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Primary Care Organisations

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if the additional £100 million a year allocated to primary care organisations in England will be taken from the existing budget of his Department. [155628]

Mr. Denham: In the recent Budget, the National Health Service in England received on average an additional £275 million per year for the next three years.

£45 million of the £100 million announced to support general practitioners will come from this additional funding, with £55 million to be funded through existing provision for NHS expenditure.

Cycling

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to encourage more people to switch from using cars to using bicycles for health reasons. [155462]

Yvette Cooper: Moderate intensity physical activity, such as walking and cycling, can significantly reduce the risk of developing coronary heart disease and stroke and other chronic diseases.

We are taking action across Government to support physical activity, including cycling, working closely with the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. The Department of Health is a member of the National Cycle Forum, convened by the DETR, which is working towards national targets for increasing rates of cycling, and the school travel advisory group, also set up by the DETR, which aims to increase cycling and walking to school.

The National Service Framework for coronary heart disease requires that all National Health Service bodies working closely with local authorities will have agreed and be contributing to the delivery of local programmes of effective policies on increasing physical activity by

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April 2001. Guidance issued by the Health Development Agency identifies cycling as a recommended component of local programmes.

The third stage of the safe and sound challenge was launched in December 2000. The scheme encourages children to walk or cycle to school along safe routes with cash prizes awarded to schools with the most innovative plans. This year safe and sound is offering schools in socially deprived areas the opportunity to develop healthy active modes of travel to school. This complements work being carried out through the national healthy school programme, which advocates a whole-school approach to health promotion, including encouraging cycling to school.

Patient Forums

Joan Ruddock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what procedures will be put in place to ensure that patient forums will represent the diversity of the local population. [155908]

Ms Stuart: Subject to legislation, the members of a forum will be drawn equally from the trust's patients and local voluntary organisations. The independent National Health Service Appointments Commission will appoint the members of a forum according to selection criteria that will ensure membership reflects the nature of the local community which the forum serves.

Abattoirs

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to make abattoirs responsible for meat inspection; and if he will make a statement. [155633]

Ms Stuart [holding answer 27 March 2001]: I am advised by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) that the rules on meat inspection are prescribed by European Union legislation and any proposals to change those rules would need to be made by the European Commission (EC).

No such proposal has yet been made by the EC, although an EC working document, made available by the FSA to interested organisations earlier this year, sets out some initial ideas on what might form the main elements of a future risk-based meat inspection system. Any legislative proposals that flow from this working document would be subject to formal public consultation in the United Kingdom, negotiations with and agreement by the member states, and both EU and UK Parliamentary scrutiny, before any changes could come into force.

Correspondence

Mrs. Roe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when the hon. Member for Broxbourne will receive a reply to her letters of 10 November 2000, 6 December 2000, 3 January and 1 February, relating to her constituent Mr. J. A. Barham of Cuffley; [149104]

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Mr. Denham: Replies to the hon. Member's letters were sent on 27 March 2001.

Orlistat

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment was made of the long-term offset in savings for primary care resources prior to the issuing of NICE guidance on orlistat for the treatment of obesity. [155653]

Mr. Denham: The National Institute for Clinical Excellence recognised the link between obesity and other diseases, but concluded that the long-term savings from treating the obese with orlistat were impossible to estimate accurately.

Medical Devices Agency

Mr. Efford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish the key targets for 2001-02 for the Medical Devices Agency. [156548]

Yvette Cooper: We have agreed the Agency's key targets for 2001-02 and copies have been placed in the Library.

EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

Teacher Shortages

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many child-days of education have been lost in (a) 2000 and (b) 2001 as a result of teacher shortages. [154154]

Ms Estelle Morris [holding answer 16 March 2001]: This information is not held centrally.

The small number of schools, of which my Department is aware, that have had to send any classes home temporarily during the last year have done so for a range of reasons including teacher sickness, adverse weather conditions and the effects of the foot and mouth epidemic. It is impossible to be sure of the effect that any teacher shortages alone have had.

The number of regular teachers (excluding short-term supply) in the maintained schools sector in England at January 2000 was 404,600, the highest for 10 years and 6,900 higher than January 1998.

There was a growth of 2,300 in the number of people recruited to train as teachers between 1999-2000 and 2000-01, the first such increase since 1992-93.

Teacher Recruitment

Mr. Sawford: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many teachers were recruited to serve in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in each of the past 10 years. [154390]

Ms Estelle Morris: Teachers reported to DfEE as in service at the end of each financial year who were not in service at the end of the previous financial year for full,

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part-time and occasional posts in the maintained schools sector in England are as follows:

YearNursery/ PrimarySecondaryFTE regular teachers in January each year Nursery/primary and Secondary sectors
1989-90(23)19,00018,300385,700
1990-91(23)17,30017,300383,300
1991-92(23)17,00017,200383,200
1992-93(23)15,40016,900384,700
1993-94(24)15,60017,800378,900
1994-9517,10019,400381,400
1995-9616,60018,000381,500
1996-9717,10018,400381,100
1997-9817,30019,400379,700
1998-9916,30019,000382,900

(23) Includes Sixth Form Colleges.

(24) Recruits for 1993-94 exclude teachers moving from a sixth form college to a maintained nursery, primary or secondary school.


The number of regular teachers (excluding short-term supply) in the maintained schools sector in England at January 2000 was 404,600, the highest for 10 years and 6,900 higher than January 1998.

There was a growth of 2,300 in the number of people recruited to train as teachers between 1999-2000 and 2000-01, the first such increase since 1992-93.

Teacher Retention

Mr. St. Aubyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many teachers left the profession in each of the last three years for which figures are available. [155646]

Ms Estelle Morris: Full-time and part-time teachers leaving the maintained schools sector in England for the last three years for which data are available.

Financial yearLeavers(25)2>Rate(26)
1996-9733,1507.9
1997-9834,2508.2
1998-99(27),(28)27,5706.6

(25) Teachers leaving the maintained nursery, primary, secondary, special and PRU sector including those moving to the FE, HE or the independent schools sector. Teachers retiring but then rejoining the maintained nursery, primary, secondary, special and PRU sector have not been included in the figures. Teachers retiring and then joining the FE, HE or the independent schools sector are included. Teachers barred from service and dying in service are included

(26) Leavers expressed as a percentage of teachers in post at the start of the year shown

(27) The number of teachers leaving on premature or ill-health retirement has now stabilised at a lower level, following the reform of the Teachers Pensions Scheme in 1997

(28) Provisional


The number of regular teachers (excluding short-term supply) in the maintained schools sector in England at January 2000 was 404,600, the highest for 10 years and 6,900 higher than January 1998.

There was a growth of 2,300 in the number of people training to be teachers between 1999-2000 and 2000-01, the first such increase since 1992-93.

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From April 2001 new graduate recruits can expect to earn £17,000 a year (up 6 per cent. from the previous year) and starting salaries in Inner London will rise to £20,000 (up 9 per cent. from the previous year).


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