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13 Jul 2005 : Column 1123W—continued
Zimbabwe
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with (a) Commonwealth and (b) African Union counterparts regarding the human rights situation in Zimbabwe. [11232]
Ian Pearson: My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister discussed Zimbabwe with African Leaders at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles.
My noble Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Lord Triesman of Tottenham) and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development (Hilary Benn) attended the recent African Union Summit in Libya where they discussed Zimbabwe with African and other leaders, including the African Union Chairperson Alpha Konare and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. We continue to make clear our view that African leaders should engage with the Government of Zimbabwe to seek an end to the ongoing human rights abuses.
We remain in regular dialogue with our Commonwealth partners. Many have joined us in condemning the appalling human rights violations of the Government of Zimbabwe, most recently statements by the Governments of Australia and New Zealand condemning the human rights situation and calling for further international action.
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HEALTH
Alliance Medical
Mr. Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health who is responsible for health and safety assessment of the site occupied by Alliance Medical in Middlesbrough. [8260]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 30 June 2005]: The location and suitability of the site were agreed between the host national health service trust and Alliance Medical Ltd. (AML). AML is contractually obliged to comply with existing health and safety legislation and is responsible for patient and staff safety inside the mobile unit.
Mr. Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the pay rates are for staff working for Alliance Medical; and what the rates are for equivalent staff working in the NHS; [8723]
(2) what percentage of staff working for Alliance Medical are former NHS employees; [8724]
(3) what percentage of staff working for Alliance Medical are not UK citizens. [8727]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 4 July 2005]: The Department does not hold the information requested about staff working for Alliance Medical Ltd. who are expected not to recruit staff who have been employed by the national health service in the preceding six-month period.
Rates of pay for most non-medical staff working in the national health service are based on the new pay and reward system, Agenda for Change. Details of Agenda for Change, including current pay bands and rates, are available at:
Anti-psychotics
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what monitoring her Department (a) has undertaken and (b) plans to undertake of the prescription of (i) olanzapine, (ii) risperidone and (iii) other anti-psychotics for people with dementia. [10075]
Jane Kennedy: The Department does not collect information on the prescribing of these drugs specifically for people with dementia.
Bowel Diseases
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what funding has been provided for research into(a) ulcerative colitis and (b) Crohn's disease from the Department's research and development programme. [9510]
Jane Kennedy:
The Department's national research programme spend on projects related to inflammatory bowel disease in the period from 1994 to 2004 was £503,000. This figure includes part of the cost of a project on combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine safety in relation to juvenile Crohn's disease.
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Over 75 per cent. of the Department's total expenditure on health research is devolved to and managed by national health service organisations. Details of completed and ongoing projects, including a number concerned with ulcerative colitis and with Crohn's disease, can be found on the national research register at www.dh.gov.uk/research.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps she is taking to improve services for patients suffering from (a) ulcerative colitis and (b) Crohn's disease. [9512]
Mr. Byrne: It is for primary care trusts to commission appropriate local services according to local need in order to improve care for people with long-term conditions, as set out in the NHS Improvement Plan.
Breast Milk Substitute Advertising
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many complaints have been made to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about breast milk substitute advertising in the UK in the last three years; and whether the ASA has issued a ruling in response to all complaints. [10435]
Caroline Flint: I am not in a position to answer this question as issues relating to advertising complaints are the responsibility of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which is an independent body. Any questions relating to the number of complaints made about breast milk substitute advertising should be referred directly to the head of complaints at the ASA.
Charities (Care Standards Annual Fees)
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what help her Department makes available for small charities to meet the Care Standards annual fees; [10149]
(2) if she will exempt charities from paying Care Standards annual fees. [10150]
Mr. Byrne: There are no special arrangements available for small charities to meet annual fees. However, in setting the fees in 2002–03, the cost of registering and inspecting different types and sizes of service providers, was taken into account.
The Government cannot exempt charities from paying annual fees as this would be unfair to other care providers. All providers benefit from the assurance that regulation gives, including the voluntary sector.
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Child Deaths (Passive Smoking)
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate she has made of the number of children who died as a result of breathing in their mother's cigarette smoke in the last year for which figures are available. [10577]
Caroline Flint: This information is not collected centrally.
Deafblind Services (Milton Keynes)
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the level of social service provision for deafblind people in Milton Keynes. [10777]
Mr. Byrne: Information about the level of social service provision is not held centrally. It is for the local social services to decide how resources should be allocated between services, taking account of local circumstances and priorities.
Departmental Advertising
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the Department spent on advertising in each of the last five years. [10230]
Jane Kennedy: The table shows the expenditure on major information campaigns and advertising commissioned by the Department's communications directorate for the past five years—2000–01 to 2004–05. The figures include the costs of campaign-related publishing, television radio, poster, newspaper and magazine advertising.
| Financial year | £ million |
|---|---|
| 2000–01 | 20.80 |
| 2001–02 | 20.41 |
| 2002–03 | 23.13 |
| 2003–04 | 38.98 |
| 2004–05 | 32.7 |
Digestive Conditions
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) completed consultant episodes and (b) deaths relating to digestive conditions and diseases there have been in each year since 1997, broken down by gender. [9289]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested is shown in the following tables.
Notes:
1. A finished admission episode is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. 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. Figures are grossed for both coverage and missing/invalid clinical data, except for 2002–03 and 2003–04, which are not yet adjusted for shortfalls.
4. Not known"—records from which data compiled do not clearly indicate the sex of the patient.
Source:
HES, Health and Social Care Information Centre.
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(33) Defined using the International Classification of Diseases Ninth Revision codes 520–579 for 1997–2000 and the International Classification of Diseases Tenth Revision codes KOO-K93 for 2001 to 2003.
(34) Data is for deaths occurring in each calendar year.
(35) Data for 2001 onwards may not be directly comparable to that for earlier years due to the introduction of ICD-10 for mortality coding (see: Office for National Statistics (2002) Report: Results of the ICD-10 Bridgecoding study, England and Wales 1999. Health Statistics Quarterly 14, 75–83.")
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what funding has been provided for research into digestive diseases and conditions from (a) the Medical Research Council and (b) the Department's research and development programme. [9291]
Jane Kennedy: The main agency through which the Government supports medical and clinical research is the Medical Research Council (MRC). The MRC is an independent body funded by the Department of Trade and Industry via the Office of Science and Technology.
In 2003–04, the MRC spent £4.6 million on research relevant to digestive diseases and conditions 1 .
The Department funds research to support policy and to provide the evidence needed to underpin quality improvement and service development in the national health service. The Department's national research programme spend on projects related to digestive diseases and conditions in 2003–04 was £1.3 million.
Over 75 per cent. of the Department's total expenditure on health research is devolved to and managed by NHS organisations. Details of completed and on-going projects supported by this funding can be found on the national research register at www.dh.gov.uk/research.
1 Areas of research counted for this purpose include: inflammatory bowel diseases, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, cholangitis, irritable bowel syndrome, intestinal diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, peptic ulcers, abdominal pain, pancreatitis, gastroenteritis, gastric and intestinal mucosa, dysentery, colonic diseases.
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