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Trastuzumab

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what percentage of breast cancer patients diagnosed in the past 12 months received treatment with Trastuzumab; [176867]

(2) what percentage of patients diagnosed with breast cancer were tested for HER2 in the last year for which figures are available. [176868]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The Department does not collect information on the percentage of breast cancer patients who receive treatment with Herceptin or who are tested for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2.

Professor Mike Richards, National Cancer Director, has been asked to investigate the variation in uptake of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence approved chemotherapy drugs, including Herceptin. His report is due to be published shortly.

Trust Boards

Mr. Lyons: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what analysis his Department has made of the composition of trust boards in England, with particular reference to the (a) age, (b) nationality and (c) gender of members. [176480]

Mr. Hutton: Analyses of the age, ethnicity and gender of national health service board members are carried out by the NHS appointments commission, and data relating to 1 April 2004 will be published shortly in their annual report for 2003–04. In the meantime, I have asked the chair of the commission, Sir William Wells, to write to my hon. Friend with the latest data available.

United Healthcare Group

Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library a copy of the scoping report on implementation of the Evercare model of care, completed in February 2003 by United Healthcare Group. [175807]

Mr. Hutton: UnitedHealth Group submitted a scoping report to each individual primary care trust (PCT), and these remain the property of the PCTs.

vCJD

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the latest scientific evidence on infection rates for vCJD, with particular reference to links with BSE. [176127]

 
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Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 27 May 2004]: The Government seek scientific advice on matters relating to spongiform encephalopathies from the spongiform encephalopathy advisory committee (SEAC). SEAC is provided with all published research on variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) as it is available. The committee's consideration of scientific research is recorded in the minutes of SEAC meetings which are available at the website: www.seac.gov.uk

Waiting Lists

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients are awaiting (a) admission and (b) out-patient assessment in each national health service trust in Greater London. [177048]

Mr. Hutton: Information on the number of patients waiting for elective in-patient admission at national health service trusts and primary care trusts within the five London strategic health authorities is shown in the table. Information on the total number of patients waiting for outpatient appointments is not collected centrally.
Patients waiting for elective in-patient admission: NHS trusts and PCTs within London SHAs: Position at 31 March 2004

NHS trust/PCT	Total number of patients waiting for admission
Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust	10,697
Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust	7,861
Barts and the London NHS Trust	8,468
Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust	4,881
Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare NHS Trust	2,913
Ealing Hospital NHS Trust	2,145
Epsom and St. Helier NHS Trust	4,565
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust	1,630
Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospital NHS Trust	7,846
Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust	5,548
Hillingdon Hospital NHS Trust	1,972
Homerton Hospital NHS Trust	902
King's College Hospital NHS Trust	4,871
Kingston Hospital NHS Trust	5,609
Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust	3,577
Mayday Healthcare NHS Trust	5,091
Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Trust	3,258
Newham Healthcare NHS Trust	1,510
Newham PCT	1
North Middlesex Hospital NHS Trust	2,262
North West London Hospitals NHS Trust	6,495
Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Trust	3,573
Queen Mary's Sidcup NHS Trust	2,977
Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust	2,233
Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust	6,639
Royal Marsden Hospital NHS Trust	229
Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust (London)2,889
St. George's Healthcare NHS Trust	5,418
St. Mary's NHS Trust	3,911
SW London and St. Georges NHS Trust	41
University College London Hospitals NHS Trust	4,833
West London Mental Health NHS Trust	14
West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust	1,639
Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust	5,165
Whittington Hospital NHS Trust	1,598

Source:
DH form KH07

Waiting Times

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of patients were assessed by a specialist within two weeks of emergency referral in the last year for which figures are available. [176862]

 
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Miss Melanie Johnson: A two week out-patient waiting time standard was introduced for all urgent referrals of suspected cancer during 2000. Performance against this standard is collected quarterly with the table showing performance for the last four available quarters. Further data on cancer waiting times targets is available at www.performance.doh.gov.uk/cancerwaits/

	Percentage of patients
2002–03
Qtr 4	96.3
2003–04
Qtr 1	96.9
Qtr 2	97.7
Qtr 3	98

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Animal Rights Extremism

5. Mrs. Anne Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what action she has taken to combat the threat of animal rights extremism. [177755]

Ms Hewitt: Government have taken considerable action to combat animal rights extremists, both through legislation and by support for the police to deal with their criminal activities. The Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 gave the police a new power to direct protestors away from homes when such protests are intimidatory or harassing. It amended the Protection from Harassment Act and the Malicious Communications Act to cover co-ordinated campaigns of harassment and sending harassing emails and made provision for a secure register of company directors' home addresses where those directors are at risk of intimidation and harassment.

Recently, we have introduced further legislation in the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 that strengthened police powers to deal with smaller, intimidatory protests and office occupations by extremists. Government are also funding a new police unit to provide tactical guidance on policing extremists.

But intimidation and harassment continues to be a very serious problem that threatens investment and research in the bioscience sector in the UK, so we are looking carefully, and urgently, at what further action is needed to strengthen police powers to deal with the tactics employed by extremist protestors.

UK Directors

14. Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps she is taking to ensure that the talent pool of UK directors is sufficiently diverse. [177766]

Jacqui Smith: Following the publication of the Higgs and Tyson reports, and the "Brighter Boards" booklet last year, my Department organised a series of roundtable meetings with leading companies in order to raise awareness about the case for greater diversity on boards and to gather examples of good practice.
 
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We have also commissioned research to assess the current representation of directors from diverse backgrounds on FTSE 100 boards, and supported the creation of registers for board positions, co-ordinated by the appropriate professional and affiliated bodies.

We are currently consulting the Financial Reporting Council and a range of business and other organisations on how best to build on these initiatives and will be making an announcement later in the year.

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