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16 Jun 2004 : Column 1008W—continued
Nursing Vacancies
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many three month vacancies there are for nursing posts in each (a) NHS trust and (b) primary care trust in the Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority area; and what the three month vacancy rate is in each case. [178181]
Ms Rosie Winterton: A breakdown of the number of three month vacancies for nursing posts and three month vacancy rates for each national health service trust and primary care trust in the Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority area has been placed in the Library.
Official Vehicles
John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of official vehicles used by his Department are run on (a) petrol, (b) diesel, (c) liquid petroleum gas and (d) compressed natural gas. [172775]
Ms Rosie Winterton:
The table shows a breakdown of the Department's vehicle fleet in 2003–04 by vehicle category and fuel type.
16 Jun 2004 : Column 1009W
| Cars | Number | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 2003–04 | ||
| Petrol | 42 | 49 |
| Diesel | 41 | 48 |
| Liquid petroleum gas | 3 | 3 |
| Natural gas | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 86 | 100 |
Organ Donation
Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what studies indicate that successful lung transplants can be achieved from non-heart beating donors; and if he will make a statement. [178093]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Lungs have already been successfully transplanted from non-heart beating donors in Sweden, Spain, the United States of America and the United Kingdom. Research has shown that non-heart beating donors may prove to be a very good source of lungs for transplantation and should lead to further successful non-heart beating donor transplants in the future.
Patients Forums
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what consultations took place on the capping of Patient Forum membership at an average of 10 per forum; and if he will make a statement; [178876]
(2) what the reasons are for the capping of Patient Forum membership at an average of 10 per forum. [178884]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The initial phase of recruitment of forum members in the three months to 1 December 2003 provided each of the 571 forums with their statutory minimum of seven members. The Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH) calculated that membership could increase to an average of 10 per forum within its existing budget and continued to recruit volunteers with this target in mind.
Increasing forum membership was raised as a key issue at a series of 31 regional meetings in May 2004, attended by around 1,200 forum members. In particular, forums which covered a large geographical area, for example, ambulance and mental health trusts and specialist and national hospitals, felt they needed flexibility to recruit more than 10 members.
The CPPIH has responded by announcing that it will agree individual recruitment plans with forums for an appropriate and affordable level of membership, which could move towards 15 over time.
Positron Emission Tomography Scanners
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate he has made of the number of positron emission tomography scanners per head of the population in (a) England and (b) other European Union countries; [174839]
(2) if he will publish a national service framework on the provision of positron emission tomography scanners. [174840]
16 Jun 2004 : Column 1010W
Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 21 May 2004]: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Prescription Drugs
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what research his Department has (a) conducted and (b) commissioned into prescription drug addiction; and if he will make a statement; [174456]
(2) how many people in the United Kingdom he estimates are addicted to prescription drugs. [174457]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Prescription medicines that are recognised to have the potential for dependence include benzodiazepines, synthetic opioids, amphetamines and barbiturates. At the time of licensing, the available data on the potential for abuse and dependence of drugs within these classes are carefully considered by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the Committee on Safety of Medicines. The product information for these medicines contains clear warnings about the potential for dependence and where appropriate restrictions on the licensed indications and the duration of treatment are specified in order to reduce this risk.
Information for prescribers on benzodiazepines and opiates has been disseminated via the "Current Problems in Pharmacovigilance" bulletin and/or the "CMO Update", and is also available in the British National Formulary distributed to doctors and pharmacists.
The use of benzodiazepines is the area where the greatest amount of research has been conducted. This includes a large project, costing more than £1 million, currently being conducted by the Medical Research Council into dependence in association with benzodiazepines.
Information is not available on the number of people addicted to prescription drugs in the United Kingdom.
Skin Care Campaigns
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been spent on campaigns on (a) skin cancer and (b) other skin damage, induced by sunlight in each of the last 10 years. [172333]
Miss Melanie Johnson: We have invested the following on sun awareness campaigns.
| £ | |
|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 543,000 |
| 2000–01 | 50,000 |
| 2001–02 | 126,000 |
| 2002–03 | 140,000 |
Annual figures on expenditure of sun awareness campaigns undertaken by the health education authority are not available between 1996–97 and 1998–99.
Funding of approximately £400,000 over the next three years has been approved for Cancer Research UK to run its "SunSmart" sun awareness campaign on behalf of the United Kingdom health departments, following the successful launch of "SunSmart" last year.
16 Jun 2004 : Column 1011W
Waiting Lists/Times
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to conduct an audit of the two week wait rule of suspected cancer referrals. [174160]
Miss Melanie Johnson: A two week outpatient waiting time standard was introduced for all urgent referrals of suspected cancer during 2000. The Department has no plans to carry out an audit of the two week wait but all trusts have been encouraged to undertake local audit to assess the impact of the two week wait on local services and to enable the appropriateness of urgent and routine referrals against the guidelines to be fed back to referring general practitioners. The Department has commissioned the University of York, in 2003, to undertake a systematic review of two week wait audits carried out by professional bodies, trusts and cancer networks.
The latest results of the quarterly monitoring show that 98 per cent. of all urgent referrals for suspected cancer were seen within two weeks.
TREASURY
Fuel Price Rise
Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what the total revenue raised by means of VAT is for each penny per litre rise in the price of (a) petrol and (b) diesel; [178284]
(2) how much revenue he expects to raise by means of the proposed increase in fuel duty in September in the (a) 2004-05 and (b) 2005–06 financial year. [178290]
John Healey: Customs and Excise do not collect data on VAT raised from individual goods or services. Estimates of the impact on revenues of road fuel duty rates and VAT rate changes were published in the "Tax Ready Reckoner and Tax Reliefs" alongside the 2003 pre-Budget report, a copy of which is available in the Library of the House.
Revenue estimates for all taxes and duties can be found in Table A1 of this year's "Financial Statement and Budget Report" (HC 301).
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