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Health Care (Somerset)

Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many disabled people are registered in England; how many have learning difficulties; how many NHS registered wheelchair users there are; and how many have hearing loss. [107326]

Jacqui Smith: Figures on how many disabled people are registered in England are not collected centrally, except for figures relating to sensory impaired disabled people. However, each local authority is required by law to maintain a register of disabled people living within its area, for the purposes of planning and providing

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appropriate social services. Registration, though, is entirely voluntary, and is not required as a condition of receiving services from local authorities.

The White Paper "Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century" (CM 5086), published in March 2001, estimated that there were around 210,000 people with severe and profound learning disabilities in England and a prevalence rate of around 25 per 1,000 population, or up to 1.2 million people, for mild/moderate learning disabilities.

The Audit Commission estimates that there are at least 640,000 long-term wheelchair users in the United Kingdom, about 70 per cent. of whom are over 60 years. The current total number of manual wheelchairs within the national health service in England is estimated to be approximately 1.2 million with some 200,000 issued each year. In addition to the manual wheelchairs, there are approximately 25,000 powered wheelchairs, mainly electrically powered indoor and outdoor chairs (EPIOCs), with some 6,000 new EPIOCs issued each year.

On 31 March 2001, the last date for which we have data, 194,840 people in England were registered with local authorities as deaf or hard of hearing. The Royal National Institute for the Deaf estimates that as many as one in seven of the population has a hearing impairment.

Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what help is given to local authorities to help place elderly people in care homes. [107334]

Jacqui Smith: Councils with social services responsibilities have considerable experience in placing older people and other vulnerable adults in care homes. Since 1993 they have had responsibilities for placements in both their own homes and independent sector homes where residents need financial support or do not have care and attention otherwise available to them.

To assist councils, the Department of Health has published guidance on: the way in which older people's needs should be assessed; information that councils should make available to prospective residents; the choices that individuals may make; and the rules for determining financial and care management responsibility for out-of-area placements. Regulations and associated guidance provide councils with a national framework for determining how much individual residents should contribute to care home fees.

Much of this information is brought together in the 1996 publication "Moving into a care home" that can be used as source material by prospective residents, actual residents, councils and other interested parties. An updated version of this publication will be available later in 2003.

Health Services (Deaf People)

Mr. Levitt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what plans he has to make additional resources available to implement the recommendations of the review Sign of the Times; and how his Department will ensure that these resources are channelled directly to this purpose; [100348]

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(2) when his Department will announce the results of the consultation into mental health services for deaf people entitled Sign of the Times; and when the recommendations will be implemented; [100347]

(3) what steps his Department is taking to ensure that there are better linkages between specialist and local health services for deaf people with mental health problems; [100346]

(4) what his Department is doing to ensure that the National Service Framework for mental health services applies to British sign language users; and if he will make a statement on the process that will be followed to achieve this. [100349]

Jacqui Smith: The Department of Health published a consultation document entitled Sign of the Times in July of last year specifically to address this issue. The consultation period extended to November to allow time for voluntary groups to respond. The Department is now working with an expert group to distil the many responses received and intends to publish its response in the spring.

Additional resources will be made available to assist implementation of the final guidance.

A key issue will be the relationship between local and specialist services and this will be addressed in the final response.

Health Vacancies

Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the vacancy rate was for (a) radiographers and (b) biomedical scientists in the NHS in (i) England, (ii) each NHS region and (iii) each NHS trust in each of the last six years. [106596]

Mr. Hutton: The National Health Service vacancy survey, first collected in March 1999, collects information on the number of posts which trusts are actively trying to fill which havebeen vacant for three months or more. Vacancy information in March 1999 was only collected for the overall radiographer group and pathology staff and has only beenseparately collected as diagnostic and therapeutic radiographers and biomedical scientists from March 2000. The available information has been placed in the Library.

Home Helps

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many home helps were employed in each local authority in England in the last year for which figures are available. [106943]

Jacqui Smith: Information on the whole-time equivalent number of home helps employed by each local authority in England as at 30 September 2001 (the latest date for which data are available) has been placed in the Library.

Hospital Standards

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what incentives are proposed so as to increase standards for the worst performing hospitals. [106508]

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Mr. Hutton: The Modernisation Agency runs programmes to turn around poorly performing national health service trusts with an average value of £250,000 per zero star trust. Their performance improvement team addresses failures around access targets, while the clinical governance team assists trusts who received an adverse clinical governance review. This support aims to enable NHS trusts to improve their performance rating so that they have the opportunity to benefit from a range of earned autonomy freedoms, and to apply for foundation trust status. This is part of the Government's Plan to raise standards across the whole NHS, as set out in the Department of Health publication, "Raising Standards Across the NHS—A Programme of Rewards and Support for all NHS Trusts", in December 2002.

Hypothyroidism

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of a possible link between ADD/ADHD and hypothyroidism; and if he will make a statement. [106595]

Jacqui Smith: While congenital hypothyroidism can cause deficits in attention no significant associations between abnormal thyroid hormone levels and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have been found. Routine screening of thyroid function is not recommended as part of the diagnostic assessment of ADHD.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the percentage of children who fail to recover from ADD/ADHD by the time they reach adulthood. [106653]

Jacqui Smith: Research indications are that some of the symptoms of attention deficit disorder/attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in childhood can persist into adulthood in 30 to 70 per cent. of people. The wide percentage variation reflects the differing criteria and definitions used in the available research studies.

Malpractice

David Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of the health service budget is used to settle cases of malpractice. [106849]

Mr. Lammy: Information on the amounts used to settle claims for malpractice is not collected centrally.

According to the National Audit Office summarised accounts 2001–02, for the National Health Service (England), expenditure for claims and associated costs for clinical negligence was £446 million.

The proportion of health service budget used to settle clinical negligence cases is 0.9 per cent.

Meningitis C Vaccine

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research is being conducted into meningitis; and what support is available from the Department of Health to encourage it. [105901]

Ms Blears [holding answer 1 April 2003]: Over the last five years, a total of approximately £4 million has been provided to the Centre for Applied Microbiology and

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Research (CAMR) for meningococcal research. A total of approximately £2 million has been provided to the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) over the last three years for meningococcal research. In 2001, the Chief Medical Officer commissioned an audit, of £120,000 over two years, of the hospital care of adults with meningococcal disease.

The Department of Health has recently provided £6.1 million over three years to the Vaccine Evaluation Consortium for further vaccine research, some of which relates to meningococcal research. Research into vaccine against Group B meningococcal disease continues as part of the work undertaken by PHLS and CAMR, now the Health Protection Agency.

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