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14 May 2003 : Column 310W—continued
Counselling
Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what arrangements are made in his Department to allow staff to access counselling services. [111934]
Mr. Lammy: Department of Health staff are provided access to a free-phone telephone counselling and information service provided by Corecare. The service is available 24 hours, 365 days per year. In addition to the telephone help line employees can be offered up to eight sessions of confidential face to face counselling.
Diabetic Treatment Facilities
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS trusts are reducing diabetic treatment facilities in hospitals and moving services into primary care. [111766]
Mr. Lammy: Information relating to the number of diabetic treatment facilities in national health service trusts is not collected centrally by the Department.
The "National Service Framework for Diabetes: Delivery Strategy", published in January this year, sets out how the local progress can be made to put the NHS on track to reaching all the national service framework standards by 2013.
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It will be for primary care trusts to decide the best approach to delivering the standards across both hospital and primary care to reflect local circumstances and the communities they serve.
Fluoride (Water Supplies)
Dr. Naysmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what advice he has received from (a) the Chief Medical Officer and (b) the Chief Dental Officer on the implications of the recent Medical Research Council report on water fluoridation for the Government's policy on fluoridation. [111468]
Ms Blears: We have asked the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Dental Officer to consider how the success of existing fluoridation schemes in improving oral health, and the oral health benefits residents of naturally fluoridated areas enjoy, might be extended to other communities who wish it. The Medical Research Council has identified and prioritised the research necessary to strengthen the evidence base on fluoridation and the Department is already taking action to commission appropriate research.
Dr. Naysmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research he has commissioned comparing the bio-availability of artificial and naturally occurring fluoride in water supplies; and when the findings of such research will be made publicly available. [111469]
Ms Blears: Following a competitive tendering exercise, research has been commissioned from the School of Dental Sciences at Newcastle University. The aims of the study are to investigate the effect of water hardness and source of fluoride ion on bio-availability of fluoride in drinking water by comparing the relative bio-availability of fluoride in: artificially fluoridated hard and naturally fluoridated hard tap drinking water; artificially fluoridated soft and naturally fluoridated soft tap drinking water; artificially fluoridated hard and artificially fluoridated soft tap drinking water; and naturally fluoridated hard and naturally fluoridated soft tap drinking water. The study is due for completion in the Autumn.
Food Ingredients
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the process that will be used to assess the allergenic nature of food ingredients to meet the requirements of Directive 2000/13/EC. [111753]
Ms Blears: Proposed amendments to the Food Labelling Directive 2000/13/EC, which reached Common Position stage on 20 February this year, would require certain specified ingredients and their derivatives always to be declared in ingredient lists on food labels because of their link with food allergy or intolerance. The European Food Safety Authority will be responsible for reviewing and making recommendations for amendment of this list of specified ingredients in accordance with Article 29 of Regulation (EC) 178/2002.
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Food Standards Agency
Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has received from and discussions he has had with (a) the Food Standards Agency and (b) local authorities regarding food law enforcement. [111102]
Ms Blears: The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has responsibility for food law enforcement matters, as this area falls within its remit to protect public health and consumers' interests in relation to food. The FSA advises and keeps Health Ministers regularly informed, through frequent discussions and briefings, about relevant developments and issues. The FSA works very closely with local authorities and their representative bodies and receives regular representations from them regarding food law enforcement issues. These are made informally through day-to-day contact between FSA officials and local authority enforcement officers and more formally by means of written representations, through the enforcement liaison group (a joint FSA/local authority committee that was set up to strengthen and develop links with local authorities) and at regular meetings of the FSA's chairman, chief executive and other senior officials with representatives of the local authorities co-ordinator of regulatory services and with the Local Government Association. These representations relate to a wide range of issues including, for example, the FSA's local authority monitoring and audit programmes, levels and consistency of food law enforcement activity, recruitment and retention of enforcement professionals and licensing of food premises.
Janet Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the Food Standards Agency has budgeted to spend on the Food Working Party when it is appointed. [111208]
Ms Blears: The Food Standards Agency has recently invited tenders for the 2003–04 contract to run a food working party of United Kingdom consumer and enforcement organisations with an interest in UK, and particularly European Union, food policy. The budget for 2003–04 will be in the region of £40,000.
Janet Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the Food Standards Agency spent on its Foodaware initiative in 2002–03. [111210]
Ms Blears: Foodaware is a quarterly working party of United Kingdom consumer and enforcement organisations with an interest in the UK and particularly European Union food policy. The Food Standards Agency funds the Secretariat. The budget for Foodaware was £40,000 in 2002–03.
Heart Disease (Women)
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what changes there have been to death rates from heart disease among women in the past ten years. [111757]
Ruth Kelly: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
14 May 2003 : Column 313W
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Chris Grayling dated 14 May 2003:
- As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question concerning the changes in death rates from heart disease in women in the past 10 years. (111757)
- The most recent available mortality data are for the calendar year 2001. Figures for coronary heart disease (also known as ischaemic heart disease) and for other types of heart disease are shown in the attached table for each year from 1992 to 2001.
| Calendar year | Coronary heart disease | Other types of heart disease | Coronary heart disease and other types of heart disease |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 136.5 | 26.0 | 162.5 |
| 1993 | 134.8 | 30.6 | 165.3 |
| 1994 | 123.8 | 28.5 | 152.3 |
| 1995 | 119.5 | 28.9 | 148.4 |
| 1996 | 114.1 | 28.1 | 142.2 |
| 1997 | 107.5 | 27.6 | 135.1 |
| 1998 | 105.6 | 27.1 | 132.7 |
| 1999 | 98.8 | 27.1 | 125.8 |
| 2000 | 90.9 | 25.0 | 115.9 |
| 2001(27) | 88.0 | 26.2 | 114.2 |
(23) The rates have been standardised using the European standard population.
(24) The cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (1CD-9) codes for the years 1992 to 2000, and the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (1CD-10) codes for 2001. The codes used are listed: Coronary heart disease—1CD-9 410–414; 1CD-10 120–125; Other types of heart disease—1CD-9 390–398, 402, 404, 420–429; 1CD-10 100–102, 105–109, 111, 113, 130–152. Figures quoted exclude pulmonary heart disease (1CD-9 415–417; JCD-10126–128).
(25) The data refer to females of all ages.
(26) Figures for 1992 are based on deaths registered in that calendar year and for 1993 to 2001 on deaths occurring in each calendar year.
(27) The introduction of ICD-10 for coding cause of death in 2001 means that data for heart disease in this year are not completely comparable with data for earlier years. The data should therefore be interpreted with caution. For coronary heart disease the effect of the change in classification in 2001 is described in a report published in May 2002
(28).
(29) Source:
Office for National Statistics. Results of the ICD-10 bridge coding study, England and Wales, 1999. Health Statistics Quarterly 14 (2002), 75–83.
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