wessex	20	20	20	30
Oxford	20	20	20	20
South Western	30	30	30	30
West Midlands	50	50	50	60
Mersey	20	20	20	30
North Western	50	50	50	50
Wales	30	40	30	40
Total	440	490	440	540

N.B. all figures are rounded to the nearest ten. Totals may not match the sum of the individual regions due to rounding.

(3) Includes regional and district directors of public health.

7 Feb 1997 : Column: 761

The figures are comparable for the years requested, only if given by the old regional health authorities.

Senior Medical House Officers

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what approval is required from the dean of faculty to enable a district general hospital to appoint a senior house officer in medicine once training approval has been granted by the Royal College of Physicians; and if he will make a statement. [14315]

Mr. Malone: Arrangements for the recruitment of medical and dental trainees are set out in an executive letter EL(94)58, and copies have been placed in the Library. Senior house officer posts may be given staffing approval by the regional task force on junior doctors' hours in consultation with the postgraduate dean. In approving a new SHO post, the postgraduate dean will wish to have regard to the distribution of posts within a region, the balance of training opportunities for each specialty and the availability of applicants and resources.

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what are the professional guidelines for the ratio of senior medical house officers to patient work load (a) in day-time hours and (b) out of hours. [14317]

Mr. Malone: In each national health service trust the number and grading mix of doctors is based on careful appraisal, by department, of the service and training commitments, the tasks required, and the skills and competencies needed. These requirements vary according to the type of trust, service needs and local circumstances.

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