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The Minister for Local Government (Mr. Phil Woolas): Today the Social Exclusion Unit in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is publishing a major report entitled "Transitions: Young Adults with Complex Needs".
the need for all young adults to have a trusted adult in their lives to help negotiate their way around different agencies; and,
smootherand therefore bettertransitions between services by joining up vertically to promote continuity of service from adolescence to adulthood.
The report highlights three key themes:
For young adults, issues around thinking and behaviour are particularly critical because decisions made during the transition to adulthoodparticularly in areas like education and employmentare some of the most important and far-reaching decisions taken at any time of life.
The importance of the issue of age boundaries was reinforced during this project by practitioners and young people alike. Two issues dominated the discussion of this area: the often abrupt ending of services once a young person reaches a certain age, and the sometimes poor transition between youth and adult services.
Holistic services and the 'trusted adult'.
Young adults with multiple problems may lack the skills and resilience needed to make the transition to adulthood. Support, advice and guidance are crucial in order for young adults to make a successful transition. For many young adults this will come from their parents, relatives, guardians, or teachersbut not all young adults have these sources of support. For them, this supporting role may be filled by a personal advisor or mentor or someone else acting in the role of 'trusted adult'.
The report contains 27 action points to be taken forward by Government Departments. The Implementation Team in the Social Exclusion Unit will monitor the progress made by the Departments on individual action points and will work to ensure that the overarching goals contained within the report are pursued across Government.
Baroness Andrews, Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will chair an ad-hoc group of Ministers from key Departments to oversee progress towards the action points contained in the report.
Copies of the report have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses. Further copies can be downloaded from http://www.socialexclusion.gov.uk/ downloaddoc.asp?id=785
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The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Jack Straw): On 6 April I announced the database of parliamentarians' foreign affairs interests that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had created.
Since then, the FCO has been working on a new Parliamentary Question (PQ) management system so that it can be compatible with the next generation of the FCO's desktop IT system which will be introduced next year. The new PQ management system will allow officials throughout the Department to see the FCO questions that hon. Members have asked. In order to concentrate parliamentary information in one place, this new system will also replace the database of parliamentary interests, and in addition to records of Parliamentary Questions hon. Members have asked, it will include records of their participation in foreign affairs debates.
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Jane Kennedy): Today I am announcing referral to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) of topics for its 12th Wave work programme,
I am referring to NICE clinical guidelines in the following areas:
Investigation of children with suspected abuse;
Borderline Personality Disorder; and
Antisocial (Dissocial) Personality Disorder.
I am also asking NICE to consult on the remit and scope for technology appraisals of the following:
Autologous tumour vaccine for stage i-iii renal cell carcinoma;
Idaraparinux sodium for the prevention of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation and for the prevention of recurrent venous thromboembolism;
Neuro-imaging in the first onset atypical psychosis;
Recombinant factor Vila for traumatic bleeding;
Rimonabant for smoking cessation, weight loss and reduction of cardiovascular risk factors of overweight obesity;
Certolizumab pegol and natalizumab for the treatment of moderate to severe Crohn's disease;
Varenicline for smoking cessation;
Alteplase for acute ischaemic stroke;
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Rituximab and abatacept for the treatment of refractory rheumatoid arthrits Adalimumab and leflunomide for the treatment of moderate to severe psoriatic arthritis;
Ruboxistaurin (LY333531) for diabetic eye disease;
Tegaserod maleate and cilansetron for Irritable Bowel Syndrome;
Continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP) for Sleep Apnoea; and
Muragiltazar and tesaglitazar for type II diabetes and associated lipid abnormalities.
Early referral of Herceptin (Trastuzumab) for early stage breast cancer and Velcade (Bortezomib) for multiple myeloma was made on 21 July.
NICE will begin consultation with organisations representing patients, healthcare professionals and the healthcare industries on the remit and scope of these technology appraisals. I will consider the comments arising from the consultation when finalising the precise remit of the appraisal topics.
I will shortly be considering proposals for public health topics which will be included in this programme of work.
Further information including details of the remits of the topics may be found on the NICE website at www.nice.org.uk.
NICE will be publishing indicative timescales for its work on these topics in due course.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Caroline Flint): The 200405 annual report of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority was laid before the House today. Copies of the report have been placed in the Library.
The Minister for Policing, Security and Community Safety (Hazel Blears): The statistics for 1 April 2004 to 31 March 2005 show that the number of police operations in which firearms were authorised was 15,981.
The Police discharged a conventional firearm 18 times covering five incidents. In addition, the Police discharged baton rounds in 23 incidents and fired Taser in 35 incidents.
Armed response vehicles were deployed on 13,137 occasions and there were 6,243 authorised firearms officers in England and Wales.
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Full details are set out in the tables below:
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