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Written Ministerial Statements

Wednesday 19 January 2005

CABINET OFFICE

Ministerial Responsibilities

The Minister for the Cabinet Office (Mr. David Miliband): A revised edition of the "List of Ministerial Responsibilities" (January 2005) has been published today and copies placed in the Library. It can also be obtained electronically at: www.knowledgenetwork._gov.uk/elmr/minister.nsf

CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT

Gambling Commission

The Minister for Sport and Tourism (Mr. Richard Caborn): Improving safeguards for children and vulnerable adults in relation to gambling is a Government priority. As outlined in the Gambling Bill, we intend to introduce greater safeguards than are available under the present law. We need to address the challenges that are caused by new technology, by the internet and by the steady growth in consumer demand. Without the Bill, problem gambling is likely to increase. The safeguards will allow the regulator—the proposed new gambling commission—and the Government to keep the position firmly under control and to act swiftly to cut the supply of gambling opportunities, should that prove necessary.

Our intention, subject to parliamentary approval, is that we protect as many individuals as we can, from as early a date as possible. In order to do this we need to carry out essential activities to set up the gambling commission, which will require some expenditure in advance of the legislation achieving Royal Assent. Delay in funding the setting up of the gambling commission would undermine good progress being made in this area and would be contrary to the public interest.

An advance from the contingencies fund has therefore been sought and approved. Without this advance, work on the technology to support the commission's
 
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operation, accommodation and appointment of certain senior staff would suffer. This would set back plans to introduce the new safeguards that are urgently required.

Parliamentary approval for additional resources will be sought in a supplementary estimate for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport following Royal Assent of the Gambling Bill. Pending that approval, urgent cash expenditure of £367,533 will be met by a repayable cash advance from the contingencies fund.

DEFENCE

Gulf War

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. Ivor Caplin): As part of the Government's continuing commitment to openness and transparency on Gulf veterans' illnesses I am today publishing the regular data on the mortality of veterans of the 1990–91 Gulf conflict. The most recent figures for the period 1 April 1991 to 31 December 2004 were published on 17 January 2005. The tables from that publication are set out below. Table 1 gives the causes of death to UK Gulf veterans over that period; table 2 shows the deaths due to neoplasms (cancers) among Gulf veterans.

As with previous information, the data for Gulf veterans are compared to that of a control group known as the Era cohort, which is made up of armed forces personnel of a similar profile in terms of gender, service, regular/reservist status and rank, who were not deployed to the Gulf. Subsequent to the previous release of this data, further examination of trends in some cause-groups has revealed differences between the Gulf and Era cohort age groups: although each Era cohort age group was randomly sampled to have the same size as the corresponding Gulf cohort age group, those who were aged 40 years or over on 1 January 1991 who deployed to the Gulf were often younger than those sampled for the Era cohort. All figures for the Era cohort have therefore been adjusted to the single years of age structure of the Gulf cohort, as at 1 January 1991, to ensure appropriate comparisons. The main impact is slightly to reduce the previously noticed excess of deaths in the Era cohort caused by disease-related conditions, and cancer in particular, increasing the similarity between the two cohorts. The effect on accidental deaths is minimal.

Key points to note in the data are:

There were 687 deaths among Gulf veterans, compared with an estimated 688 deaths in the age-adjusted Era comparison group.

Approximately 1,085 deaths would have been expected in a similar sized group of individuals from the UK general population of the same age and gender profile.

Table 1: Deaths to UK Gulf Veterans ⁽¹⁾ 1 April 1991–31 December 2004

Causes (2)ICD Chapter	Cause of death	Gulf	Era	Adjusted (3)Era	CrudeMortalityRate Ratio	Adjusted (3)MortalityRate Ratio	Adjusted (3)95%ConfidenceInterval
	All deaths	687	712	688	0.96	0.99	(0.89–1.10)
	All cause coded deaths	678	700	678	0.96	0.99	(0.89–1.10)
I-XVIII	Disease related causes	305	366	341	0.83	0.88	(0.76–1.03)
I	Certain infectious and parasitic diseases	6	3	3	1.99	2.15	(0.50–9.35)
II	Neoplasms	138	154	141	0.89	0.97	(0.77–1.22)
V	Mental and behavioural disorders	11	18	17	0.61	0.65	(0.31–1.39)
VI	Diseases of the nervous system	10	11	11	0.90	0.91	(0.93–2.14)
IX	Diseases of the circulatory system	106	130	124	0.81	0.85	(0.65–1.10)
X	Diseases of the respiratory system	10	6	5	1.66	1.79	(0.59–5.41)
XI	Diseases of the digestive system	17	24	22	0.70	0.75	(0.40–1.43)
III, IV, XII–XVIII	All other disease related causes (4)	7	20	18	0.35	0.36	(0.15–0.91)
XX	External causes of mortality	373	334	337	1.11	1.10	(0.95–1.27)
	Transport accidents:	171	138	139	1.23	1.22	(0.97–1.53)
	Land transport accident:	140	114	115	1.22	1.20	(0.94–1.55)
	Pedestrian	17	6	7	2.82	2.62	(1.03–6.64)
	Motorcycle rider	38	32	32	1.18	1.17	(0.73–1.88)
	Car occupant (5)	41	32	32	1.27	1.26	(0.79–2.01)
	Other (6)	44	44	44	0.99	0.98	(0.64–1.50)
	Water transport	5	2	2	2.49	2.44	(0.46–12.86)
	Air and space transport	26	22	22	1.18	1.17	(0.67–2.06)
	Other external causes of accidental injury:	67	61	60	1.09	1.09	(0.77–1.56)
	Falls	7	6	6	1.16	1.24	(0.44–3.51)
	Exposure to inanimate mechanical forces	12	15	16	0.80	0.73	(0.33–1.58)
	Accidental drowning and submersion and other accidental threats to breathing	13	6	6	2.16	2.05	(0.76–5.55)
	Accidental poisoning by and exposure to noxious substances	15	15	14	0.99	1.01	(0.48–2.14)
	Accidental exposure to other and unspecified factors	16	12	11	1.33	1.39	(0.65–2.00)
	Other	4	7	6	0.57	0.60	(0.17–2.14)
	Intentional self-harm and events of undetermined intent 7, 8	120	110	112	1.09	1.06	(0.82–1.37)
	Assault	5	10	10	0.50	0.46	(0.15–1.38)
	Legal intervention and operations of war	4	5	6	0.87	0.74	(0.20–2.66)
	Sequelae of external causes of morbidity and mortality	0	2	1	0.00	0.00	(0.00–0.00)
	Deaths where the inquest has been Adjourned	6	8
	Other deaths for which cause data are not yet available	5	8
	Overseas deaths for which cause data are not available	4	4

Notes:
⁽¹⁾ Service and Ex-Service personnel only.
⁽²⁾ Causes have been coded to the World Health Organisation's International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th revision (ICD-10), 1992.
⁽³⁾ Adjusted for age of the Gulf cohort at 1 January 1991. The numbers may not add up to the totals shown due to rounding.
⁽⁴⁾ Includes cases with insufficient information on the death certificate to provide a known cause of death.
⁽⁵⁾ The MoD's casualty branches have notified DASA that one of the personnel who died in a road traffic accident was riding a motorbike rather than being a car occupant. This change has been reflected in the numbers.
⁽⁶⁾ Under ICD-10 coding if the death certificate does not specifically mention the type of vehicle that was involved in the accident, the death is coded to "motor- or non-motor vehicle accident, type of vehicle unspecified". There were 36 deaths to Gulf veterans compared to 33 in the Era group.
⁽⁷⁾ These events include those given a coroners verdict of suicide or open verdict death by a Coroner in England and Wales and similar causes in Scotland and Northern Ireland. It includes one death which has been coded to the ICD-10 code F11.1 ("Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of opoids") by the ONS. This death has been excluded from the mental and behavioural disorders.
⁽⁸⁾ ONS have recently informed DASA that deaths where the inquest has been adjourned are coded to Y33 ("Other specified events, undetermined intent"). Historically these have been included with the intentional self-harm and events of undetermined intent.



 
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Table 2: Deaths to UK Gulf veterans due to neoplasms: 1 April 1991–31 December 2004 Major cancer sites and specific sites with at least five deaths in one of the cohorts

ICD	Cancer site	Gulf	Era	Adjusted 1 Era	CrudeMortalityRate Ratio	Adjusted 1 MortalityRate Ratio	Adjusted 1 95%ConfidenceInterval
C00–D48	Neoplasms	138	154	141	0.89	0.97	(0.77–1.22)
C00–C99	Malignant Neoplasms (MN)	135	151	140	0.89	0.97	(0.77–1.22)
C00–C14	MN of lip, oral cavity and pharynx	6	6	5	0.99	1.04	(0.32–3.41)
C15–C26, C48	MN of digestive organs and peritoneum	33	39	34	0.84	0.96	(0.60–1.54)
C15	MN of oesophagus	12	5	4	2.39	2.92	(0.98–8.72)
C16	MN of stomach	1	6	4	0.17	0.19	(0.02–2.04)
C18	MN of colon	4	14	11	0.28	0.35	(0.11–1.07)
C25	MN of pancreas	6	8	8	0.75	0.78	(0.27–2.25)
C30–C39, C45	MN of respiratory and intrathoracic organs	22	30	26	0.73	0.87	(0.50–1.49)
C34	MN of bronchus and lung	19	28	24	0.68	0.80	(0.45–1.42)
C40–C44, C47, C49–C50	MN of bone, connective tissue, skin and breast	16	14	14	1.14	1.13	(0.55–2.32)
C43	Malignant melanoma of skin	7	5	5	1.39	1.42	(0.46–4.37)
C51–C68	MN if genitourinary organs	5	8	7	0.62	0.65	(0.21–2.06)
C69–C80	MN of other and unspecified sites	27	35	34	0.77	0.79	(0.48–1.31)
C71	MN of brain	18	20	19	0.90	0.93	(0.49–1.77)
C80	MN without specification of site	8	12	12	0.66	0.68	(0.28–1.65)
C81–C96	MN of lymphatic and haematopoietic tissue	26	19	17	1.36	1.45	(0.79–2.66)
C81–C85, C91.4, C96	Lymphomas	13	9	9	1.44	1.50	(0.64–3.53)
C82– C85, C91.4, C96	Non–Hodgkin's lymphoma	9	6	6	1.49	1.60	(0.57–4.51)
C91–C95 excl C91.4	Leukaemias	11	8	7	1.37	1.38	(0.53–3.59)
C92	Myeloid leukaemia	8	5	5	1.59	1.47	(0.48–4.47)
D00–D48	In situ neoplasms, benign neoplasms and neoplasms of uncertain behaviour or unspecified nature	3	3	3	0.99	0.89	(0.16–4.93)

Notes:
¹ Adjusted for age of Gulf cohort at 1 January 1991.




 
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