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18 Mar 2005 : Column 467W—continued
Train Cancellations
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many trains in England and Wales were cancelled on each day between 20 February and 1 March, broken down by reason for cancellation. [221720]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 15 March 2005]: The information is not collated centrally in the specific format requested. Provisional figures for the number of cancelled trains for each day in the specified period are given in the following table. However the causes of such cancellations are not available.
(1) Figures for England and Wales are for all franchised train operating companies excluding Scotrail.
(2) Figures are provisional subject to verification to ensure that recorded cancellations take account of any changes to the number of scheduled trains for reasons such as the need to undertake engineering works or the introduction of emergency timetables.
(3) Figures relate to cancellations as recorded as part of the Public Performance Measure of train reliability, i.e. trains that did not run as planned or a train that ran but did not complete at least half of its scheduled journey.
TREASURY
Accidents
Jon Trickett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many accidents occurred at his departmental premises in each of the last five years involving (a) members of his Department's staff and (b) members of the public. [222570]
Mr. Timms: The number of accidents reported on HM Treasury's premises in each of the last five years involving (a) members of HM Treasury staff and (b) contractors is given as follows. No accidents have been reported by members of the public:
| Staff | Contractors | Near miss | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 14 |
| 2001 | 11 | 14 | 1 | 26 |
| 2002 | 41 | 10 | 0 | 51 |
| 2003 | 39 | 38 | 2 | 79 |
| 2004 | 13 | 25 | 0 | 38 |
Jon Trickett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he publishes data for the number of accidents at work involving employees of his Department; and if he will make a statement. [222583]
Mr. Timms:
The data will be published in our departmental annual report 2005.
18 Mar 2005 : Column 468W
Jon Trickett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what arrangements for monitoring accidents at work involving members of staff of his Department are in place; and if he will make a statement. [222634]
Mr. Timms: HM Treasury monitor all reported accidents and near miss incidents, identifying trends. Quarterly statistics are produced for the various Health and Safety Committees. These statistics are included in the Treasury's Annual Health and Safety Report that is submitted to the Board.
Drug Deaths
Lynne Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer in how many deaths the primary cause was found to be (a) heroin, (b) crack cocaine, (c) cocaine, (d) ecstasy, (e) cannabis, (f) alcohol, (g) solvents and (h) prescription drugs in each of the last five years. [222621]
Mr. Timms: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Lynne Jones, dated 18 March 2005:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many deaths the primary cause was found to be (a) heroin, (b) crack cocaine, (c) cocaine, (d) ecstasy, (e) cannabis, (f) alcohol, (g) solvents and (h) prescription drugs in each of the last five years. (222621)
The most recently available information is for deaths in 2003. Relevant figures are only readily available for deaths where the underlying cause was either related to drug poisoning or directly related to alcohol (alcohol abuse, dependence and poisoning, and diseases directly related to alcohol use). It is not possible to identify from death certificates which substance was the primary cause when more than one was involved. Figures related to the number of deaths on which substances (a) to (e) were mentioned are shown in the table below, together with figures on alcohol-related deaths. Figures are for the calendar years 1999 to 2003.
Figures on deaths due to volatile solvent abuse are collected separately by Department of Health. Figures on deaths involving prescription drugs are not available as it is not possible to readily identify deaths where an adverse reaction to a particular drug taken in therapeutic dosage was involved. Adverse reactions to drugs are reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency using the yellow card scheme. Figures on deaths from overdoses involving these drugs are available, however some substances are available in prescription and over-the-counter compounds and these cannot be distinguished.
It should be noted that the figures on drug-related poisoning are not directly comparable to the figures on alcohol for the following reasons.
The figures on drugs do not include long-term effects of drug taking, whereas the figures on alcohol include cirrhosis of the liver.
Overdose deaths which involved both drugs and alcohol are coded as due to drug poisoning, in accordance with international rules for coding cause of death.
The figures on alcohol include only those where the underlying cause was alcohol-related. The figures on specific drugs include any mention of a substance on a death related to drug poisoning. This means a death could be included in more than one row of the table, for example if the deceased took both heroin and cocaine.
(4) For the years 1999–2000 the cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9). The codes selected to define alcohol-related deaths are listed as follows:
291—Alcoholic psychoses
303—Alcohol dependence syndrome
305.0—Non-dependent abuse of alcohol
425.5—Alcoholic cardiomyopathy
571—Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis
E860—Accidental poisoning by alcohol
For the years 2001–2003 the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) was used. To maintain comparability with earlier years the following codes were selected:
F10—Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol
142.6—Alcoholic cardiomyopathy
K70—Alcoholic liver disease
K73—Chronic hepatitis, not elsewhere classified
K74—Fibrosis and cirrhosis of liver
X45—Accidental poisoning by and exposure to alcohol
The selection of codes to define alcohol-related deaths is described in:
Baker A and Rooney C (2003). Recent trends in alcohol-related mortality, and the impact of ICD-10 on the monitoring of these deaths in England and Wales. Health Statistics Quarterly 17, pp 5–14.
2 Cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes 292, 304, 305.2–305.9, E850-E858, E950.0-E950.5, E962.0 and E980.0-E980.5 for 1999 to 2000, and the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes F11-F16, F18-F19, X40-X44, X60-X64, X85 and Y10-Y14from 2001 onwards.
3 Drugs mentioned on the death certificate of a death where the underlying cause was drug poisoning.
4 Data are for deaths occurring in each calendar year.
5 It is not possible to provide separate figures on deaths related to crack cocaine and cocaine from routine mortality data, as these substances are not generally separately identified on death certificates. ONS routinely publishes a combined figure for deaths mentioning cocaine on the death certificate.
Source of data on deaths related to drug poisoning:
Tables of deaths related to drug poisoning on the National Statistics website at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=l1695
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