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Vaccines

Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the three largest suppliers in financial terms to the national health service of (a) influenza, (b) polio, (c) BCG and (d) hepatitis B vaccines in each of the last five years. [61707]

Caroline Flint: The Department does not have information on the market share in financial terms of each supplier.

Influenza vaccines are supplied direct to the national health service by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi Pasteur MSD, Solvay, Chiron Vaccines, GlaxoSmithKline and MASTA. Hepatitis B vaccine is supplied direct to the NHS by Sanofi Pasteur MSD and GlaxoSmithKline.

The information on market share for these products is commercially confidential.

Prior to September 2004, oral polio vaccine (OPV) was used in the routine national childhood immunisation programme. GlaxoSmithKline was the sole supplier of this product in the United Kingdom from November 2000. From September 2004 onwards, the UK replaced OPV with inactivated polio vaccine (IPV). IPV is provided as one component of the combined vaccines used for protecting against polio and other diseases. These vaccines are supplied by Sanofi Pasteur MSD and GlaxoSmithKline.

The Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, manufactured by Statens Serum Institute, is supplied to the NHS as part of the national immunisation childhood programme.

vCJD

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health to this date, how many people in England have contracted vCJD; and if she will make a statement. [62505]

Caroline Flint: There have been 129 definite or probable cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease with last known residence in England to date. Five of these cases are still alive.

Working with Children

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether being placed on the sex offenders' register is a criterion for being placed on her Department's list of individuals who are considered unsuitable to work with children. [44477]

Ruth Kelly: I have been asked to reply.

My statement, and the accompanying report, of 19 January and further statement of 1 March set out clearly the Government's analysis of, and response to, issues concerning child protection and List 99, together with the action we are taking currently and will be taking in the future.

My Department also maintains the Protection of Children Act list which is a referrals-based system. Following disciplinary action for misconduct, if certain conditions are satisfied, child care organisations must, and other organisations may refer the names of
 
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individuals employed in child care positions to the Secretary of State (these are usually employers but a small number of other organisations have the power to refer names). To place an individual on the Protection of Children Act List (otherwise than provisionally), providing she is satisfied that the referral is a valid one, the Secretary of State must form the opinion that:

the referring organisation reasonably considered the person to be guilty of misconduct which harmed a child or placed a child at risk of harm, (whether or not in the course of employment), and

that the individual is unsuitable to work with children.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Afghanistan

Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what financial assistance for alternative livelihoods to opium production was given to (a) Badakhshan and (b) Nangahar province in Afghanistan in each year since 2002; and if he will make a statement. [61233]

Mr. Straw: According to the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, a total of US$ 490 million worth of international aid was committed towards alternative livelihoods in Afghanistan in 2005–06. US$47.3 million of this assistance was committed to Badakhshan and US$70.1 million to Nangahar. There are no reliable collective figures for assistance specifically to develop alternative livelihoods prior to this date.

The Department for International Development (DFID) supports alternative livelihoods by providing funds for the Government of Afghanistan's National Priority Programmes, which provide immediate support and long term development inputs across every province in Afghanistan. In particular, since 2003 the UK has provided £40 million to the National Solidarity Programme which has helped establish Community Development Councils which deliver community-led development initiatives in thousands of Afghan villages; the National Rural Access Programme, which has brought about employment through public works, such as irrigation schemes and renovation of roads; and the Microfinance and Investment Support Facility, which delivers loan schemes for investments in small-businesses, agriculture and to support service industries such as small shops. All three of these programmes are operating in Badakhshan and Nangahar Provinces.

In addition to supporting these national programmes in Badakhshan DFID has, since 2003, provided £2.5 million to the Aga Khan Foundation to develop alternatives to poppy cultivation and £3 million to an International Organisation for Migration cash-for-work programme which has provided 500,000 labour days as an alternative legal source of income for those who would otherwise be engaged in poppy cultivation.

In Nangahar, DFID is providing £300,000 over three years to Relief International to undertake research into the livelihood impact and market potential of six legume and vegetable crops as potential viable alternatives to opium poppy cultivation.
 
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Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) whether local community leaders in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, have made representations to the British embassy in Afghanistan regarding the non-payment of compensation for poppy eradication; [62476]

(2) whether cheques drawn on a British Government funded account at a local bank in Lashkar Gar, Afghanistan have been returned unpaid due to insufficient funds. [62478]

Dr. Howells: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him today (UIN 62477).

Angola

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions (a) he and (b) members of his Department have had with (i) members and representatives of (A) the Government of and (B) the opposition in Angola and (ii) the Ministry of Defence concerning possible UK (1) logistical and (2) practical assistance to the disarmament process in Angola; and if he will make a statement. [59595]

Ian Pearson: There have been no discussions at ministerial level on this issue with members or representatives of the Government of, and opposition in, Angola. The British Embassy in Luanda, after discussions with the Angolan authorities and in conjunction with the Angolan Interior and Defence Ministries, funded the Halo Trust to carry out a pilot project on how civil disarmament should be approached in Angola. Based on the findings, we are now funding Phase One of Halo's disarmament programme with £281,622 from the joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Department for International Development/Ministry of Defence Africa Conflict Prevention Pool. This project will initially focus on three central Angolan provinces seriously affected by the civil war.

Belarus

Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assistance the Government are providing to help build democratic civil society in Belarus; and if he will make a statement. [61238]

Mr. Straw: The UK has provided £1.5 million since 2002 to assist civil society in Belarus. During our presidency of the EU, we outlined steps to be taken by the EU to increase contact with the Belarusian people and to strengthen support for civil society, including through technical assistance and by opening an EU office in Minsk. To this effect, the EU has transferred €2 million from its Technical Aid to the Commonwealth of Independent States programme to the more flexible European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights programme.

Capgemini

Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 22 March 2006, Official Report, columns
 
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423–4W, when he expects to be able to disclose full details of the grounds on which his Department is making a claim against Capgemini. [62617]

Mr. Straw: At the appropriate time I will make a statement, to the extent that I can give details without prejudice to my Department's commercial relations.

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