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Public Bodies
Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the cost of the reorganisation from the Commission for Health Improvement and the National Care Standards Commission to the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection and the Social Services Inspectorate. [97814]
Jacqui Smith: Work is currently in hand to consider how the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection and the Commission for Social Care Inspection will be established. Estimates of costing have not yet been made but will be undertaken in due course as it becomes clearer how these independent new bodies will carry out their functions.
Subject to legislation, the Commission for Social Care Inspection will bring together the functions of the Social Services Inspectorate and the social care functions of the National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) and the Commission for Healthcare Audit andInspection will encompass the Commission for Health Improvement, the healthcare related functions of the NCSC, the health value for money work of the Audit Commission and, subject to the passage of further legislation, the work of the Mental Health Act Commission.
Redundancy Payments
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS workers, who have received pension
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payouts or redundancy payouts, have been employed by, or given remunerated services to, the NHS following their pension or redundancy payout in the last three years for which figures are available. [95638]
Mr. Hutton [holding answer 5 February 2003]: The information requested is not collected centrally. The Department of Health issued Health Service Guidance (95)25, NHS early retirement arrangements, which clearly states that offers of re-employment or payments for consultancy work are not expected to be made to former national health service employees who have taken early retirement from the NHS at public expense, unless the offer clearly represents good value for money in relation to alternatives.
Further employment of staff who receive early payment of NHS pension benefits as a result of compulsory redundancy, or who volunteer to retire early with actuarially reduced pension benefits, is not restricted. However, the HSG provides guidelines on the abatement and suspension of NHS pension during re-employment in the NHS.
Renewable Energy
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what changes in unit payments for electricity have resulted from the switch by his Department to purchasing renewable energy which is exempt from the Climate Change Levy. [96482]
Ms Blears: The Department first purchased renewable energy for consumption in its London headquarters buildings from October 2001. The current average unit charge for renewable electricity on the estate, compared to the average unit price charged prior to October 2001, shows a reduction of around 10 per cent.
Spanish Eggs
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the risks to health from eggs imported from Spain. [97710]
Ms Blears: During October and November 2002, there was a marked increase in the number of outbreaks of Salmonella Enteritidis. Many of these were linked to the use of eggs in catering and in the majority of these, the eggs appeared to have originated from Spain.
Investigations of eggs linked to outbreaks and of eggs in catering premises, carried out by the Public Health Laboratory Service, have identified a higher level of contamination of Spanish eggs by Salmonella (5 per cent. of pooled samples) than was found in previous surveys of eggs, whether United Kingdom produced (1 per cent. of pooled samples) or non-UK produced (2 per cent. of pooled samples).
Eggs, regardless of their origin, cannot be guaranteed to be Salmonella free. However, the risk to public health can be minimised if eggs are properly handled and cooked. The FoodStandards Agency has reiterated advice to a wide range of food businesses, including those catering for vulnerable groups, on the correct handling and use of raw shell eggs. It has drawn the problem with eggs to the attention of the European Commission and the Spanish authorities and has
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advised importers and wholesalers of imported eggs to send eggs imported from Spain for commercial heat treatment until further notice. Since this advice was issued, the number of outbreaks has fallen to normal background levels.
Specialist Commissioning
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what reasons underlay his decision to postpone the transfer of specialist commissioning to primary care trusts until April 2004; and if he will make a statement. [95856]
Mr. Hutton: Decisions on the future arrangements for specialist commissioning will be taken shortly.
Speech Therapy
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he plans to ensure that primary care trusts provide speech therapy to meet children's statemented needs. [97180]
Mr. Hutton: "Shifting the Balance of Power" gives primary care trusts (PCTs) the responsibility of improving the health of the community, securing the provision of high quality services and integrating health and social care locally.
We are assisting this by increasing the numbers of speech and language therapists (SLTs). Between September 1997 and 2001, the number of SLTs employed in the national health service increased by 17 per cent., from 4,870 to 5,680. The numbers of SLTs entering training have increased by 21 per cent., from 457 to 553 between 1999–2000 and 2001–02. Also, with the extra investment announced in the 2002 Budget, by 2008 the NHS will have net increases of at least 30,000 scientists and therapists, including speech and language therapists, over the September 2001 staff census.
A children care group work force team was established in December 2001 to take a national view on the health and social care work force pressures and priorities for children and maternity services. It supports the strategy set out in "The HR in the NHS Plan", published in July 2002, which aims to grow and develop the NHS work force.
One of the main priorities for the care group is to support the development of the children's national service framework. This includes action to develop a framework of the skills and competencies needed in the work force to deliver quality person-centred care for children, young people and expectant mothers. This will help to ensure that national educational needs are identified and action taken through the care group, and that at a local level, primary care trusts have the information needed to make adequate provision for children's services. This would include the provision of speech therapy.
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will instigate an inquiry into the staffing and funding of speech therapy in (a) special schools and (b) mainstream schools. [97182]
Mr. Hutton: I have no current plans to do so.
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Voluntary Residential Accommodation
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether voluntary residential accommodation is covered by his Department's inspection and enforcement procedures. [98928]
Mr. Hutton: Where accommodation is rented from a hospital on a voluntary basis and there is no contractual requirement to provide on-call duties from that accommodation, the accommodation will not be covered by the inspection requirements of HSC2000/036. It will be covered by the Houses in Multiple Occupancy Regulations and other local authority standards to ensure basic habitability.
Welfare Food Scheme
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the value of benefit under the Welfare Food Scheme is as a proportion of the household food budget, for the poorest 20 per cent. of mothers who bottle feed. [99016]
Ms Blears: The Welfare Food Scheme is primarily targeted at low income families in receipt of income support and income based job seekers' allowance. Certain families in receipt of working families' tax credit are also eligible for specific provisions under the scheme. It is not possible to identify the poorest 20 per cent. of beneficiaries within these groups. The majority of eligible mothers in the scheme with a child under one opt to take-up infant formula.
Bottle-feeding mothers with a child under one in receipt of income support or income based job seekers' allowance are entitled to a benefit which consists of a fixed amount of milk. They receive milk tokens which can be exchanged for seven pints of liquid milk or one 900g tin of infant formula per week. The monetary value of the milk is variable as it is dependent upon the price charged by retailers and manufacturers.
Certain families in receipt of working families' tax credit are entitled to purchase 900g tins of infant formula at a discounted rate from designated national health service clinics.
Sigmoidoscopy
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many hospitals in the UK are equipped to perform flexible sigmoidoscopies;. [96070]
- (2) what estimate he has made of the number of patients subject to rigid sigmoidoscopy procedures who could have a flexible sigmoidoscopy; [96071]
(3) what percentage of patients investigated for bowel cancer are subject to (a) rigid sigmoidoscopy, (b) flexible sigmoidoscopy and (c) barium enema and (d) colonoscopy. [95993]
Ms Blears: Data is not available on the number of hospitals that are equipped to perform flexible sigmoidoscopies, nor on the percentage of bowel cancer
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patients that have individual investigations. The decision as to the appropriate diagnostic test for any patient will be for the clinical judgment of the clinician in charge of the patient's care, taking full consideration of the patient's presenting symptoms.
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A national health service bowel cancer programme was announced on 5 February 2003. The aim of the programme is to develop a national screening programme for bowel cancer and speed up diagnosis and treatment for patients with the disease.