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2 Feb 2005 : Column 983W—continued
Statement Validity Analysis
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research he has conducted into statement validity analysis; and what the findings were. [207448]
Paul Goggins: There has been no Home Office research into statement validity analysis.
Sulaiman Family
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will make a final decision in the case of the Sulaiman family (Home Office reference J1080623, J1080623/2, J1080623/3); and if he will make a statement. [211601]
Mr. Browne: Further inquiries need to be made before a decision can be reached in this case. Home Office officials have sent a letter to the Mrs Ibrahim's representatives requesting the relevant information.
Home Office officials are in frequent contact with the Sulaiman family's constituency MP, my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth, North (Syd Rapson) concerning the details of this case.
Work Permit Scheme
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what responsibilities the Work Permit Scheme places on an employer who makes redundant an employee employed under that scheme. [212038]
Mr. Browne: Work permit holders have the same employment rights under UK law as resident workers. Employers are also asked to inform the Home Office if a work permit holder's employment ceases prematurely.
Youth Justice
Mr. Byers: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average cost is of a six-month custodial sentence in a secure unit for a 14-year-old. [213177]
Paul Goggins [holding answer 1 February 2005]: The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales has responsibility for commissioning and purchasing places in the secure estate. Its most recent calculation of the average cost (regardless of age) of a six month custodial sentence in a local authority secure children's home is £92,625.
Mr. Byers: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average cost of a youth offending team's involvement with a juvenile was in the last year for which figures are available. [213178]
Paul Goggins
[holding answer 1 February 2005]: The average cost in 2003–04 was just over £1,300 per disposal. This is based on YOTs' total expenditure of £243 million divided by the 185,000 disposals given to offenders aged 10–17.
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HEALTH
Alcohol-related Disease
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the incidence of alcohol-related health problems in people over 60. [210662]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Information on hospital admission, where the primary diagnosis or cause code shows the admission was alcohol-related is shown in the table. Other data on incidence of alcohol-related health problems is not available specifically for the age range over 60".
Notes:
1.A finished in-year admission is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider, excluding admissions beginning before 1 April at the start of the datayear. Please note that admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year.
2.The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 14 (seven prior to 2002–03) diagnosis fields in the hospital episode statistics (HES) data set and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital.
3.The cause code is a supplementary code that indicates the nature of any external cause of injury, poisoning or other adverse effects.
4.Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (i.e. the data are ungrossed).
Source:
HES, Department of Health.
Cancer
Dr. Murrison:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will set a deadline for ending the current variation in the prescribing of anti-cancer drugs as recommended by the Public Accounts Committee in its Report on tackling cancer in England, HC 166; [212214]
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(2) what assessment he has made of the relative contribution of (a) delay in referral from general practitioners and (b) delay in carrying out diagnostic tests to late diagnosis identified by the Public Accounts Committee in its report on Tackling Cancer in England, HC166 of (i) cancer, (ii) brain cancer, (iii)lung cancer, (iv) breast cancer, (v) prostate cancer, (vi) childhood leukaemia and (vii) cancer of the gastro-intestinal tract. [213144]
Miss Melanie Johnson: We are considering the recommendations in the Public Accounts Committee report and will respond in due course.
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what financial resources have been made available for further (a) research into cancer and (b) increasing public awareness of the causes of cancer. [208890]
Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 19 January 2005]: In the NHS Cancer Plan, the Government stated that we would be investing an additional £20 million each year in the infrastructure for cancer research and an extra £4 million on prostate cancer research by 2003. These funding levels have been achieved.
The national health service reported spending £104 million in 2001–02, 103 million in 2002–03, and £113 million in 2003–04 on research relating to cancer from research and development support funding allocations.
The Department has funded a number of projects through the voluntary sector to raise awareness of cancer and has commissioned several pieces of research that will provide information on why patients delay seeking help from their general practitioner when symptoms become apparent.
We plan to set up a pilot programme to raise public awareness of the symptoms and signs of cancer later this year. We will then evaluate whether people with symptoms present earlier for diagnosis and treatment as a result.
Mr. Tredinnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what resources he is making available to the National Cancer Research Institute and Clinical Studies Group on Alternative Therapies; and what assessment he has made of research in this area. [209469]
Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 18 January 2005]: The Department is contributing £130,000 a year toward the running costs of the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) and currently plans to make available some £7.6 million over the period 2004 to 2010 in support of NCRI's work programme.
The work of the NCRI complementary therapies clinical studies development group is supported by the co-ordinating centre for the national cancer research network. The network is funded by the Department.
The Department issued a call for research proposals on The role of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in the Care of Patients with Cancer" in the summer of 2002. Three projects were commissioned as a result, details of which can be found
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on the Department's website at www.dh.gov.uk/research/. Two of these projects are due to end later this year and the third in 2006.
The Department supports research capacity in CAM through its £3.4 million complementary and alternative medicine personal award scheme. Two calls have successfully created a cohort of 18 CAM researchers at the doctoral and postdoctoral level who are working on a broad range of research issues.
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