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Medicines (Advertising)

Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the circumstances under which (a) a notice, (b) a threat of notice and (c) a request to cease advertising would be made by (i) him and (ii) the Medicines Control Agency under the Medicines (Advertising and Monitoring of Advertising) Amendment Regulations 1999 (SI 267); and if he will make a statement on the powers of the Independent Review Panel concerning such actions. [88003]

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Ms Jowell: The Medicines Control Agency undertakes its statutory role in the control of medicines advertising on behalf of Health Ministers. Any notice issued by the Agency is therefore issued for, and on behalf of Ministers.

There are specific circumstances under which notices may be issued to advertisers under the procedures in the amending Regulations. These are:

Under paragraph 1--to request a copy of an advertisement,

Under paragraph 3--to advise an advertiser that Health Ministers are "minded to" make a decision that an advertisement is in breach of the Advertising Regulations,

Under paragraph 4--to advise an advertiser that an advertisement would not be in breach, and

Under paragraph 5--to advise an advertiser that, after consideration of the advice of the Independent Review Panel Health Ministers have decided an advertisement is in breach.

Notices under paragraphs 1 or 3 may require an advertiser to cease advertising on an interim basis. At any stage the recipient of a notice can seek judicial review of the decision to issue that notice.

The issue of notices under the Schedule will not be automatic--the Medicines Control Agency will continue, as now, to discuss problems with advertising with the company concerned so as to secure acceptable changes. The formal procedures will come into play only when informal negotiation fails to reach an appropriate outcome.

The remit of the Independent Review Panel will be to consider written representations from advertisers who have been issued with a notice under paragraph 3 and advise Health Ministers on the compatibility of the advertisement in question with the Advertising Regulations. The panel will not consider the issue of notices or other procedural matters. The amending Regulations provide for the making of written representations by the company concerned but do not preclude oral hearings where these are considered appropriate by the Panel. We have no objection to the reports of the Review Panel meetings being made publicly available. Furthermore, the Medicines Control Agency has already established a working group, the Medicines Advertising Liaison Group, to provide a forum for all regulatory and self regulatory bodies concerned with the advertising of medicines to exchange information and opinions on advertising issues.

PRIME MINISTER

Special Advisers

Mr. Swayne: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list the travel expenses of the special advisers to his Department's Ministers since May 1997. [86454]

The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Chichester (Mr. Tyrie) on 13 April 1999, Official Report, column 1. I also refer the hon. Member to the further answer I gave to the hon. Member for Chichester today, Official Report, columns 482-83.

Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list the current paid special advisers to Ministers and the Ministers whom they advise. [87409]

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The Prime Minister: For details of the Special Advisers employed in my office, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Wantage (Mr. Jackson) on 8 December 1998, Official Report,

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column 143. Since then, I have appointed Bill Bush. At 21 June, my ministerial colleagues had appointed the following Special Advisers.

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Appointing Minister	Name of appointee
Chief Whip	Ian McKenzie Sue Jackson
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food	Tom Greatrex Kieran Simpson
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport	John Newbiggin Andy Burnham
Secretary of State for Defence	Bernard Gray Alasdair McGowan
Secretary of State for Education and Employment	Conor Ryan Tom Engel--part time Sophie Linden--part time
Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions	Joe Irvin Paul Hackett--part time Joan Hammell Darren Murphy--part time
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs	David Clark Andrew Hood
Secretary of State for Health	Joe McCrea Simon Stevens
Secretary of State for the Home Department	Ed Owen Justin Russell
Lord Chancellor	Garry Hart
Secretary of State for International Development	David Mepham Dee Sullivan
Leader of the House of Lords and Minister for Women	Clare Cozens Jo Gibbons
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland	Nigel Warner Andrew Lappin
Minister for the Cabinet Office	Tim Walker Anna Healy
President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons	Sheila Watson Nicci Russell
Secretary of State for Scotland	Richard Olszewski
Secretary of State for Social Security	Andrew Maugham Elsbeth Johnson
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry	Dan Corry Jo Moore
Chancellor of the Exchequer	Ed Balls Ian Austin
Chief Secretary	Ed Millband Spencer Livermore
Secretary of State for Wales	Julia Crowley Andrew Bold

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In addition, the Minister for the Cabinet Office has appointed Mr. Keith Hellawell as the UK Anti-Drugs Co-ordinator and Mr. Michael Trace as his Deputy. Professor Michael Barber has been appointed as the Standards and Effectiveness Adviser to the Secretary of State for Education and Employment. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has appointed Mr. Chris Wales, Mr. Paul Gregg and Ms Shriti Vadera as members of the Council of Economic Advisers. All are employed on Special Adviser terms.

Policy Unit (US Visits)

Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Prime Minister on how many occasions members of his Policy Unit have

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visited the United States of America on official business since 1 January 1998, indicating the name of the member and the dates of travel in each case. [87433]

The Prime Minister: Members of my Policy Unit have accompanied me or other Ministers on visits to the United States of America on 4 occasions since 1 January 1998. Separately, individual members of the Policy Unit have travelled to the United States of America to attend official engagements on three occasions since 1 January 1998 (6-9 December 1998, 29-31 January and 21-28 March 1999). All visits have been undertaken in line with the rules set out in the Ministerial Code.

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Kosovo

Mr. Winnick: To ask the Prime Minister (1) what action Her Majesty's Government plan to take to publicise throughout Europe the war crimes committed in Kosovo; [87308]

(2) if he will consult with the other allied political leaders on the preparation of a joint White Paper to be issued on the war crimes in Kosovo and placing of such a paper to be placed before the parliaments of all the countries that took part in the allied campaign. [87311]

The Prime Minister [holding answer 17 June 1999]: We are appalled at the evidence which has emerged and continues to emerge day by day of the atrocities committed in Kosovo. We always warned at what we would find inside Kosovo. Now cameras can enter Kosovo, the full horror of Milosevic's ethnic cleansing is clear to everyone.

We are doing all we can to support the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia with their investigations into the atrocities. We are doing all we can to support the work of the Tribunal, in particular we are seconding a police team to investigate scenes of crimes. The first priority must be for the Tribunal to gather the information which would be needed to sustain any prosecutions.

Mr. Dalyell: To ask the Prime Minister what steps (a) the United Kingdom and (b) other NATO Governments are taking to assist gypsies (i) suspected of having been informers for the Yugoslav authorities and (ii) who have moved out of Kosovo into other parts of Yugoslavia. [88078]

The Prime Minister [holding answer 24 June 1999]: KFOR is tasked to provide robust and even-handed protection for all the people of Kosovo, regardless of their ethnic, religious or cultural background. It is the responsibility of the host Governments to provide security for those who have fled Kosovo. UNHCR is trying to help with security arrangements in refugee camps and we support those efforts.

Under UN Security Council Resolution 1244, a main responsibility of the UN civilian mission in Kosovo is to protect and promote the human rights of all the inhabitants of Kosovo.

Mr. Dalyell: To ask the Prime Minister, pursuant to his oral statement of 21 June 1999, on Kosovo, with reference to the question from the hon. Member for Islington, North (Mr. Corbyn), Official Report, column 772, if he will list the claims of environmental damage in Yugoslavia which had been exaggerated. [88077]

The Prime Minister [holding answer 24 June 1999]: Mr. Klaus Toepfer, the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said, when he met my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development on 15 June, that the claims about the extent of the pollution of the Danube and the impact of the use of depleted uranium weaponry had been exaggerated.

We believe that objective information is needed to combat rumours about the environmental impact of the conflict. We welcome the joint task force set up by UNEP

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and the UN Commission on Human Settlements to assess the environmental and health effects of the conflict. We remain, as ever, ready to co-operate with the task force.

Separately, the EU commissioned a report from the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe. The Centre's preliminary assessment was that there was no evidence of a large-scale ecological catastrophe in the region, although some local environmental damage may have occurred.

Mr. Dalyell: To ask the Prime Minister if he will place in the Library a copy of the agreement on the demilitarisation of the KLA made between its leadership and Lieutenant General Sir Michael Jackson. [88421]

The Prime Minister: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence on 23 June 1999, Official Report, column 396, to the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow).

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