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10 Jun 2003 : Column 842W—continued

NHS Pay

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether clause 27 of the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill allows for the differentiation of pay and conditions between trust and non-trust hospitals. [112828]

Mr. Hutton: National health service foundation trusts, like other NHS bodies, will have flexibility when it comes to staff pay and conditions. However, it is essential that NHS foundation trusts act in ways that are consistent with equal pay principles and that do not prejudice the interests of the wider NHS, including other NHS employers. NHS foundation trusts will be subject to the same statutory duty of partnership that applies to all NHS bodies—duty to cooperate in the exercise of their functions.

No-smoking Policies (Assaults)

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many assaults on hospital staff in 2002–03 were linked to attempts to enforce no-smoking policies. [116875]

Mr. Hutton: Information on the level of assaults by type of incident is not collected centrally.

Nurses

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many nurses there were per head of population in (a) each region and (b) England in each year since 1997. [115552]

Mr. Hutton: The information requested is available in the Library. Between 1997 and 2001 the number of nurses employed in the National Health Service has increased by 31,520 and the number of qualified nurses per 1,000 population has increased from 6.6 to 7.1 in the same period. Provisional figures for September 2002 show a further increase of around 17,000 qualified nurses since September 2001.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many nurses there were per head of population in each region in each year since 1996. [116894]

Mr. Hutton: Because of boundary changes, information on nurses per head of population by region in 1996 is not available. The available information has been placed in the Library.

Oxaliplatin

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the (a) efficacy and (b) availability within the NHS of oxaliplatin. [117166]

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Ms Blears: In March 2002, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) published recommendations on the use of oxaliplatin for the treatment of advanced bowel cancer.

NICE recommended that oxaliplatin, in combination with fluorouracil and folinic acid, should be considered for use as first-line treatment for advanced bowel cancer in patients who have metastases that occur only in the liver, which may become operable following treatment.

The national health service is now implementing NICE'S recommendations on this drug.

NICE is due to review these recommendations in April 2005.

Polymerase Chain Reaction Testing

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how much his Department spent on (a) polymerase chain reaction and (b) other DNA-identification tests in each of the last 10 years; [116853]

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Ms Blears: The Department did not fund development of any such tests until the Food Standards Agency (FSA) was established in April 2000. Since then an estimated total of £1.5 million has been spent on methods using DMA techniques to identify the presence of specific ingredients in foodstuffs. A breakdown of the amount spent per year is shown in the table. The projects have been looking at use of DNA methods to check the labelling of a wide range of foods, especially meat and fish products. All but one of these methods use polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based techniques.

The FSA is currently funding ten research projects aimed at improving PCR methodology for use in authenticity surveys and enforcement of labelling legislation. These tests are aimed at developing methods for identifying ingredients of a wide range of products, including vegetarian foods, and identifying varieties, for example of potatoes and rice.

Completedin YearRange of foodstuffs includedNo. of projectsTotal cost (£s)
2000Food mixtures, meat.375,021
2001Meat, wine, seafood, fish, olive oil, chicken.6423,098
2002Potatoes, rice, meat, olive and hazelnut oil.5343,549
2003White fish, jams and yoghurts, vegetarian foods, meat, rice, potato, chicken breasts.10725,286 (estimated)


Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many food samples were subjected to polymerase chain reaction tests by the Food Standards Agency in each year since the Agency was established; and what proportion of those tests identified DNA from products other than the food sample tested, broken down by category. [116855]

Ms Blears: Since the Food Standards Agency was established, it has completed three surveys using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as the basis of checking the description or labelling of foods. The details of these surveys are shown in the table.

Date/yearTitle/Purpose of study and foodstuffsampledNumber of samples collectedNumber of samples containing foreign DNAProportion of samples containing foreign DNA (%)
December 2001Survey of meat content, added water and hydrolysed protein in catering chicken breasts68 (1 sample =10kg. Carton)2 samples contained pork DNA.3
January 2002Pilot study: Analysis of GM soya content in retail baked goods (including bread, cakes, buns and rolls).20331 samples contained traces of GM soya, but only 3 of these contained more than 1% GM soya.15 (of which only1.5% above legalthreshold limit).
March 2003Co-ordinated enforcement exercise on meat content, added water, and hydrolysed proteins in catering chicken breasts.2511 samples contained pork DNA. 1 sample contained pork & beef DNA.48

Primary Care Trusts

Dr. Stoate: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will urge the chief executives of primary care trusts in England to ensure that all funding earmarked for the development of primary care services is passed on to GP practices; and if he will make a statement. [112840]

Mr. Hutton: Within primary care trust (PCT) unified allocations, £315 million in 2003–04, £394 million in 2004–05 and £460 million in 2005–06 has been identified nationally as the minimum expected spend on primary care enhanced services.

PCTs are expected to spend at least this level of resources on primary care service providers; in particular general practitioner practices, but also other providers.

The Department has reminded primary care trusts, through the strategic health authorities, of their requirement to spend at least this level of resources in the next three years.

If the new general medical services contract is accepted by the profession, expenditure on primary care will rise from £5 billion in 2002–03 to £6.8 billion in 2005–06. There will be a gross investment guarantee that these resources will be delivered.

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Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health [pursuant to his answer of 14 April, Official Report, column 620W], on primary care trusts, what the population was of each of the old primary care trusts in Redbridge and Waltham Forest; and what the population is of each of the new trusts. [116747]

Mr. Hutton: The information requested is shown in the table.

Primary Care TrustPopulation
Population for 2003–04 under old configuration
Chingford Wanstead and Woodford PCT118,719
Redbridge PCT164,385
Walthamstow, Leyton and Leytonstone PCT163,75
Population for 2003–04 under new configuration
Redbridge PCT218,984
Waltham Forest PCT227,295

Source:Office for National Statistics census populations.


Prostate Cancer

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps the Government are taking to increase awareness of the symptoms of prostate cancer. [117900]

Ms Blears: We want men to know what their prostate gland is, what it does, and what can go wrong with it. However, we do not want to scare them, so we need to raise awareness in a responsible way. The Department has funded the following regarding public awareness:


Public awareness is a key element of the terms of reference of the newly established prostate cancer advisory group. The group is chaired by Professor Mike Richards, the National Cancer Director. It met for the first time on 10 June 2003.

In addition, as part of the prostate cancer risk management programme, evidence-based primary care resource packs were sent to all general practitioners in England in September 2002 to aid them in counselling men who are worried about prostate cancer, ensuring the men make an informed choice about whether or not to have a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test.

Dr. Stoate: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will list the membership of the Prostate Cancer Advisory Group; [117414]

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Ms Blears: The prostate cancer advisory group is chaired by Professor Mike Richards and the members are:


Terms of reference for the prostate cancer advisory group are:



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