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Television Licences (Prosecution)

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many people were prosecuted for not having a television licence in the United Kingdom in 1999. [115552]

Janet Anderson: I understand from the BBC that there were 76,524 prosecutions for television licence evasion in the United Kingdom in 1999.

HEALTH

Cigarette Consumption

Mr. Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the impact on cigarette consumption of the withdrawal of Gratis points; and if he will make a statement. [114530]

Yvette Cooper: No separate assessment has been made of the impact on cigarette consumption from withdrawal of Gratis points. We have estimated that the ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco will result in a 2.5 per cent. reduction in consumption. This would mean that about 3,000 lives a year could be saved in the long term.

Natal Intensive Care Unit

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what provision has been made by the Neo-Natal In-services Commissioning investigation for NHS North Thames Region in their examination of the most suitable locations for natal intensive care unit services in the region, for audit of the cost and current usage data being submitted to them by the individual trusts. [114572]

Yvette Cooper: The London Regional Office of the National Health Service Executive was established on 1 January 1999 and this covers most of the health authorities of the old North Thames Region. Under the auspices of the London Regional Specialised Commissioning Group, a consortium of London health authorities has recently been established to commission neo-natal intensive care services for the residents of London.

This new consortium is gathering information about the cost and volume of neo-natal intensive care activity currently provided by NHS trusts in order to identify the amount of money needed from health authority budgets to fund the required level of service.

24 Mar 2000 : Column: 708W

Information provided by trusts is being cross-checked with information provided by health authorities to ensure that appropriate levels of service are funded to meet the needs of the London population. The consortium is not at this stage considering changes to the configuration of neo-natal intensive care services.

Oncology Consultants

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) clinical and (b) medical oncology consultants there are per 100,000 population for each health authority in England; and if he will make a statement. [115190]

Yvette Cooper: The latest available information is shown in the table.

Number of hospital medical consultants in clinical oncology and medical oncology, per 100,000 population by health authority in England at 30 September 1998Numbers per 100,000 population

Health authority	Clinical oncology	Medical oncology
England	1.37	0.66
Avon	0.90	0.10
Barking and Havering	1.04	0.00
Bedfordshire	0.18	0.00
Berkshire	0.37	0.00
Bexley and Greenwich	0.00	0.23
Birmingham	0.89	0.69
Bradford	0.00	0.41
Calderdale and Kirklees	0.17	0.00
Cambridge and Huntingdon	1.92	0.85
Camden and Islington	1.63	2.45
Coventry	1.97	0.00
Dorset	0.72	0.43
Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow	1.94	0.60
East Kent	0.00	0.67
East London and The City	0.82	0.16
East Norfolk	0.32	0.32
East Riding	0.52	0.00
East Sussex	0.67	0.00
Enfield and Haringey	0.82	0.00
Gateshead and South Tyneside	0.00	0.85
Gloucester	0.90	0.18
Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster	3.33	1.54
Kingston and Richmond	0.30	0.00
Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham	1.21	0.94
Leeds	2.34	0.82
Leicestershire	0.65	0.00
Lincolnshire	0.96	0.00
Liverpool	0.00	0.22
Manchester	4.19	0.93
Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth	0.00	0.48
Morecambe Bay	0.00	0.32
Newcastle and North Tyneside	2.55	0.00
North Cumbria	0.63	0.00
North Essex	0.56	0.00
North Staffordshire	0.64	0.00
North West Anglia	0.24	0.24
North West Lancashire	1.07	0.21
Northamptonshire	0.81	0.00
Northumberland	0.00	0.32
Nottingham	0.78	0.31
Oxfordshire	1.46	0.65
Portsmouth and South East Hampshire	0.92	0.00
Salford and Trafford	0.00	0.45
Sheffield	1.88	0.56
Shropshire	0.46	0.00
South and West Devon	0.85	0.00
South Essex	0.56	0.00
Southampton and South West Hamptonshire	1.29	0.92
Suffolk	0.60	0.00
Tees	1.08	0.00
West Hertfordshire	3.18	0.00
West Kent	0.51	0.10
West Surrey	0.94	0.00
West Sussex	0.00	0.13
Wiltshire	0.17	0.50
Wirral	3.67	1.53
Wolverhampton	1.66	0.41
Worcester	0.00	0.19

Note:

Figures per 100,000 population are based on 1998 mid year population estimates

Source:

Department of Health medical and dental workforce census

24 Mar 2000 : Column: 709W

Breast Screening

Ms Perham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he plans to introduce the new class of scientific screening officers for the NHS breast screening programme. [115225]

Yvette Cooper: We are currently considering with the professional bodies the capacity and workforce of the breast screening programme, in view of the growing numbers of women eligible for breast screening as those born in the post-war years reach the age of 50. Our first priority is to maintain the quality of the screening programme, and while alternative staffing arrangements are under consideration no change will be introduced until we can be confident that the quality of screening will continue at its current high standard.

Cancer Treatment Waiting Times

Mr. Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress is being made on reducing waiting times for cancer treatment. [115196]

Yvette Cooper: We are determined to reduce cancer waiting times for diagnosis and treatment. In April 1999, we introduced a two-week waiting time standard for patients referred urgently by their general practitioners with suspected breast cancer. Since then, over 56,000 women have benefited by seeing a specialist within two weeks. We will introduce this high standard of care for all other urgent cases of suspected cancer by the end of this year.

We are also introducing "On the spot" style booking systems for cancer treatment through the Cancer Services Collaborative. This £6 million initiative will significantly improve patient care by streamlining and re-designing care from referral through diagnosis and treatment thus reducing delays at every stage.

Heart Operations

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures he will take to increase the number of heart operations in 2000. [115114]

Yvette Cooper: Heart disease remains a huge health burden to the country and is the biggest single cause of premature death. That is why on 6 March we launched a radical and far-reaching 10-year programme of action

24 Mar 2000 : Column: 710W

to transform the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of coronary heart disease. The National Service Framework will help save 200,000 lives by 2010.

As a first step, on 18 October my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced a £50 million boost to cardiac surgery to increase the number of heart operations by 3,000 by April 2002 by making maximum use of the capacity that currently exists in the National Health Service.

Bed Availability

Mr. Gareth R. Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many beds were available (a) nationally and (b) in London in each year from 1979 to 1999. [115103]

Mr. Denham: The information requested is available in the table.

Average daily number of available beds open overnight, England 1979 to 1998-99 and London regional office area1984 to 1998-99

Year	England	London regional office area
1979	361,670	--
1980	355,978	--
1981	351,669	--
1982	348,104	--
1983	343,091	--
1984	334,513	57,766
1985	325,487	55,518
1986	315,714	53,029
1987-88	297,338	49,403
1988-89	282,897	47,040
1989-90	270,309	44,810
1990-91	255,479	39,042
1991-92	242,677	38,914
1992-93	232,201	37,586
1993-94	219,476	35,294
1994-95	211,812	32,815
1995-96	206,136	32,683
1996-97	198,848	31,763
1997-98	193,625	31,210
1998-99	190,006	30,604

Source:

DH form KH03 and SH3

Data are collected by individual NHS trusts or units. Figures for earlier years have been aggregated to reflect the London Regional Office area introduced in 1998-99. Aggregation is not possible prior to 1984 as raw data are not available.

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