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23 Feb 2005 : Column 672W—continued

Five-year Strategy

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) whether, under the plans published in his Department's five-year strategy, a claimant suffering from a condition which is serious enough to prevent them from doing any kind of work for a period of time, but which is expected to be temporary, would receive the rehabilitation support allowance or the disability and sickness allowance; [215547]

(2) what scope there would be, under the plans published in his Department's five-year strategy, for claimants to move from the rehabilitation support allowance to the disability and sickness allowance and vice versa. [215568]

Maria Eagle: Rehabilitation and support allowance will be for people with less severe impairments that can be well managed with the right support and so need not be a major long- term obstacle to getting back to work. Disability and sickness allowance will focus more on those with the most severe impairments where the health problem or disability will, for some time, form a very significant obstacle to getting back to work. However, we know many people with severe impairments still do work, and want to do so. Disability and sickness allowance recipients will still be able to access any appropriate programme or financial support.

The basis of the division between the two benefits will be the severity of functional limitation as a result of a health condition or disability. Much more detailed work and consultation will be required in order for us to establish a settled boundary between the two allowances and how we provide for movement between the two.
 
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CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Judicial Appointments

Paddy Tipping: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time judicial officer appointments have been made in each year since 1975. [215189]

Mr. Lammy [pursuant to his reply, 9 February 2005, c. 1609W]: I listed incorrect figures in tables 1A, 1B and 2. The amendments are now underlined in tables 1A, 1B and 2 as follows.

Table 2 is also amended to clearly show the separate figures for the Lord Chancellor's appointment of lay magistrates (excluding the Duchy of Lancaster) and appointments made in the Duchy of Lancaster (for which the Lord Chancellor does not appoint).

Tables 1A and 1B show full-time appointments for the calendar years 1975–1997. The figures include appointments of Judicial officers to full-time Tribunal posts for Tribunals administered by DCA (formerly Lord Chancellor's Department) but exclude those administered by other Government Departments (such as the Employment Tribunal and The Appeal Service and its pre 1999 predecessor The Independent Tribunal Service). These tables also include lay magistrates appointments from 1990 onwards.
 
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The figures for the early years are drawn from very old records and as such cannot be verified as 100 per cent. correct.
Table 1A: 1975 to 1984

	Full-time appointments
1975	45
1976	46
1977	43
1978	57
1979	39
1980	65
1981	41
1982	53
1983	48
1984	62

Table 1B: 1985 to 1994 Full-time and Lay Magistrates appointments

	Full-time	Lay magistrates
1985	53	n/a
1986	82	n/a
1987	54	n/a
1988	60	n/a
1989	54	n/a
1990	55	2,059
1991	92	2,017
1992	120	2,070
1993	127	2,062
1994	91	1,593
1995	110	1,843
1996	100	1,682
1997	66	1,573

n/a=Not available.




Table 2: 1998–99 to 2003–04 Full-time, part-time (fee paid) and Lay Magistrates appointments

	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04
Full-time	148	95	198	125	156	126
Part-time	486	369	555	790	541	354
Total	634	464	753	915	697	480
Lay magistrates:
Lord Chancellor Appointments	1,278	1,423	1,366	1,474	1,410	1,478
Appointments in the Duchy of Lancaster	n/a	n/a	252	312	213	280
Total	1,278	1,423	1,618	1,786	1,623	1,758

n/a=Not available.

Sickness Absence

Mr. Hammond: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what steps his Department is taking to reduce the numbers of sick days taken by staff in the Department. [216631]

Mr. Lammy: We are developing new attendance management policies and systems to be introduced in the spring. These will place greater accountability on managers to deal with absence and take into account recommendations of the recently published Managing Attendance in the Public Sector report. They will introduce a more robust approach to reviewing absence on both short and long-term sickness focusing on earlier management interventions. Our overall approach revolves around building management capability, through training and support, to underpin the new policies.

In the medium term we have work under way to better understand patterns of sickness absence and what actions will have the greatest leverage to bring overall absence levels down. This will enable us to develop a revised attendance management strategy.

HEALTH

Animal Insulin Supplies

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the recent interruption of supply of animal insulin from CP Pharmaceuticals. [210219]

 
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Ms Rosie Winterton: CP Pharmaceuticals (now Wockhardt UK) experienced production difficulties, but these have now been fully resolved and supply of all affected products will be back to normal by mid February to early March. There has been available a minimum of one presentation of each of the company's animal insulins at all times.

Anti-depressants

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency's review of tricyclic drugs will take account of the safety of future classes of anti-depressant drug. [215711]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The committee on safety of medicines' expert working group on the safety of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors has made recommendations for the conduct of future clinical trials of antidepressants. A copy of its report is available in the Library. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency will take forward these recommendations within the European drug regulatory system.

Assertive Outreach Teams

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the powers available to assertive outreach teams to assist them in carrying out their functions. [216153]

Ms Rosie Winterton: As set out in the mental health policy implementation guide (2001), assertive outreach is responsible for providing the full range of interventions to support the service user and his/her carers for sustained periods. Assertive outreach staff should have the skills and training to co-ordinate care and provide a broad range of interventions, including the delivery of care and treatment under the Mental Health Act 1983.

Care Standards

Mr. Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will take steps to ensure that persons making applications to the Commission for Care Standards Inspection in different areas are not required (a) to furnish and (b) to pay for separate Criminal Records Bureau checks in respect of each application to a different office. [216524]

Dr. Ladyman: All care workers and registered providers of care homes, domiciliary care agencies and adult placement schemes must have a Protection of Vulnerable Adults (PoVA) check before they start work. Access to a check is through the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB). Therefore, a PoVA check also includes a CRB check.

The requirement for charging for a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check is set out in the Police Act 1997. There is no provision in the legislation for allowing an application to be made without payment of a fee.

Children's Burns Unit (Newcastle)

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what review his Department is undertaking of children's
 
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burns units; and whether the closure of the children's burns unit at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle is under consideration. [216495]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The national burn care group is considering options for reconfiguration of specialist burns services across England and Wales. Decisions have not yet been made regarding the development of burn care centres and any proposals for change will be subject to a full public consultation process.

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