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HEALTH

Child Protection

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on his role in maintaining accurate child protection records. [98758]

Jacqui Smith: In December 1999, the Secretary of State published Working Together to Safeguard Children, a guide to interagency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, using his powers under Section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970.

"Working Together to Safeguard Children" includes guidance to agencies and professionals in relation to record keeping. It makes clear that good record keeping is an important part of the accountability of professionals to those who use their services, and that well kept records provide an essential underpinning to good child protection practice.

Records should be accessible and comprehensive, with judgments made, and actions and decisions taken being carefully recorded. They should use clear, straightforward language, should be concise, and should be accurate not only in fact, but also in differentiating between opinion, judgements and hypothesis.

The Social Services Inspectorate performance monitors the implementation of the Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance (and other relevant Government guidance) through its programme of inspections of children's services.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures he is taking to improve joint working between Multi-Agency Public Protection Panels and Area Child Protection Committees to safeguard children. [96063]

Jacqui Smith: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on Monday 10 February 2003, Official Report, column 587–88W.

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many allegations in terms of the Children's Act 1989 were made by health trusts in respect of child protection issues in each of the last five years. [98343]

Jacqui Smith: The information requested is not held centrally.

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent discussions he has had with (a) representatives of the NSPCC on child protection and (b) the Fostering Network on care of children. [98487]

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Jacqui Smith: The Department works closely with voluntary organisations which have an interest in safeguarding children.

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health has had no recent discussions. However, I meet with relevant voluntary organisations to discuss these issues.

Imported Infections

Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how he intends to take account of the views of clinicians and community-based organisations working with vulnerable populations in the inquiry into imported infections; [97092]

(2) from which key stakeholders evidence will be sought for the inquiry into imported infections. [97091]

Ms Blears: The Cabinet Office is co-ordinating an internal review of immigration and infectious diseases and access to the National Health Service, involving relevant government departments including the Department of Health. The review will establish the facts on the impact of imported infections on public health and NHS resources and report to Ministers. There are no plans at this stage of the review to seek views from external stakeholders.

Acute Psychiatric Beds

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many acute psychiatric beds in each strategic health authority are occupied by patients aged (a) over 65, (b) over 75 and (c) over 85. [97673]

Jacqui Smith: The Department does not routinely collect such information.

Ambulances

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many fully operational ambulances were stationed (a) during the day and (b) at night at each of the ambulance stations in the Ribble Valley and Fulwood in each year since 1997. [97670]

Jacqui Smith: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Area Child Protection Committees

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what resources are (a) available and (b) proposed for area child protection committees; [96065]

(2) if he will make a statement on future arrangements for Area Child Protection Committees. [96040]

Jacqui Smith: Area child protection committee (ACPC) expenditure, is a matter for local agreement. As a multi-agency forum, the ACPC should be supported in its work by its main constituent agencies, reflecting the investment of each agency in activities which are of benefit to all, in particular inter-agency training.

The Joint Chief Inspectors' report Safeguarding Children, published on the 14 October 2002, contains a recommendation that the Department of Health should review the current arrangements for ACPCs to

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determine whether they should be established on a statutory basis to ensure adequate accountability, authority and funding.

The Government have welcomed the publication of this report, and will respond in full to its recommendations, together with those of the Victoria Climbie Inquiry in the Children At Risk Green Paper in the spring.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his policy is on placing Area Child Protection Committees on a statutory footing; and if he will make a statement. [98594]

Jacqui Smith: The Joint Chief Inspectors' report Safeguarding Children, published on 14 October 2002, contains a recommendation that the Department of Health should review the current arrangements for area child protection committees, to determine whether they should be established on a statutory basis to ensure adequate accountability, authority and funding.

The Government have welcomed the publication of this report and will respond in full to its recommendations, together with those of the Victoria Climbie Inquiry, in the Children At Risk Green Paper in the spring.

Audiologists

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many audiologists are employed by each NHS trust; [97878]

(2) how many vacancies for audiologists there are in the NHS. [97888]

Jacqui Smith: Information on numbers of audiologists employed in National Health Service trusts and vacancies for audiologists in the NHS are not separately available; they are included in physiological measurement staff. The information available has been placed in the Library.

Building Capacity Grant

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to organise a further round of funding of the building capacity grant. [97043]

Jacqui Smith: The Building Care Capacity Grant 2002–3 represents the final year of this funding to local authorities. Funding for building capacity was absorbed within the overall personal social services settlement for 2003–04. Furthermore, the Access and Systems Capacity Grant 2003–4 is a new grant, intended to expand the capacity and range of community based social care services for older people, and is being distributed according to the new older people's formula for social services.

Cancelled Operations

Dr. Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 28 January 2003, Official Report, column 803W, on cancelled operations, what monitoring will be undertaken centrally to ensure that hospitals are meeting the guarantee set out in the NHS Plan. [95858]

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Mr. Hutton: In line with the NHS Plan cancelled operations guarantee, data are collected on the numberof patients still waiting for an operation 28 days after their operation was originally cancelled by the hospital for non-clinical reasons on the day of surgery. As part of these data returns, from Quarter 4 2002–03, National Health Service trusts will be required to submit full data on where patients, who are breaches of the NHS Plan guarantee, have been treated; for example, at the same NHS trust, at another NHS Trust, in the private/independent sector or abroad.

Cancer Plan

Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the money allocated for palliative care in the cancer plan. [97084]

Ms Blears: Estimates from Help the Hospices show that the level of statutory funding for voluntary hospices has increased by 14 per cent, in cash terms over the past two years. However, it is clear that only slow progress has been made towards meeting our commitment in the NHS Cancer Plan of an extra £50 million for specialist palliative care by 2004. That is why we are setting up a central budget for the £50 million from 2003–04. I refer my hon. Friend to the response I gave him today.

Cancer Research

Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much money was spent on average in each of the last five years on research into (a) the prevention of cancer and (b) the link between diet and cancer in the UK. [97321]

Ms Blears: The information requested is not available. However, in April 2001 the Government established the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) in partnership with the charities and the pharmaceutical industry.

The NCRI's first strategic analysis, which was published in October 2002, was an overview of the £257 million a year of cancer research in the United Kingdom that is directly funded by the NCRI's fifteen partner organisations. This analysis showed an apparently small investment—2 per cent.—in research into cancer prevention. But this category only included research aimed at the direct application of strategies to prevent cancer, and several other facets that inform preventive strategies are covered by other categories, such as aetiology, which includes diet.

The real investment in research relevant to future cancer prevention strategies was therefore larger than 2 per cent., but was still relatively low. The NCRI partner organisations agreed that the scale of research into cancer risk would benefit from closer joint examination. The NCRI has established a strategic planning group to carry out a much more detailed analysis of the research activity in this area, to discuss any potential opportunities and to identify any further action necessary.

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