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21 May 2004 : Column 1256W—continued

Clinical Advisers (IT Forum)

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the reasons are for the disbandment of the NHS IT forum for clinicians; and if he will make a statement. [173093]

 
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Mr. Hutton: The national health service's national programme for information technology is currently considering options to strengthen the arrangements for   providing advice from clinicians and patients' representatives to inform its work. Members of the National Clinical Advisory Board are fully involved in discussions about its future role. The National Clinical Advisory Board has not been disbanded.

Dental Treatment

Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dentists working within the London borough of Wandsworth provide national health service dental treatment within their practice; and if he will make a statement. [173077]

Mr. Hutton: Data for number of dentists are not collected by London borough area. The number of national health service dentists in Wandsworth Primary Care Trust (PCT) at 30 September 2003 is shown in the table.
National health service: Number of dentists in Wandsworth PCT area—30 September 2003

Primary care trust	Wandsworth PCT
General dental service (GDS)	121
Community dental service (CDS)	27
Salaried	4
Total	152

Dentists can work in more than one PCT area. GDS dentists numbers are for those whose main dental work is in the Wandworth PCT area. Therefore, dentists who do some work in this area but more in another PCT have not been included.
 
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Dentists in the GDS include principals, assistants and vocational dental practitioners. These figures are on a headcount basis rather than whole-time equivalent basis and therefore take no account of part-time working.

Dentists

Mr. Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of adults in (a) Bolton, (b) Greater Manchester and (c) England were registered with an NHS dentist in each of the last seven years. [172598]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The information available is for general dental service (GDS) dentist registration rates for adults in the Wigan and Bolton Health Authority at 30 September 1997 to 2001, and for Bolton Primary Care Trust (PCT), which is part of the Greater Manchester Strategic Health Authority (SHA) for 30 September 2002 and 30 September 2003. Figures for the Greater Manchester SHA area are also shown.

Registrations cover patients who have been to a general dental service dentist within the past 15 months. These will exclude patients who choose to attend occasionally who have not been to a dentist during that period. Registrations are included in the area of the dentist. Patients may choose to have their dental services in a different PCT area from the one in which they live.   The registration period was changed for new registrations and registrations extending from September 1996. Previously the period for adults was 24 months while children's registration lapsed at the end of the following calendar year. This caused registration numbers to fall between November 1997 and August 1998.

National health service dental services are also provided by the community dental service, personal dental service, the salaried service of the GDS and hospital dental service. These services do not require the patient to be registered with a dentist before treatment.
Adult dental registrations as a percentage of the population at 30 September for each year

	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Wigan and Bolton HA	(9)59.6	54.0	52.0	51.4	51.0	n/a	n/a
Bolton PCT	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	45.6	45.7
Greater Manchester SHA area	(9)60.3	53.9	52.2	52.3	51.9	50.6	49.7
England	51.0	43.8	43.3	43.4	43.4	44.2	44.0

n/a = not available.
⁽⁹⁾ Registration figures are not on the same basis as those for later years because of the change in registration period.

Patients wishing to register with a NHS dentist can obtain details of dentists accepting new patients in their area by accessing www.nhs.uk, contacting NHS Direct or contacting their local PCT. Currently 93 per cent. of callers to NHS Direct are being directed to sources of NHS dental treatment within locally agreed distance standards.

Mr. Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dentists in (a) Bolton, (b) Greater Manchester and (c) England treated NHS patients in the past seven years; and how many treated only private patients in each year. [172621]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The table shows the number of dentists in the general, personal, community, and hospital dental services.

The figures given are for 30 September for each year. Before 2002 Bolton was part of the Wigan and Bolton Health Authority. In 2002 health authorities (HAs) were replaced by primary care trusts (PCTs).

Figures for the number of dentists who treat private patients only are not available. Few dentists are purely private. The Office of Fair Trading report "The private dentistry market" in the UK stated that only 210 practices are totally private in the United Kingdom out of 11,000 practices in total.

Figures are also given for England.
 
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Number of dentists at 30 September of each year

	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Wigan and Bolton HA	205	210	211	219	207	n/a	n/a
Bolton PCT	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	85	84
Greater Manchester Strategic Health Authority area	1,115	1,127	1,162	1,155	1,150	1,161	1,203
England	20,483	21,041	21,556	21,902	22,438	23,051	23,490

n/a = not available

Dialysis

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the (a) average and (b) maximum waiting time for vascular access surgery for dialysis patients for (i) England, (ii) each region and (iii) each strategic health authority in each year since 1996. [159780]

Mr. Hutton: Information on waiting times for vascular access surgery is not centrally available. Waiting times for consultant led in-patient elective admissions and consultant led first out-patient appointments following general practitioner referral are collected on the consultant's main specialty not by procedure.

Diets

Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what evaluation he has made of studies into long-term calorific restriction diets and their effectiveness in reducing the risk of (a) cancer, (b) coronary heart disease, (c) diabetes and (d) strokes. [169236]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The Department has not specifically evaluated the long-term effects of calorie restricted diets, but animal research has consistently shown that calorie restriction can increase lifespan by about 30 per cent. and protect against cancer. The long-term effect of calorie restriction in humans has yet to be established.

Obesity increases the risk of developing coronary heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and hypertension. Evidence indicates that maintaining a healthy weight is a key element in the prevention of these conditions.

Food Standards Agency

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) Parliamentary Questions, (b) adjournment debates and (c) urgent Questions on the work of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) the Department has answered since it was established; and if he will make a statement on the accountability of the FSA to Parliament. [171860]

Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 11 May 2004]: Ministers have answered 1,281 Parliamentary Questions, two adjournment debates and no urgent questions on the
 
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work of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) since it was established. There has been one Opposition Day debate, eight European Scrutiny Debates in European Standing Committee C, one debate on a prayer against a Statutory Instrument in the House of Commons and one in the House of Lords, seven Select Committees where both oral and written evidence was provided and six Select Committees where written memoranda only were provided. FSA policy areas have not been debated in Westminster Hall. Health Ministers have not taken Primary Legislation through Parliament on behalf of FSA.

The FSA is a United Kingdom non-Ministerial department established by the Food Standards Act 1999. It is accountable to the Westminster Parliament through the Secretary of State for Health and to the administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland through the relevant Health Ministers. Under the 1999 Act, the FSA's expenditure is paid out of money provided by Parliament and the administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its Annual Report and Accounts is laid before the Westminster Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly. Its Chief Executive is the FSA Principal Accounting Officer.

Correspondence to Health Ministers from hon. and right hon. Members about issues for which the FSA is responsible normally receives a reply from the relevant Minister. The Chairman and Chief Executive of FSA reply to correspondence addressed directly to them.

The Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) is an executive agency of the FSA. It is responsible for enforcement of meat hygiene and BSE-related legislation in licensed meat plants in Great Britain. It also carries out certain functions on behalf of the Environment and Rural Affairs Departments.

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