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DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Social Exclusion Unit Report

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 report proposes:

a renewed focus on the 16- to 25-year-old age group, building on the

Government's successful programmes for disadvantaged children and families;

a focus on the invisible early twenties, the age at which youth policies have tended to end;

the need for all young adults to have a trusted adult in their lives to help negotiate their way around different agencies; and,

smoother—and therefore better—transitions between services by joining up vertically to promote continuity of service from adolescence to adulthood.

The report highlights three key themes:

Thinking and Behaviour.

For young adults, issues around thinking and behaviour are particularly critical because decisions made during the transition to adulthood—particularly in areas like education and employment—are some of the most important and far-reaching decisions taken at any time of life.

Age-bound services.

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 teachers—but 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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FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Foreign and Commonwealth Office Parliamentary Database

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.

HEALTH

12th Wave Work Programme (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence)

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:

Low Back Pain;

Stroke;

Glaucoma;

Irritable bowel syndrome;

Investigation of children with suspected abuse;

Chronic Kidney Disease;

Spinal Cord Compression;

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;

Cochlear Implants;

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.

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's Annual Report 2004–05

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Caroline Flint): The 2004–05 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.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Police Use of Firearms (England and Wales)

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:
NUMBER OF OPERATIONS IN WHICH FIREARMS WERE AUTHORISED

	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04	2004–05
TOTAL	13,991	14,827	16,657	15,981
AVON & SOMERSET	195	262	311	333
BEDFORDSHIRE	237	301	442	475
CAMBRIDGESHIRE	114	57	104	241
CHESHIRE	419	451	397	358
CLEVELAND	37	170	453	530
CITY OF LONDON	40	131	364	404
CUMBRIA	71	77	72	152
DERBYSHIRE	275	401	369	287
DEVON & CORNWALL	101	96	112	71
DORSET	184	193	231	223
DURHAM	89	83	156	144
ESSEX	323	312	275	296
GLOUCESTERSHIRE	165	185	127	176
GTR MANCHESTER	580	518	507	461
HAMPSHIRE	198	162	208	237
HERTFORDSHIRE	112	172	195	185
HUMBERSIDE	297	187	183	206
KENT	115	137	207	163
LANCASHIRE	232	238	318	241
LEICESTERSHIRE	300	268	295	260
LINCOLNSHIRE	477	392	386	294
MERSEYSIDE	1,020	628	751	733
METROPOLITAN	2,447	3,199	3,563	2,964
NORFOLK	175	200	178	195
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE	43	138	148	158
NORTHUMBRIA	1,440	1,275	1,140	977
NORTH YORKSHIRE	92	100	147	185
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE	384	452	459	408
SOUTH YORKSHIRE	258	463	484	546
STAFFORDSHIRE	232	281	255	216
SUFFOLK	163	270	251	153
SURREY	245	247	203	151
SUSSEX	248	204	280	187
THAMES VALLEY	179	167	195	289
WARWICKSHIRE	130	149	164	124
WEST MERCIA	117	91	197	162
WEST MIDLANDS	822	902	1377	1264
WEST YORKSHIRE	757	604	575	853
WILTSHIRE	45	58	63	88
DYFED POWYS	28	29	28	51
GWENT	20	37	40	81
NORTH WALES	302	259	197	223
SOUTH WALES	283	281	250	236

NUMBER OF AUTHORISED FIREARMS OFFICERS (AFOs)

	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04	2004–05
TOTAL	5,776	5,763	6,096	6,243
AVON & SOMERSET	116	84	122	118
BEDFORDSHIRE	48	53	58	56
CAMBRIDGESHIRE	56	71	60	60
CHESHIRE	81	89	75	76
CLEVELAND	85	80	95	100
CITY OF LONDON	73	72	86	89
CUMBRIA	92	87	89	90
DERBYSHIRE	80	69	70	74
DEVON & CORNWALL	108	115	132	123
DORSET	57	59	60	64
DURHAM	86	102	97	103
ESSEX	180	184	186	202
GLOUCESTERSHIRE	71	80	82	93
GTR MANCHESTER	219	202	205	187
HAMPSHIRE	87	94	94	92
HERTFORDSHIRE	46	47	50	53
HUMBERSIDE	96	96	96	101
KENT	113	93	90	94
LANCASHIRE	138	129	122	115
LEICESTERSHIRE	69	68	51	53
LINCOLNSHIRE	91	87	78	86
MERSEYSIDE	78	84	94	93
METROPOLITAN	1,805	1,823	2,060	2,134
NORFOLK	104	109	114	125
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE	51	56	52	50
NORTHUMBRIA	125	99	90	93
NORTH YORKSHIRE	66	64	60	56
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE	136	131 J	138	138
SOUTH YORKSHIRE	92	100	98	122
STAFFORDSHIRE	71	63	67	76
SUFFOLK	90	80	96	88
SURREY	62	48	53	49
SUSSEX	120	141	134	130
THAMES VALLEY	156	180	172	176
WARWICKSHIRE	50	51	46	53
WEST MERCIA	125	131	139	141
WEST MIDLANDS	111	110	124	134
WEST YORKSHIRE	116	132	140	130
WILTSHIRE	71	78	80	74
DYFED POWYS	77	62	58	79
GWENT	57	60	71	74
NORTH WALES	83	75	73	65
SOUTH WALES	138	125	139	134

 
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NUMBER OF OPERATIONS INVOLVING ARMED RESPONSE VEHICLES (ARVs)

	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04	2004–05
TOTAL	11,574	11,848	13,218	13,137
AVON & SOMERSET	173	215	249	312
BEDFORDSHIRE	172	269	414	419
CAMBRIDGESHIRE	43	45	155	172
CHESHIRE	523	337	356	773
CLEVELAND	13	63	86	154
CITY OF LONDON	39	131	364	275
CUMBRIA	53	45	65	134
DERBYSHIRE	253	363	312	254
DEVON & CORNWALL	76	32	94	54
DORSET	182	180	215	195
DURHAM	57	66	96	91
ESSEX	165	176	138	138
GLOUCESTERSHIRE	140	166	109	121
GTR MANCHESTER	528	406	440	364
HAMPSHIRE	116	108	128	167
HERTFORDSHIRE	81	129	157	155
HUMBERSIDE	273	170	158	184
KENT	89	132	193	124
LANCASHIRE	192	185	273	228
LEICESTERSHIRE	292	232	269	232
LINCOLNSHIRE	470	367	355	276
MERSEYSIDE	974	547	687	677
METROPOLITAN	1,667	2,447	2,423	2,322
NORFOLK	157	186	169	163
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE	25	90	99	89
NORTHUMBRIA	1,349	1,204	1,063	893
NORTH YORKSHIRE	60	67	110	144
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE	333	397	404	336
SOUTH YORKSHIRE	221	280	322	438
STAFFORDSHIRE	208	241	212	183
SUFFOLK	116	160	194	119
SURREY	225	240	190	140
SUSSEX	189	171	250	163
THAMES VALLEY	174	167	179	265
WARWICKSHIRE	104	31	138	102
WEST MERCIA	100	111	241	152
WEST MIDLANDS	563	592	975	952
WEST YORKSHIRE	609	565	543	656
WILTSHIRE	43	39	28	54
DYFED POWYS	28	29	28	48
GWENT	16	16	23	74
NORTH WALES	265	198	153	180
SOUTH WALES	218	253	161	165

 
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