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Diabetes

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much of the proposed funding for diabetes care outlined in the interim Wanless report is earmarked for (a) eye screening and (b) eye complications associated with diabetes and if he will make a statement. [22767R]

4 Mar 2002 : Column 121W

Jacqui Smith: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to him on 17 December 2001, Official Report, column 169W.

Hospices

Mr. Horam: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will increase Government funding for children's hospices. [31309]

Yvette Cooper [holding answer 1 February 2002]: Children's hospices have access to national health service funding, the level of which must be agreed by health authorities and primary care trusts following assessment of local options available to support children with life threatening illnesses, and their families. In addition children's hospices will be eligible to apply for funding from the New Opportunity Fund's children's palliative care grant programme later this year that will make available an additional £48 million for children's paediatric care.

Solihull Hospital

Mr. John Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will repeat the pledge made by the then Health Minister on 3 March 1997 concerning Solihull Hospital and the services to be provided there. [32260]

Yvette Cooper [holding answer 5 February 2002]: Decisions about services at Solihull hospital are a matter first for local consideration. Any proposals for significant changes to services anywhere in the national health service require formal consultation, and where local agreement is not reached, matters are referred to Ministers. No such proposals for consultation have been received for Solihull hospital.

Residential Care (Elderly)

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with Lancashire county council concerning the impact on the NHS of its proposals to reduce the numbers of residential homes for the elderly. [34570]

Jacqui Smith: The Social Services Inspectorate is following closely the work that Lancashire county council is undertaking to assess its current care provision, in particular the consultation with the national health service, local people and other interested parties about future strategies.

Pesticide Residues

Joan Ruddock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what advice is given by his Department to pregnant women about reducing their exposure to pesticide residues in food. [36087]

Yvette Cooper: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is advised on the issue of pesticides by the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The FSA has provided the following reply in consultation with the Pesticides Safety Directorate (an executive agency of the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)).

When considering the approval of a pesticide the independent Advisory Committee on Pesticides refers to a large dossier of information and studies carried out on

4 Mar 2002 : Column 122W

the pesticide. The dossier has information on toxicology of the pesticide, including specific studies to address the reproductive toxicity of the pesticide and crop residues data. Only those pesticides which demonstrate an acceptable risk to all groups of consumers (including pregnant women) can be approved.

The findings from the 2000 pesticide residues monitoring programme indicates that standards are being maintained at levels that the FSA believes provide a high level of consumer protection and confidence.

Thus, the FSA believes it is not necessary to issue specific advice to pregnant women on this issue as the regulatory process fully takes the risks to this consumer group into consideration.

Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning

Mr. Caton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health at what locations in the UK cockles have tested positive for diarrhetic shellfish poisoning when other shellfish have tested negative. [37096]

Yvette Cooper: There have been six locations where cockles have tested positive for diarrhetic shellfish poisoning while other shellfish sampled on the same day have tested negative. These are the Thames Estuary, the Wash, Whitstable, the Menai Straight, the Burry Inlet and Strangford Lough.

Mr. Caton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the highly toxic form of diarrhetic shellfish poisoning affecting cockles, which does not show the normally typical presence of okadaic acid, was first discovered by the FSA; at what locations; and what research has been commissioned into its causes. [37097]

Yvette Cooper: The Food Standards Agency became aware of the unusual aspects of the diarrhetic shellfish poisoning tests in cockles in October 2001. This has been seen in samples taken from the Burry Inlet, Anglesey, the Thames Estuary, the Wash and Strangford Lough. Initial investigations into the cause of the toxicity have been undertaken as part of the agency's on-going programmes of research and surveillance on shellfish toxins. The results of these investigations have been used to produce a structured plan of research on this toxicity, which will begin at the start of March.

Non-EU Nurse Training

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list (a) the countries outside the EU where nurses trained, who registered with UKCC in each of the last four years and (b) the number from each such country. [37376]

Mr. Hutton: The information requested for the last three years where the data have been published is in the table.

Entrants to the UKCC register

Country	Number
	Year to 31 March 1998
Australia	1,170
New Zealand	472
Nigeria	130
S/Africa	393
USA	143
Canada	203
West Indies	93
Other	290
Total	2,894
	Year to 31 March 1999
Australia	1,335
New Zealand	527
Nigeria	179
S/Africa	599
USA	139
Canada	196
West Indies	237
Other	409
Total	3,621
	Year to 31 March 2000
Australia	1,209
New Zealand	461
Nigeria	208
Philippines	1,052
S/Africa	1,460
USA	168
Canada	130
West Indies	425
Zimbabwe	221
Other	654
Total	5,988

Source:

Statistical Analysis of the UKCC Professional Register

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The data published for the year to 31 March 1997 do not list the countries where entrants from overseas trained but does show that there were 2,633 overseas entrants.

Community Nursing

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS hospital and community health services, nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff there were within the community nursing areas of work broken down by qualification and region on (a) 30 September 1996, (b) 30 September 1997, (c) 30 September 1998 and (d) 30 September 1999. [37381]

Mr. Hutton: The information requested is shown in the table.

NHS hospital and community health service (HCHS) and practice nurses: nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff employed in the community areas of work by region and grade in England as at 30 September each yearHeadcount

	England	Northern and Yorkshire	Trent	Anglia and Oxford	North Thames	South Thames	South and West	West Midlands	North West	Others
1996
Total nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff	91,260	11,860	9,330	9,710	12,950	13,800	11,350	9,340	12,920	10
Total qualified	75,280	9,610	7,610	7,920	10,640	11,340	9,790	7,930	10,450	10
Manager	1,000	180	80	100	140	170	160	80	100	0
Registered sick children's nurse	530	60	40	70	30	160	30	90	50	0
Health Visitor	12,350	1,640	1,240	1,320	1,600	1,830	1,590	1,280	1,860	0
District Nurse	14,250	1,860	1,380	1,540	1,800	2,040	1,840	1,540	2,250	0
Other 1st level	25,820	3,140	2,830	2,480	4,160	4,040	2,960	2,670	3,540	10
Other 2nd level	3,430	580	320	330	320	600	510	190	590	0
Practice Nurse	17,900	2,160	1,720	2,080	2,580	2,500	2,700	2,080	2,090	0
Total unqualified	15,980	2,250	1,720	1,800	2,310	2,460	1,560	1,410	2,470	0
Nursery nurse	420	80	80	30	30	20	40	70	70	0
Nurse assistant/auxiliary	15,570	2,170	1,640	1,760	2,280	2,440	1,520	1,340	2,400	0

Headcount

	England	Northern and Yorkshire	Trent	West Midlands	North West	Eastern	London	South East	South West	SHAs and Others
1997
Total nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff	94,110	12,130	9,690	10,370	13,250	9,840	14,030	16,130	8,660	*
Total qualified	77,250	9,790	8,030	8,550	10,650	7,800	11,780	13,270	7,360	*
Manager	1,000	170	90	80	110	120	180	160	90	0
Registered sick children's nurse	780	40	60	200	80	*	170	200	20	0
Health Visitor	12,410	1,560	1,320	1,300	1,840	1,150	1,880	2,170	1,200	0
District Nurse	14,150	1,700	1,310	1,860	2,260	1,450	2,040	2,300	1,220	0
Other 1st level	27,390	3,630	3,160	2,620	3,750	2,650	4,490	4,670	2,420	0
Other 2nd level	3,130	510	280	210	490	280	460	440	470	*
Practice Nurse	18,390	2,190	1,830	2,280	2,110	2,150	2,560	3,330	1,940	0
										0
Total unqualified	16,860	2,340	1,660	1,820	2,600	2,040	2,260	2,860	1,300	0
Nursery nurse	510	100	90	100	70	60	20	30	40	0
Nurse assistant/auxiliary	16,350	2,240	1,570	1,720	2,520	1,980	2,240	2,820	1,250	0

Headcount

	England	Northern and Yorkshire	Trent	West Midlands	North West	Eastern	London	South East	South West	SHAs and others
1998
Total nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff	98,350	13,070	10,140	11,400	13,860	10,130	14,380	16,410	8,960	*
Total qualified	80,110	10,420	8,440	9,100	11,040	8,170	12,090	13,280	7,570	*
Manager	1,040	170	100	100	110	120	210	140	80	0
Registered sick children's nurse	760	40	20	240	80	10	140	220	10	0
Health Visitor	12,570	1,560	1,320	1,350	1,850	1,190	1,960	2,120	1,200	0
District Nurse	14,260	1,940	1,380	1,800	2,250	1,420	1,910	2,400	1,170	0
Other 1st level	29,610	3,810	3,290	3,160	4,100	2,990	4,580	4,890	2,780	*
Other 2nd level	2,970	520	220	230	460	290	450	390	410	0
Practice nurse	18,890	2,370	2,100	2,230	2,180	2,160	2,830	3,110	1,910	0
Total unqualified	18,240	2,650	1,700	2,300	2,820	1,960	2,300	3,140	1,380	0
Nursery nurse	630	90	140	120	100	80	20	40	50	0
Nursing assistant/auxiliary	17,610	2,550	1,570	2,170	2,720	1,880	2,280	3,100	1,330	0

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Headcount

	England	Northern and Yorkshire	Trent	West Midlands	North West	Eastern	London	South East	South West	SHAs and others
1999
Total nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff	101,810	13,090	10,190	11,840	14,860	10,230	14,950	17,730	8,910	*
Total qualified	82,580	10,560	8,500	9,310	11,630	8,150	12,670	14,030	7,730	*
Manager	1,020	170	60	80	120	150	190	170	80	0
Registered sick children's nurse	530	40	50	70	120	10	80	150	*	0
Health Visitor	12,800	1,580	1,360	1,420	1,840	1,140	2,050	2,220	1,190	0
District Nurse	14,260	1,710	1,210	1,920	2,180	1,360	2,250	2,450	1,180	0
Other 1st level	31,480	4,060	3,570	3,490	4,530	3,040	4,710	5,100	2,970	*
Other 2nd level	3,000	570	220	220	420	230	610	340	380	0
Practice nurse	19,500	2,430	2,020	2,110	2,410	2,230	2,780	3,590	1,930	0
Total unqualified	19,230	2,530	1,700	2,530	3,230	2,080	2,280	3,700	1,180	0
Nursery nurse	740	90	140	140	120	100	30	50	60	0
Nursing assistant/auxiliary	18,490	2,440	1,560	2,390	3,120	1,970	2,250	3,650	1,120	0

Notes:

Figures are rounded to the nearest 10

Due to rounding totals may not equal the sum of component parts

Figures exclude learners and agency staff

1996 Practice nurse data collected as at 30 October and 1997 to 1997 Practice nurse data collected as at 1 October

Due to the new regional office boundaries in 1999 the 1997 and 1998 figures are estimated regional splits

The community areas of work that we can separately identify are community psychiatry, community learning disabilities and community services

* five or less and greater than zero

Sources:

Department of Health Non-Medical Workforce Census

Department of Health General and Personal Medical Services Statistics

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