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NHS Dentistry (Lincolnshire)

Gillian Merron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has for improving access to NHS dentistry in Lincolnshire. [115171]

Mr. Hutton: The Investing in Dentistry initiative offered £210,000 in grants to Lincolnshire dentists in return for promises of 16,500 patient registrations. Lincolnshire Health Authority has submitted a proposal for a dental access centre which is now being considered. If the bid succeeds the centre will be operational by the end of this year. We will publish further plans to improve access to dentistry in a dental strategy for England in due course.

Miscarriages

Audrey Wise: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his reply of 14 February 2000, Official Report, column 387W, if he will list for the years for which they are available the estimated numbers of women diagnosed as receiving hospital care for miscarriage grossed to allow for missing, incomplete and inaccurate records; and if he will give an indication of the accuracy and completeness of this information. [113093]

Yvette Cooper: It is regretted that the reply of 14 February was incorrect. The information provided in the table showing the estimated numbers of women diagnosed as receiving hospital care for miscarriage for the years prior to 1997-98 was grossed to allow for missing, incomplete and inaccurate records. The difference between grossed and ungrossed figures in recent years is between 3-4 per cent. The following table contains the information requested.

Year	Number of miscarriages
1989-90	48,500
1990-91	50,600
1991-92	53,100
1992-93	52,400
1993-94	51,300
1994-95	48,700
1995-96	43,900
1996-97	44,500
1997-98	(14)41,800

(14) Provisional

The information in the table is obtained from the Hospital Episodes Statistics system. The data for the years prior to 1997-98 are grossed and have been adjusted to allow for missing, incomplete or inaccurate records.

Data extracted were those with the diagnosis code OO3 (ICD-10) Spontaneous Abortion.

Nursing Care

Mr. Burnett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps the Government plans to take to provide compensation for nursing home patients and their relatives who have suffered financial loss and hardship due to

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the imposition of means testing by social services departments based on eligibility criteria which have been found to be unlawful. [114741]

Mr. Hutton: The Department issued guidance in August 1999 following the Coughlan case (Health Service Guidance (1999) 180: Local Authority Circular (99)30) required health and local authorities to satisfy themselves that their criteria were lawful, taking legal advice where necessary. Where authorities subsequently revise their criteria in the light of the Coughlan judgment they should reassess clients against the revised criteria.

Any possible claims for compensation due to the operation of unlawful eligibility criteria for nursing home care are the responsibility of the relevant health authorities and local councils.

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Psychiatric Beds

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of 24 hour staffed beds for people with severe and enduring mental illness were used in each health authority in London and the South East since 1998-99. [115787]

Mr. Hutton: Information on the percentage of 24 hour beds for people with severe and enduring mental illness used in each health authority in London and the South East since 1998-99 is not held centrally.

However the table contains data on the number of 24 hour beds in each health authority in London and the South East for the end of the financial year 1998-99 and the latest position available (December 1999).

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Mental Health--number of 24 hour staffed beds

Region	Health authority	Position at March 1999	Position at December 1999	Increase
London	Barking and Havering	0	0	0
London	Barnet	15	15	0
London	Bexley and Greenwich	8	8	0
London	Brent and Harrow	32	32	0
London	Bromley	10	10	0
London	Camden and Islington	60	72	12
London	Croydon	0	0	0
London	Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow	39	43	4
London	East London and City	106	106	0
London	Enfield and Haringey	56	56	0
London	Hillingdon	0	28	28
London	Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster	13	13	0
London	Kingston and Richmond	62	62	0
London	Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham	138	142	4
London	Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth	185	185	0
London	Redbridge and Waltham Forest	50	50	0
South East	Berkshire	0	0	0
South East	Buckinghamshire	29	29	0
South East	East Kent	45	45	0
South East	East Surrey	21	21	0
South East	East Sussex, Brighton and Hove	175	175	0
South East	Isle of Wight	0	8	8
South East	North and Mid Hampshire	167	167	0
South East	Northamptonshire	10	10	0
South East	Oxfordshire	0	20	20
South East	Portsmouth and SE Hampshire	47	54	7
South East	Southampton and SW Hampshire	83	83	0
South East	West Kent	0	0	0
South East	West Surrey	0	0	0
South East	West Sussex	18	18	0
England		4,013	4,301	288

Source:

Common Information Core, quarterly monitoring

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Herbal Remedies

Mr. Fearn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the progress made by the Pharmaceutical Committee of the European Union in establishing a secure route to market for herbal remedies. [115793]

Ms Stuart: The European Pharmaceutical Committee on 22 March considered the interpretation of Directive 99/83/EC relating to the use of bibliographic data to demonstrate that a medicine has well established use. In the light of the Committee's discussion we are assessing how the Directive may help us to move towards our objective of achieving more effective regulatory

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arrangements for herbal medicines, balancing public safety and consumer choice. We will make a statement when we have completed this assessment.

Medicines Control Agency

Mr. Fearn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects the Medicines Control Agency next to meet representatives of consumer, retailer and practitioner organisations. [115800]

Ms Stuart: The Medicines Control Agency has frequent meetings with a wide range of interest groups. The agency held meetings with a number of organisations

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including representatives of businesses and practitioners in the natural health sector on 21 March. Further discussions with organisations representing consumers, retailers and herbal practitioners are to be held on 28 and 31 March.

Hospital Consultants (Distinction Awards)

Mr. Nicholas Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many distinction awards were made to hospital consultants and at what total value in the last year for which figures are available. [116113]

Mr. Denham: In the 1999 awards round, a total of 481 new distinction awards were granted to hospital consultants. The breakdown of levels of award and their values is shown in the table.

Award	Value (15) (£)	Number granted	Total value (16) (£)
A+	58,525	37	2,165,425
A	43,125	142	6,123,750
B	24,640	302	7,441,280
Total		481	15,730,455

(15) As at 1 April 1999

(16) The total value of the awards granted assumes full-time employment

Hospital Matrons

Dr. Tony Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to reintroduce the post of matron in hospitals. [116356]

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Mr. Denham: Each National Health Service trust has a nurse executive director who is a member of the trust board. Some are titled "chief nurse", and they could, if they so chose, be called "matron". They are therefore very senior people with influence in their organisation and are responsible for, among other things, quality and nursing standards.

Some are also patient services managers and their role equates more closely to the span of responsibility of the traditional matron. The role of the matron therefore still exists in many trusts across England, albeit with a different title.

Public Appointments

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the chairmen of primary care trusts and primary care groups, indicating the political background and affiliation of each where it is known. [116648]

Mr. Denham: We do not collect monitoring information on the political activity or affiliation of primary care group members because primary care group appointments are not made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State.

Primary care trust chairs are appointed by my right hon. Friend and, in accordance with guidance from the Commissioner for Public Appointments, information is collected on political activity undertaken by chairs and non-executives at the time they apply for a National Health Service appointment. The Department does not collect information on the political affiliation of those appointed to National Health Service bodies.

Primary care trust chair details are shown in the table.

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PCT	Region	Chair	Political Activity
Southend	Eastern	Katherine Kirk	Labour
Southampton East	South East	Pauline Quan-Arrow	None
Epping Forest	Eastern	Susan Leggate	Other
South Manchester	North West	Michael Green	Labour
Poole Central and North	South West	Anne Holland	LibDem
Poole Bay	South West	Peter Harvey	None
Hillingdon	London	Sarah Pond	None
Mansfield	Trent	Tony Hughes	Labour
Newark and Sherwood	Trent	Bonnie Jones	None
Central Derbyshire	Trent	Stuart Fletcher	None
NE Lincolnshire	Trent	Valerie Waterhouse	None
Daventry and South Northants	South East	Simon Schanschieff	None
The Nelson	London	Kay Sonneborn	None
Fenland	Eastern	David Burall	LibDem
Peterborough North	Eastern	Mohammed Choudhary	Labour
Peterborough South	Eastern	Marco Cereste	Conservative
Tendring	Eastern	David Rex	Conservative

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