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Computers

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance the NHS gives to trusts about the replacement time for computer equipment. [85791]

Ms Blears: No general guidance is given. The replacement of computer equipment will be decided by individual national health service organisations depending on local circumstances.

10 Dec 2002 : Column 288W

Congenital Malformation Database

Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research has been conducted into the United Kingdom congenital malformation database since it was established. [84256]

John Healey: I have been asked to reply.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

10 Dec 2002 : Column 289W

Letter from L. Cook to Mr. L. Smith, dated 10 December 2002:

As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary question on what research has been conducted into the United Kingdom congenital anomaly database since it was established. (84256)

The National Congenital Anomaly System (NCAS) was set up in 1964 and only monitors congenital anomalies in England and Wales. Reporting to the system is voluntary and only live births and stillbirths are included. A number of articles and papers have been written using data from NCAS and on the quality of the data held on NCAS. Listed below are the articles using national data of which ONS are aware.

Research using the National Congenital Anomaly System:

Botting BJ. Limb reduction defects and coastal areas. Letter. Lancet, 1994; 343: 1033–1034.

Botting B, Rosato M, Wood R. Teenage mothers and the health of their children. Popul Trends. 1998 Autumn;(93): 19–28

Busby A, Dolk H, Collin R, Barry Jones R, Winter R. Compiling a national register of babies born with anophthalmia/ micropthalmia in England 1988–94. Arch Dis Child. Fetal Neonatal Ed 1998;79:F168–173

Doyle PE, Beral V, Botting B, Wale CJ. Congenital malformations in twins in England and Wales. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1991;45(1):43–8.

Gilbert R. Clusters of anophthalmia in Britain. Difficult to implicate Benomyl on current evidence. BMJ 1993;307:340–341.

Mastroiacovo P, Castilla E, Arpino C, Botting B, Cocchi G, Goujard J, Marinacci C, Merlob P, Metneki J, Mutchinick O, Ritvanenen A, Rosano A. Congenital malformations in twins: an international study. Am J Med Genet 1999;83:117–124

Morris JK, Wald NJ. Quantifying the decline in the birth prevalence of neural tube defects in England and Wales. Journal of Medical Screening, 1999 6; 4:182–185

Murphy M, Seagroatt V, Hey K et al. Neural tube defects 1974–94 down but not out. Arch Dis Child 1996; 75: F133-F134

Office for National Statistics. Congenital anomaly statistics Series MBS . London: The Stationery Office

Office for National Statistics. Health Statistics Quarterly no 4. Annual update: congenital anomaly statistics 1998 London: The Stationery Office, 1999

Office for National Statistics. Health Statistics Quarterly no 8. Annual update: congenital anomaly statistics 1999 London: The Stationery Office, 2000

Office for National Statistics. Health Statistics Quarterly no 12. Annual update: congenital anomaly statistics 2000 London: The Stationery Office, 2001

Office for National Statistics. Health Statistics Quarterly no 16. Annual update: congenital anomaly statistics 2001 London: The Stationery Office, 2002

Rogers SC, Weatherall JAC, OPCS, Anencephalus, spina bifida and congenital hydrocephalus. England and Wales 1964–1972. Studies on medical and population subjects. No 32 London: HMSO 1976:

Rosano A, Smithells D, Cacciani L, Botting B, Castilla E, Cornel M, Erickson D, Goujard J,

Irgens L, Merlob P, Robert E, Siffel C, Stoll C, Sumiyoshi Y. Time trends in neural tube defects prevalence in relation to preventive strategies: an international study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1999 Oct;53(10):630–5

Smeeton NC, Rona RJ, Sharland G, Botting BJ, Barnett A, Dundas R. Estimating the prevalence of malformation of the heart in the first year of life using capture-recapture methods. Am J Epidemiol, 1999; 150 (7):778–785

Swerdlow AJ, Melzer D. The value of England and Wales congenital malformation notification scheme data for epidemiology: male genital tract malformations. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1988; 42(1):8–13.

10 Dec 2002 : Column 290W

Tan KH, Kilby MD. Whittle MJ, Beattie BR, Booth IW, Botting BJ. Congenital anterior abdominal wall defects in England and Wales 1987–93: retrospective analysis of OPCS data. BMJ. 1996 Oct 12;313(7062):903–6.

Research into the quality of data on the National Congenital Anomaly System:

Alberman E, Botting B. Recommendations for improving national data on congenital anomalies are being implemented. BMJ. 1997 Apr 26;314(7089):1278

Botting B. The impact of more complete data from Wales on the National Congenital Anomaly system. Health Statistics Quarterly 2000; 5: 7–9.

Botting B. Improving the completeness of Down syndrome notification. Health Statistics Quarterly, 2000a ; 6: 14–17

Busby A, Dolk H, Collin R, Barry Jones R, Winter R. Compiling a national register of babies born with anophthalmia/micropthalmia in England 1988–94. Arch Dis Child. Fetal Neonatal Ed 1998;79:F168–173

Coleridge HL. The National Congenital Anomaly System-why it needs midwives' support. RCM Midwives J. 2002;5(5): 188–9

Cuckle H, Nanchahal K, Wald N. Birth prevalence of Down's syndrome in England and Wales. Prenatal Diagnosis 1991; 11: 29–34.

Dutton SJ, Owens JR, Harris F. Ascertainment of congenital malformations: a comparative study of two systems. J Epidemiol Community Health 1991; 45: 294–298.

Hey K, O'Donnell M, Murphy M, Jones N, Botting B, use of local neural tube defect registers to interpret national trends. Archives of disease in childhood. 1994; 71: F198-F202

Hill GB, Spicer CC Weatherall JAC The computer surveillance of congenital malformations. Br Med Bull 1968; 24 (3) :215–218

Huang T, Wall HC, Wald NJ, Morris JK, Mutton D, Alberman E. Reliability of statistics on Down's syndrome notifications. Journal of Medical Screening 1997; 4:95–97.

Knox EG, Armstrong EH, Lancashire R. The quality of notification of congenital malformations. J Epidemiol Community Health 1984; 38: 296–305.

Knox EG, Lancashire R. Epidemiology of congenital malformations. London: HMSO,1991.

Morris JK, Wald NJ. Quantifying the decline in the birth prevalence of neural tube defects in England and Wales. Journal of Medical Screening, 1999 6; 4:182–185

Murphy M, Seagroatt V, Hey K el al. Neural tube defects 1974–94 down but not out Arch Dis Child 1996; 75: F133-F134

OPCS The OPCS Monitoring Scheme for Congenital Malformations—Occasional Paper 43- A review by a Working Group of the Registrar General's Medical Advisory Committee. London: OPCS 1995

Payne JN. Limitations of the OPCS congenital malformation notification systems illustrated by examination of congenital malformations of the cardiovascular systems in districts within the Trent region. Public Health 1992; 106: 437–448.

Rahi JS, Botting B. Ascertainment of children with congenital cataract through the National Congenital Anomaly System in England and Wales. Br J Ophthalmol. 2001 Sep;85(9): 1049–51.

Smeeton NC, Rona RJ, Sharland G, Botting BJ, Barnett A, Dundas R. Estimating the prevalence of malformation of the heart in the first year of life using capture-recapture methods. Am J Epidemiol, 1999; 150 (7): 778–785

Swerdlow AJ, Melzer D. The value of England and Wales congenital malformation notification scheme data for epidemiology: male genital tract malformations. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1988; 42(1): 8–13.

Weatherall JAC. An assessment of the efficiency of notification of congenital malformations. The Medical Officer, 1969; 121:65–68

Weatherall JAC. Congenital malformations, surveillance and reporting. Population Trends 11, 1978, 27–29

10 Dec 2002 : Column 291W

Consultants' Contract (Press Releases)

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library copies of press releases made by his Department regarding slide 9 of the XA New Consultant Contract—The Framework for Agreement" presentation given by Mr.Andrew Foster, Director of Human Resources for the national health service. [86250]

Mr. Hutton: The Department has not issued any press release regarding any aspect of the presentation given by Mr. Andrew Foster, national health service director of human resources.

Correspondence

Mr. Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will reply to the letters from the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed, dated 11 June and 24 July 2002 , concerning new prescription policing arrangements. [81725]

Mr. Lammy [holding answer 25 November 2002]: A reply was sent to the hon. Member on 26 November 2002.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has for his Department to improve the response rate to letters to hon. Members on behalf of their constituents. [83280]

Mr. Lammy [holding answer 25 November 2002]: A customer service project has been set up under the Department's change programme. The aim of this project is to significantly improve the Department's performance in handling telephone, written and e-mail inquiries from members of the public and their representatives, and to maximise the potential of the Department's website and other forms of communication media.

Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many replies remain outstanding to letters from hon. Members which were sent by them before 3 December 2001. [84064]

Mr. Lammy: None.

Mr. Desmond Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he plans to reply to the letter of Ronnie Cairnduff of Hampshire Care dated 31 July. [84724]

Mr. Lammy: The Department is unable to locate a copy of Mr. Cairnduff's correspondence and the Customer Service Unit apologises for this and is seeking a copy of this correspondence.

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the reasons for the 17 month delay in responding to a letter from the hon. Member for Totnes dated 27 June 2001 concerning Mrs. Alyson Bellenes of Marldon, Devon and St. John's Wort. [85245]

Mr. Lammy: Firstly, I apologise for the unacceptable delay in replying to the hon. Member's correspondence. Unfortunately, the Department did not receive the original correspondence but did receive the copy the hon. Member forwarded on 21 November. The delay was caused by administration difficulties within the Department.

10 Dec 2002 : Column 292W

To prevent this kind of delay from reoccurring the Department has introduced a new correspondence tracking system designed to track correspondence throughout the Department via the electronic mailing system. A customer service project has been set up under the Department's change programme with the following objectives:

to improve significantly the Department's performance in handling telephone, written and e-mail inquiries from members of the public and their representatives.


to maximise the potential of the Department's website and the other forms of communication media as a source of information to the public.

The project will give further impetus to improving performance in the timeliness and quality of responses to correspondence.

David Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the honourable Member for Walsall North will receive a reply to his letter of 22 October regarding a constituent, Departmental Ref PO1018138. [85889]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 9 December 2002]:A reply was sent to the hon. Member on 5 December.

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will answer the letter of 5 September to him from the hon. Member for Beaconsfield concerning Mr. and Mrs. C. Brewster. [86649]

Jacqui Smith: A reply was sent to the hon. Member on 9 December.

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