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Food Standards Agency
3. Mr. Ben Chapman (Wirral, South): If he will make a statement on the timetable for the introduction of the Food Standards Agency. [98928]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Yvette Cooper): My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, together with colleagues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, hopes to be able to announce the appointment of the chairman designate for the Food Standards Agency before the end of the year. We expect the formal launch of the agency to be in spring 2000.
Mr. Chapman: This is very good news indeed. [Laughter.] It is an example of the Government taking timely and effective action on a crucial matter and it compares dramatically with the lack of any effective action by the Conservative party when in government.
Does my hon. Friend agree that the separation of the regulation and the promotion of the industry is timely and, in the light of what has gone before, long overdue?
Yvette Cooper: I certainly do. It was a manifesto commitment to set up the agency. It is a shame that Conservative Members do not take the Food Standards Agency seriously. The agency's main objective will be the protection of public health from risks that may arise in connection with the consumption of food. Public health and the consumer must come first.
Mr. David Ruffley (Bury St. Edmunds): Does the Minister expect the agency to propose the lifting of the ban on beef on the bone?
Yvette Cooper: That is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The chief medical officers for the United Kingdom--for England, for Scotland, for Wales and for Northern Ireland will be meeting soon to consider the issue further.
Smoking
4. Mr. Richard Burden (Birmingham, Northfield): If he will make a statement on the action he is taking to combat smoking. [98929]
The Secretary of State for Health (Mr. Alan Milburn): The Government's strategy on tobacco control is set out in the White Paper,"Smoking Kills". It includes commitments to increase funding, to reduce tobacco consumption and to ban tobacco advertising. We will honour all those commitments.
Mr. Burden: I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. Is he aware that, recently, the Under-Secretary of State for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Ms Stuart) and I launched the latest phase in the campaign for helping Birmingham to stop smoking. Does he agree that that campaign offers a good example of co-operation between agencies, which involved not only "Smoke Free Birmingham", the health authority and trusts, but local authorities as well? Our local newspaper the Birmingham Evening Mail is doing its bit by displaying anti-smoking posters on the back of more than 80 delivery lorries. Would he welcome that, as well as the involvement of young people in the campaign? Two students from the university of Central England--Matt Preston and Leon Ostle--have been active in designing posters.
Mr. Milburn: It is always gratifying when the press and media take a positive interest in health issues. I especially congratulate the Birmingham Evening Mail on the part it played in the local campaign--as I also congratulate my hon. Friends. The issue is extremely important, and it is equally important that we get a ban on tobacco advertising as quickly as we can. We know that tobacco consumption kills about 120,000 people each year. Far too much of the advertising is aimed directly at young people, so it is heartening to hear that, in Birmingham, young people are involved in the campaign.
I can tell my hon. Friend and the House that, from 13 December, the Government will launch the biggest public education campaign about the dangers of smoking that this country has ever seen.
Mrs. Caroline Spelman (Meriden): Given that the Government are at odds with their chief medical officer over their exemption of formula one racing from the ban on tobacco advertising, does the Secretary of State still believe that a ban on sponsorship will help to reduce smoking? If he does, what possible medical justification is there for the Government to delay moves to prohibit tobacco sponsorship for formula one until 2006?
Mr. Milburn: The answer to the question about whether the Government still support the ban on tobacco advertising is yes. I understand that, like a bunch of Johnny-come-latelys, the Opposition now support that policy too. Of course, they had 18 years to ban tobacco advertising, but they did precisely nothing about it--no ban on tobacco advertising, no service development and no policy development.
Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Trust
5. Mr. Harry Barnes (North-East Derbyshire): What response his Department has made to (a) the report of the inquiry into serious untoward incidents at Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Royal Hospital NHS Trust and (b) the trust's response and action plan; and if he will make a statement. [98930]
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr. John Denham): The independent inquiry panel investigated in depth the circumstances of two cases in which women underwent unnecessary surgery for cancer. The report attributes the mistakes to human error on the part of a single clinician. Patients are entitled to receive the highest standards from their national health service, and it is clear from this report that the histopathology service provided to those two patients fell far short of those standards. The report and its recommendations will enable lessons to be learned from those tragic errors and, through the action plan published by the trust, efforts will be made to ensure that such a situation cannot be repeated.
Mr. Barnes: I am concerned about that reply, because the matter is very serious and affected my constituents. One of the two involved--Anita Froggatt--had a breast removed as a result of an incorrect diagnosis. Is the Minister satisfied that the report was as serious as it should have been? Were not the investigations rather thin in relation to the findings produced? Is the Minister happy with the response from the hospital? Its 21-point action plan seems to state that it is already doing everything that it was asked to do, so either it is not being asked to do enough, or it is not giving a full and correct response to the report. That is a great problem and the Department should investigate those matters further.
Mr. Denham: I agree that the matter is extremely serious. I can assure my hon. Friend that I have considered the history of the report in some detail. I am satisfied that questions about the report--especially as to whether there should be further recall or re-examination of previous tests--were carefully considered; the advice of the Royal
College of Pathologists was sought on that point. I am satisfied that the action taken was appropriate in the circumstances.As for the trust's response, I have no evidence that it is dismissive of the recommendations in any way. However, I give my hon. Friend an absolute assurance that it will not be left purely to the trust and its word to ensure that the recommendations are implemented. The trust will be scrupulously monitored by the regional office of the National Health Service Executive. I can give my hon. Friend an assurance that it will also be its responsibility to ensure that every recommendation is implemented in full, for the benefit of patients in his constituency and elsewhere.
Eastbourne Hospital
6. Mr. Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne): What assessment he has made of the implications of the Greenwood report for Eastbourne district general hospital. [98931]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Ms Gisela Stuart): Once the recommendations contained in the "Report into Nursing at Eastbourne Hospitals NHS Trust" are implemented, confidence in the national health service will be re-established, high quality services will be provided in a safe environment and the trust should develop as a real centre of excellence for local people.
Mr. Waterson: Can the Minister confirm that one of the key conclusions of the Greenwood report was that there was a shortage of qualified nurses and a problem with the nursing staff's skills mix at that district general hospital? Is she aware that, as recently as the past week, the Hailsham 2 ward--a 30-bed ward--has been closed, and that the reason given is to ease pressures on nursing staff? When will the Government do something positive about putting in more resources to hire more nurses, especially fully qualified nursing staff, at Eastbourne district general hospital?
Ms Stuart: The hon. Gentleman raises some very valid issues. As a previous Parliamentary Private Secretary to a Health Minister, he knows that it takes several years to train nurses. There has been a shortage of qualified nurses in that area, which we are addressing. The hon. Gentleman will be pleased to know that, since the Adjournment debate that he initiated, an extra five nurses have been recruited to the surgical ward, which is temporarily closed; but more important, extra funding has been found for an extra 10 nurses in the area. I am sure that he will welcome the extra £900,000 that is to go into the accident and emergency department in that hospital next year.
Mr. Norman Baker (Lewes): May I refer the Minister to the early-day motion that I tabled at the end of the previous Session, which drew attention to the fact that the former chief executive, who was heavily criticised in the excellent Greenwood report, was given a pay-off of £76,000? Does she understand how angry my constituents in Seaford, Polegate and elsewhere are that a person who should be seen to have failed abysmally and who brought so much distress on the hospital, should be rewarded with such a pay-off? Does she believe that hospital porters who
failed would be given such a pay-off? Is it not time that NHS contracts were rewritten to ensure that failure cannot be rewarded?
Ms Stuart: Failure should never be rewarded. In the case to which the hon. Gentleman refers, the settlement that was reached was the minimum cost settlement that the NHS could legally make. Individual trusts negotiate and, as a result of the incidents in that hospital, the regional director, Barbara Stocking, has written to all the NHS trust boards and required them to examine contracts of employment to ensure that the situation that the hon. Gentleman describes does not occur again.
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