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Paramedics

Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to increase the number of paramedics in the Ambulance Service. [122583]

Ms Stuart: We have invested a further £21 million this year to support the ambulances in meeting the new national response time performance standards. Meeting the 75 per cent. response time target for immediately life threatening emergencies will require the recruitment and training of significant numbers of paramedics. All 32 ambulance services have presented their plans for improving performance to the National Health Service Executive including the necessary paramedic work force requirements. Currently every frontline ambulance carries a fully trained paramedic.

Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement about the role of paramedics in the Ambulance Service. [122582]

Ms Stuart: Ambulance paramedics have made a very valuable contribution to pre-hospital patient care over the past 10 years. They are playing an increasingly important role in saving lives, particularly the lives of people with heart attacks. Their responsibilities include providing life

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saving care and drugs to people with immediately life threatening medical conditions. That is why we supported their registration as Professions Supplementary to Medicine last year.

NHS (Financial Assistance)

Mr. Nicholls: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people each year receive financial assistance after appealing for help with NHS costs using an HC1 form. [122783]

Ms Stuart: In England for the year 1999-2000, the Health Benefits Division of the Prescription Pricing Authority issued around 542,000 National Health Service charges certificates (HC2) for full help and around 299,000 NHS Charges certificates (HC3) for limited help following an HC1 claim. People named on an HC2 would be entitled to full financial assistance with NHS costs (e.g. free NHS prescriptions) when they received treatment. People named on an HC3 would have been entitled to financial assistance with health costs (excluding prescription charges) on a sliding scale when they received treatment. The number of people who receive financial assistance in this way is not recorded.

Chlamydia Trachomatis

Mr. Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the policies adopted following the recommendations of the Chief Medical Officer's Expert Advisory Group on screening for chlamydia trachomatis; what has been the outcome of the two pilot studies which were set up; and if he will make a statement. [123779]

Yvette Cooper: After considering the expert advice, we strengthened our national health promotion on chlamydia and set up a pilot screening programme to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of opportunistic screening. The pilot is under way and will run until 31 August. The results will be used to develop future policy on national screening programmes and we aim to identify possible policy options by the end of this year. These data will also be considered as part of the national sexual health strategy currently under development.

Surgical Instruments

Mr. Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he has taken to ensure that surgical instruments used in NHS hospitals are sterile. [123724]

Yvette Cooper: The Department and the National Health Service are aware of the need to maintain high quality decontamination procedures to ensure that surgical instruments used in NHS hospitals are sterile. In August 1999, as part of the Department's initiatives on Infection Control, particularly relating to the risks posed by surgical instruments, a comprehensive package of extant decontamination guidance was issued free of charge to all NHS Trusts under Health Service Circular (HSC) 1999/179 Controls Assurance in Infection Control: Decontamination of Medical Devices.

The HSC emphasised the importance of implementing existing guidance on the cleaning and sterilisation of medical devices. We have also asked NHS Estates (an executive agency of the Department of Health) to

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undertake an assessment of current decontamination practices across healthcare sectors in England, including NHS hospitals. The review is due to be completed at the end of June 2000. The need for further policy, advice and guidance will then be reviewed.

Cancer

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the percentage of cancers in the United Kingdom which were caused by infections in the last year for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [123795]

Yvette Cooper: There is some evidence to show that certain cancers may be linked to infections (notably stomach, liver, cervix, penis and Non-Hodgkins lymphoma). We are not able to identify the percentage of cases of these cancers which are caused in this way.

New Variant CJD

Mr. Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health for how long after the death of an individual that individual's medical records are kept; whether an individual's medical records are kept for a different length of time if they die from new variant CJD; and if he will make a statement. [124088]

Yvette Cooper: The Department issued guidance to healthcare organisations in 1998 and 1999 (Health Service Circulars 1999/053 and 1998/217), which advised that hospital medical records for deceased patients should be kept for a minimum of eight years and similar records held by general practitioners for a minimum of 10 years. Such records are often retained for a longer period of time in certain cases such as maternity and mental illness.

The National CJD Surveillance Unit collates detailed information on patients who have had CJD of any type, including copies of medical records wherever possible. It is expected that this information will be held by the unit for the foreseeable future.

Vaccines

Mr. Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent advice his Department has (a) sought and (b) received concerning the effectiveness of the purification process for removing bovine material from vaccines in the early stages of manufacture; what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of this process; and if he will make a statement. [124086]

Yvette Cooper: For those vaccines which use bovine material in the early stages of their manufacture, manufacturers are required to provide supporting evidence to the Medicines Control Agency (MCA) that the purification process is properly controlled and validated, to ensure the removal of such material. The Committee on the Safety of Medicines advises the MCA on the suitability of the purification process and its validation.

Skin Cancer

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the recent inquiry commissioned by the NFU into the alleged link between skin cancer and pylon lines; and if he will make a statement. [123907]

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Yvette Cooper: No assessment has been made into the alleged link referred to in the question although the general allegation of an association between power line and health effects has been widely researched. The Department of Health Radiation Protection Research Programme has its own ongoing investigations and also contributes to the World Health Organisation International Electromagnetic Fields Project. In 1992, the National Radiological Protection Board's (NRPB) Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation examined in detail the evidence for an association between the incidence of cancer and exposure to electromagnetic fields and concluded that there was no clear evidence of an adverse health effect at the levels of electromagnetic field to which the public is normally exposed. The NRPB Advisory Group keeps the relevant research under review and will be publishing a comprehensive overview of electromagnetic fields and cancer later this year.

Laptop Computers

Mr. Keith Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many laptop computers used by Ministers, officials and special advisers in his Department have been (a) lost and (b) stolen since May 1997. [123737]

Ms Stuart [holding answer 25 May 2000]: The figures for laptop computers reported lost or stolen belonging to the Department and its agencies for the period covering May 1997 onwards are shown in the table.

Date	Number lost or stolen
1 April 1997 to 31 March 1998	23
1 April 1998 to 31 March 1999	19
1 April 1999 to 31 March 2000	18
1 April 2000 to 31 May 2000	1
Total	61

Farnham Hospital

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library the NHS press notices in which Farnham Hospital is named for the past three years. [124229]

Ms Stuart: This information is not held centrally.

Officials at South East Regional Office have, therefore, asked West Surrey and North and Mid Hampshire Health Authorities for copies of all National Health Service press notices issued in the past three years in which Farnham Hospital is named.

These will be placed in the Library in due course.

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