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Winter Emergencies
Mr. Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the total payments for winter emergencies to each local authority and each health district in London; and what (a) conditions and (b) monitoring requirements are attached to such payments. [17373]
Mr. Milburn: The allocation of additional resources to health authorities in London is set out in the table. The table also shows how much each of the London HAs will be transferring to its local authority social services departments.
| London HAs | Additional resources allocated to each HA | Amount of HA allocation for social services initiatives |
|---|---|---|
| £000 | £000 | |
| Barnet | 1,057 | 367 |
| Barking and Havering | 1,092 | 808 |
| Brent and Harrow | 1,419 | 340 |
| Camden and Islington | 1,429 | 171 |
| Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow | 2,919 | 1,080 |
| East London and The City | 3,563 | 1,603 |
| Enfield and Haringey | 1,431 | 286 |
| Hillingdon | 1,100 | 396 |
| Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster | 690 | 282 |
| Redbridge and Waltham Forest | 2,121 | 890 |
| Bexley and Greenwich | 1,097 | 347 |
| Bromley | 650 | 52 |
| Croydon | 969 | 324 |
| Kingston and Richmond | 988 | 195 |
| Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham(7) | 3,980 | 828 |
| Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth | 2,332 | 528 |
Information correct as at 24 November 1997.
(7) Includes an extra £300,000 allocated to London Ambulance Services to be administered by the HA.
The allocations were made to health authorities and trusts to manage additional winter emergency service
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pressures and are directed towards specific schemes which should prove of lasting benefit. Considerable investment has been targeted at developments in primary and community health services, and social services, which help care for people at home or expedite their discharge from hospital when it is appropriate.
Both North and South Thames Regional Offices will monitor progress on all schemes via their regular contact with health authorities and trusts.
Dr. Harris:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if Professor Bellingham has begun work as interim lead clinician to the Mersey and North Wales Blood Centre. [15582]
Mr. Boateng
[holding answer 11 November 1997]: Professor Bellingham began his work shortly after his appointment in September as Transition Director of the Liverpool Blood Centre.
Specialist Advisory Committees
Mr. Jack: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on which occasions and for what reasons his Department has disagreed with scientific advice given by specialist advisory committees in the last five years. [17756]
Dr. John Cunningham: I have not disagreed with any of the scientific advice which I have received from my specialist advisory committees since this Government came into office on 1 May 1997.
Raw Cows' Milk
Mr. Jack: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish the full details of the data considered by the Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food in coming to its conclusions that (a) the sale for drinking of raw cows' milk should be banned and (b) its continued use in the production of cheese should be permitted. [17755]
Dr. John Cunningham: The ACMSF considered the safety of raw cows' milk in its Report on Verocytotoxin-Producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) which was published in 1995.
More recently, the ACMSF saw data from the 1995-96 Government-funded Surveillance of the Microbiological Safety of Raw Cows' Milk on Retail Sale. A full report on this project is currently being prepared and will be published in the joint Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food/Department of Health Microbiological Food Safety Surveillance series.
The Committee also saw data from a Public Health Laboratory Service Study of the Microbiological Quality of Retail Raw (Greentop) Cows' Milk. Publication of these results is a matter for the PHLS.
The ACMSF has not recommended the continued use of raw cows' milk in the production of cheese. Rather,
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the Committee has recommended research and surveillance into the prevalence of O157 VTEC in a range of raw food products, including raw milk cheeses. This is under way.
Mr. Jack:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what (a) meetings with individuals, organisations and delegations and (b) parliamentary business he has planned for 26 November. [17757]
Dr. John Cunningham:
In addition to Parliamentary business, I will be attending a Cabinet Committee (PX) and will be undertaking a number of meetings with officials.
Mr. Jack:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the factors that would be involved in determining (a) national minimum standards of food composition and (b) maximum levels of sugar and fat. [17581]
Dr. John Cunningham:
We have no plans to introduce new statutory national minimum standards of food composition or maximum levels for sugar and fat in foods and therefore have not considered the factors that might be involved in determining such measures.
Mr. Jack:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish a list of all EU committees which his officials attend on a regular basis. [16347]
Dr. John Cunningham:
My officials regularly attend a range of management committees considering draft Commission legislation governing the management of the Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies. Other regular meetings chaired by the Commission include:
In addition, my officials attend the Special Committee on Agriculture and Council Working Groups examining proposed Council Legislation.
Mr. Jack:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is his estimate of the number of cattle passports which will be issued by his Ministry once its cattle passport scheme is fully established. [16975]
Dr. John Cunningham:
The cattle passport scheme is fully established. More than 3.6 million passports have
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been issued in Great Britain since the scheme was introduced in the Summer of 1996.
Mr. Gill:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many animals are slaughtered each year in abattoirs exclusively devoted to Jewish and Muslim methods. [17809]
Mr. Rooker:
Information is not held on those abattoirs adopting religious methods of slaughter and the number of animals killed by those methods.
Mr. Gill:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is his estimate of the number of Friesian and Holstein Friesian cows in dairy herds on United Kingdom farms. [17810]
Mrs. Fyfe:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he is taking to implement controls on gene-manipulated foods. [17023]
Mr. Rooker:
The EC novel foods and novel food ingredients regulation 258/97, which came into force on 15 May, established an EU wide pre-market approval system for novel foods and novel food ingredients, including those containing or produced from genetically modified organisms (GMOs). All applications for approval of novel foods under the regulation will be considered in the UK by the independent Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes and its advice published.
Mrs. Fyfe:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the obstacles to clear labelling of foods to enable customers to choose between foods that are genetically altered and those that are not. [17027]
Mr. Rooker:
Since I issued a press release on 7 June calling for all foods which may contain genetically modified (GM) material to be labelled clearly, considerable progress has been made. On 25 July, the European Commission announced its intention to ensure coherent labelling of GM products throughout the food chain and a Commission regulation requiring the labelling of GM soya and maize came into effect on 1 November. Detailed rules on the implementation of this regulation are expected to be agreed shortly.
Mr. John Smith:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will lift the ban on the consumption of cattle aged over 30 months. [17048]
Mr. Rooker:
No. This measure was introduced by the previous Government on the basis of SEAC advice that meat from animals over 30 months of age should be deboned under official supervision. There were practical difficulties in implementing this advice and a ban was
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introduced instead. Nothing we have learned about the links between BSE and CJD in the past year suggests that that action was in any way inappropriate.
Standard Committee on Animal Nutrition
Standing Committee on Foodstuffs
Standing Committee Organic Farming Legislation
Standing Veterinary Committees
Committee on Agricultural Structures and Rural Development (STAR)
Committee for Veterinary Medical Products
Spirit Drinks Implementation Committee
Aromatised Wine Implementation Committee
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