| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Planning Applications
Mr. Gorrie:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will extend the time allowed for community councils
31 Jul 1997 : Column: 605
and other community organisations to comment on the proposed changes in the procedures to notify neighbours of planning applications. [12086]
Mr. Chisholm:
I shall write to the hon. Member as soon as possible and arrange for a copy of the letter to be placed in the House Library.
Mr. Rooney:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many unemployed people have qualified for assistance under the business start-up scheme in each of the last five years; and what was the annual expenditure.[12170]
Mr. Wilson:
I shall write to my hon. Friend as soon as possible and arrange for a copy of the letter to be placed in the House Library.
Nursing Homes (Negligence)
Mr. David Atkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what provisions apply to enable individuals to pursue complaints of negligence against private sector nursing homes; and if he will make a statement. [7702]
Mr. Boateng: Any complaint about a nursing home, including complaints about the competence or negligence of nursing home staff, should be referred to and investigated by the local health authority in its capacity as registering authority of nursing homes under the Registered Homes Act 1984. The health authority will then decide what action to take.
Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act
Mr. Martyn Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to seek to update the Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act 1960 in order to (a) protect consumers and (b) protect clinical titles; and if he will make a statement. [8739]
Mr. Milburn: The Government are committed to bringing forward, for consultation, proposals for legislation to replace the Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act 1960. A Bill advisory group is advising the United Kingdom Health Departments on the preparation of instructions on a draft Bill, which will be subject to a wide-ranging consultation process to enable all the issues to be debated.
Ethnic Minorities
Mr. Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what percentage of employees, in each payband, in the quangos for which his Department is responsible, are of (a) Asian origin and (b) Afro-Caribbean origin. [8953]
Ms Jowell:
The information for all those public bodies which my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has responsibility--NHS bodies 1 --health authorities, NHS trusts, special health authorities, executive and advisory 2
31 Jul 1997 : Column: 606
non-departmental public bodies and tribunals--has been placed in the Library.
Mr. Cohen:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will introduce a mandatory requirement on all NHS bodies to undertake regular ethnic minority returns of staff. [11281]
Mr. Milburn:
National health service employers are already required to return ethnic origin information about their employees to the NHS Executive as part of the Department of Health's annual medical and dental and non-medical work force censuses.
Mr. Luff:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the availability of national health service dentistry in the Vale of Evesham. [9193]
Mr. Milburn:
There are problems with availability of national health service dentistry in the Vale of Evesham. It is the responsibility of health authorities to oversee the provision of NHS dental services in their locality. At the request of Worcestershire health authority, the Secretary of State authorised on 18 July a specific arrangement in Evesham designed to improve the availability of these services. The health authority is also seeking to employ a salaried dentist in Pershore and Kidderminister.
Mr. Hoyle:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children from Chorley and South Ribble district were treated at Preston general hospital in the last year for which figures are available. [9856]
Mr. Milburn:
The current basic unit for measuring hospital activity is the finished consultant episode. FCEs are not the same as the number of patients treated because a hospital spell can consist of more than one FCE, and patients discharged too early who are subsequently readmitted as emergencies count as another FCE. Furthermore, an FCE count cannot by itself serve as a valid measure of productivity since it is not standardised over time for any changes in the quality of treatment.
In 1993-94, the last year of the Chorley and South Ribble DHA, there were 5,667 such episodes for children aged up to 16 recorded for the acute unit of the former Preston health authority. The total for people of all ages was 28,236.
The former Chorley and South Ribble and West Lancashire district health authorities merged in 1994.
The most recent figures are for 1994-95, when 5,854 episodes for children aged up to 16 from the South Lancashire health authority area were recorded for Preston Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. The total for people of all ages was 28,535.
31 Jul 1997 : Column: 607
Mr. Campbell-Savours:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the oral statement of the Minister of State, the hon. Member for Darlington (Mr. Milburn), of 14 July, Official Report, column 81, what grades of NHS staff are included under the definition of clinical support services. [9691]
Mr. Milburn:
There is no established definition of clinical support services. As part of the review of private finance initiative, officials will be considering what services may be included in PFI projects and are aiming to produce a list of these by the end of the year.
Dr. Tonge:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has for the fluoridation of water supplies; and if he will introduce legislation to require water companies to follow the advice of health authorities on this issue. [9814]
Mr. Milburn:
We are currently looking at many aspects of public health policy, including water fluoridation.
Mr. McCabe:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what studies his Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated into the causes of fluorosis in children; what links have been identified between fluorosis and the fluoridation of water supplies; and if he will make a statement. [5965]
Mr. Milburn
[pursuant to his reply, 2 July 1997, c. 174]: I am now able to provide additional information. The full reply is as follows:
The Department of Health has not itself commissioned any research into causes of fluorosis in children. Extensive research over many decades undertaken independently of the Department has confirmed a link between water fluoridation and dental fluorosis, although at a level of one part per million in temperate climates it is considered to be of negligible importance.
Mr. Simon Hughes:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what are his estimates of the expenditure on all external consultants, including management consultants, for each year since 1992, in 1997 prices, for his Department and its agencies; and what estimate he has made of the quantified annual cost savings achieved by this. [10412]
Ms Jowell:
Estimates for expenditure on all external consultants for the Department of Health and its agencies, in 1997 prices, are as follows:
1 None of the Advisory NDPBs and tribunals which the Department of Health sponsors employ staff.
2 Information on NHS bodies also includes two directly managed units--Northfield Services for Pld and Manchester College of Midwifery--whose staff are employed by Health Authorities and two organisations which employ NHS staff, information management centre and FHS computer unit.
Source: Department of Health, Hospital Episode Statistics.
| Year | £ million |
|---|---|
| 1992-93 | 24.194 |
| 1993-94 | 20.468 |
| 1994-95 | 21.926 |
| 1995-96 | 21.132 |
| 1996-97(42) | 15.789 |
(42) Information for 1996-97 includes a figure of £2.194 million for NHS Regional Offices which were established in 1996-97.
31 Jul 1997 : Column: 608
Public Appointments
Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many of the individuals appointed by his Department to public positions since 1 May were first identified by the public appointments unit. [10408]
Ms Jowell: The Department of Health has appointed one individual since 1 May 1997. This appointment was as a direct result of using the public appointments unit.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |