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Health Professionals (Salaries)

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the salary is of (a) health visitors and (b) midwives; by how much this has changed since 1997; and what plans he has to increase this further. [109122]

Mr. Hutton: Nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff directly employed in the National Health Service have their pay determined by an independent pay review body. The Government has accepted in full and implemented the recommendations on pay for the last four years.

Midwives and health visitors are currently paid in accordance with the nationally agreed clinical grading structure. Newly qualified midwives enter at scale E with a 2002–03 salary range of £17,105 to £23,690. The minimum for health visitors is scale G with a 2002–03 salary range of £22,385 to £26,340. Full details of the current salary scales are contained in Advance Letter (NM) 1/2002. Copies are available in the Library.

Pay has increased across the board for all midwives and health visitors directly employed in the NHS in England by at least 26 per cent in cash terms since 1997.

A proposed agreement on pay modernisation for NHS non medical staff, Agenda for Change, was published on 3 March. NHS staff organisations are currently consulting their members on the proposed agreement.

The information in this answer relates to England only. Pay for midwives and health visitors in Scotland and Wales is a matter for the devolved administrations. Whilst the institutions in Northern Ireland are dissolved, responsibility rests with Ministers in the Northern Ireland Office.

Health Protection Agency

Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what (a) budget, (b) staffing levels and (c) aims have been set for the Health Protection Agency; and what percentage of the Health Protection Agency's budget will be dedicated to bio-defence. [109319]

Ms Blears: The details of the budget distribution between the various activities of the Health Protection Agency (HPA) are currently being considered by the HPA Board and it is not possible to say what percentage will be dedicated to bio-defence.

The fine details of the budget allocation from the Department of Health are still being finalised but we expect it to be in the region of £112 million. Added to this will be contracts—from both the private and public sectors—to the value of around £70 million.

The HPA has a staffing establishment of 2,516.

The functions of the HPA as set out in the Directions from the Secretary of State are:

(a) to advise the Secretary of State, National Health Service bodies and such other persons or bodies as the HPA sees fit on matters relating to health protection and health emergency planning;

(b) to conduct surveillance, and develop and improve existing systems of surveillance, of infectious disease and chemical and radiation hazards;

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(c) to co-ordinate data from systems of surveillance relevant to the protection of public health;

(d) to support primary care trusts in the discharge of their functions of:

(i) providing a health protection service (including investigation and management of outbreaks of infectious disease and chemical and radiation hazards and incidents);

(ii) carrying out health emergency planning; and

(iii) providing clinical care for patients who have, or may have, taken toxic substances;

(e) to provide the following services:

(i) specialist public health and reference microbiology services including food, water and environmental microbiology for local authorities;

(ii) designating yellow fever vaccination centres for the purpose of complying with the World Health Organisation's International Health Regulations; and

(iii) advising and supporting the Department of Health's regional directors of public health in their task of ensuring that effective health protection and health emergency planning systems are maintained and developed in their regions; and

(f) to provide such clinical microbiology services as the Secretary of State requests.

Its aims and targets in fulfilling these functions will be detailed in its business and corporate plans, which are currently being finalised.

Human Tissue Typing

Jim Dobbin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether human tissue typing is available in England. [108539]

Mr. Lammy: Tissue typing is a method of identifying a person's tissue type and is important to some forms of organ transplantation. Human tissue typing has been available in England since the late 1960s.

Intensive Care

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on how the money to improve intensive care services announced in September 2002 has been spent. [108224]

Jacqui Smith: Since 1997 we have steadily increased investment in the improvement of paediatric intensive care services. The announcement in September of an extra £10 million increased these additional funds to a total of £25 million, now available annually. The funding has been spent on capacity building for lead centres providing intensive care to the most critically ill children, ensuring greater access to these centres and to local high dependency care for children recovering from serious illness.

Iraq (Casualties)

Dr. Tonge: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of casualties from the war in Iraq upon the NHS; and if he will make a statement. [105099]

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Mr. Hutton: The National Health Service has a responsibility for treating any military patients brought back to the United Kingdom. All trusts have effective contingency plans in place to ensure NHS services are not affected.

Laser Eye Surgery

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what information he has collated on the success rate of (a) Lasik and (b) other laser eye surgery procedures; [109153]

(2) what plans he has (a) to regulate providers of laser eye surgery treatments and (b) to record individual surgeons' success rates and history; [109154]

(3) what measures are in place to ensure that people offering laser eye surgery are adequately qualified and to require them to inform patients of possible side-effects of any treatment. [109152]

Mr. Lammy: Establishments where Class 4 laser treatment is provided are required to be registered with the National Care Standards Commission as independent hospitals, under the Care Standards Act 2000 and must comply with the Private and Voluntary Health Care Regulations. Regulation 42(1) requires that the registered person has in place a professional protocol drawn up by a trained and experienced medical practitioner or dentist from the relevant discipline in which treatment is to be provided.

Providers are also required to meet two sets of national minimum standards—core standards and service-specific standards. The core standards apply to all health care providers and include standards on the information that must be provided for patients. The provider must make available to prospective patients a patient's guide, reviewed annually, expressed in clear, relevant language and in a format suitable for the patient profile with regard to language and sensory or learning disabilities. The information provided must be accurate, not misleading and any claims made must be justified.

The standards specific to laser treatment set out in detail all the issues to be addressed by the professional protocol and mandatory written policies and procedures, including the operator's responsibilities, technique, biological effects of treatment, procedures, qualifications, training, access, environment, maintenance, management, safety, adverse incidents, hazards, contra-indications, pre-treatment tests, post-treatment care and records.

The vast majority of laser eye surgery takes place in private practice. The Department of Health does not collect information about such procedures by individual surgeons.

Lay Assessors

Dr. Richard Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many lay assessors to the Social Services Inspectorate were in place in March 2002; how many are working now; and which local authorities use them. [108998]

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Jacqui Smith: In March 2002, the Social Services Inspectorate (SSI) had a pool of 84 trained lay assessors available for deployment in appropriate inspections. In March 2003, the number was 77. Local authorities do not themselves use these lay assessors; they are deployed by the SSI, with the agreement of the local authority being inspected.

Long-term Care

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when his Department will issue guidance to (a) primary care trusts, (b) strategic health authorities and (c) local councils on how to respond to the Health Ombudsman's report on NHS funding for long term care. [108775]

Jacqui Smith: The Government are already working with the national health service and local authorities to respond to the Ombudsman's report on NHS funding for long-term care and ascertain the numbers of people who may have been wrongly assessed under criteria not consistent with the Coughlan judgment.

The Government will review the national guidance on continuing care carefully and once this process is complete decide whether further action is necessary.

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