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23 May 2006 : Column 1742W—continued
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of (a) adults and (b) children are registered with an NHS dentist in each primary care trust in England; and how many were registered in each category in 1997. [67670]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 3 May 2006]: The information requested has been placed in the Library.
Destroyed Documents (Blood Products)
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether her Department has carried out an internal review into the destruction in the 1990s of documents held by her Department relating to national health service blood and plasma products infected with HIV and hepatitis C; and if she will make a statement. [65509]
Caroline Flint: During the HIV litigation many papers were recalled, and following that we understand papers were not adequately archived and were unfortunately destroyed in error.
Officials subsequently established during the hepatitis C litigation that documents relating to the advisory committee on the virological safety of blood between 1989 and 1992 had been destroyed in error. Following this discovery, an internal investigation was undertaken in April 2000 by the Department’s internal audit.
Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate she has made of the savings to the NHS consequent on changes to the procurement arrangements for the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin; [71822]
(2) what the cost is per copy of the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin; [71823]
(3) how many NHS employees on average she estimates read each edition of the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin; [71826]
(4) what methods for disseminating information will replace the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin. [71827]
Andy Burnham: The cost to the Department for the purchase and distribution of Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin in 2005-06 was £1.4 million.
Under the terms of the Department's contract with the Consumers' Association, the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin was distributed free of charge to all 120,000 national health service doctors in England 12 times a year. The cost of the contract in 2005-06 was £1.4 million which equates to a cost of approximately £0.97 per copy.
The Department has no information about the number of NHS employees who read each edition of the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin.
Doctors and other prescribers have access to a wide variety of information resources to support their prescribing. These include the British National Formularies, advice and training from the National Prescribing Centre, guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the National Electronic Library for Health, the various on-line databases and reference resources, such as Medline, and various academic and professional journals.
Electromagnetic Fields
Mark Tami: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research her Department has commissioned into the effect of electromagnetic fields on public health in the last five years. [71576]
Caroline Flint: The Department supports two broad programmes of research into the potential effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) and health: one on radiofrequency fields (as emitted by mobile phones) and the other largely on extremely low frequency (ELF) fields (such as associated with power lines and domestic electrical supply).
The mobile telecommunications and health research (MTHR) programme has been running since 2001. It is funded jointly by Government and industry and is managed by an independent scientific committee. A description of the programme and a list of ongoing and completed studies are available on the MTHR’s website at www.mthr.org.uk.
The Department’s radiation protection research programme supports a number of studies investigating the possible health effects of other electromagnetic
fields (largely ELF-EMF). These range from laboratory work investigating possible cellular effects to large population studies. Descriptions of these studies are available on the World Health Organisation (WHO) EMF research database at www.who.int/peh-emf/research/database/en/.
In addition, the Department, along with the Health and Safety Executive, has supported the WHO’s international EMF project since it started in 1997. Information about the EMF project is available on its web site at www.who.int/peh-mf/project/en/.
In the United Kingdom, the Health Protection Agency’s radiation protection division (HPA-RPD) keeps the world-wide research findings on EMF and health continually under review. In 2004, the HPA-RPD, previously the National Radiological Protection Board, published a comprehensive review of scientific evidence in support of its current advice on limiting EMF exposure which is available on HPA’s website at: www.hpa.org.uk/radiation/publications/documents_of_nrpb/abstracts/absd15-3.htm.
Emergency Contraception
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many morning-after pills have been distributed by the Greater Peterborough Primary Care Partnership in each of the last five years. [69047]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The information available is shown in the tables. Information on emergency hormonal contraception (EHC) supplied under a patient group direction (PGD) is not held centrally.
Family planning clinic services for the Peterborough area are provided by North Peterborough primary care trust (PCT). The total number of occasions on which clinics run by this PCT prescribed post-coital contraceptives is published annually but the published figures include some instances where an intrauterine device was fitted.
EHC via family planning clinics is collected by financial year:
| Occasions on which hormonal post-coital contraceptives dispensed at family planning clinics provided by North Peterborough PCT, 2000-01 to 2004-05 | |
| Number | |
| Source: Information Centre for health and social care, return KT31 |
EHC via general practice is collected by calendar year:
| Total number of items (prescriptions) for hormonal post-coital contraception prescribed in North and South Peterborough for the last four years | |
| Number | |
| Source: ePACT |
Food Businesses (EU Accreditation)
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many food businesses in England have (a) been accredited with ISO 22000 in line with EU regulation 852/2004 and (b) failed to meet ISO 22000 standard. [72068]
Caroline Flint: ISO 22000 accreditation is not required by Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs. The legal requirement is for a permanent procedure or procedures based on the hazard analysis and critical control point principles.
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what her assessment is of the British food industry's ability to comply with EU regulation 852/2004. [72158]
Caroline Flint: New hygiene legislation, including Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004, applied from 1 January 2006. It modernises, simplifies and consolidates the requirements previously contained in 17 European Union food hygiene directives. The United Kingdom negotiated for flexible legislation that enables businesses to apply effective, proportionate risk-based controls to protect consumer health. The Food Standards Agency has provided guidance and support to industry and food enforcement bodies to ensure that industry's ability to meet the requirements is maintained.
Funding (Northamptonshire)
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the capital expenditure on the (a) breast screening unit, (b) chest pain clinic, (c) intensive treatment unit, (d) stroke unit, (e) secure mental health unit, (f) integrated surgery unit and (g) orthopaedic theatres in Northamptonshire has been since 1997; [70815]
(2) what the capital expenditure on health services in Northamptonshire was in each year between 1990 and 2005; [70819]
Andy Burnham: Information on capital expenditure by individual national health service organisations is not held centrally. The table shows total capital expenditure across the Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland Strategic Health Authority (SHA) area.
Health Care Products
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she will publish the responses to her Department's consultation on arrangements for the provision of dressings, incontinence appliances, stoma appliances, chemical re-agents and other appliances to primary and secondary care; and if she will make a statement. [72843]
Andy Burnham: A summary of responses to the consultation has been published. It can be found on the Department's website at: www.dh.gov.uk/Consultations/ResponsesToConsultations/fs/en.
This summary also sets out next steps.
Health Services (Essex)
Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many full-time equivalent nursing posts there are at Essex Rivers Healthcare Trust; how many are filled by agency staff; how many such posts were filled by agency staff on average in each of the past five years; and if she will make a statement. [68889]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The number of hospital and community health services qualified nurses employed at Essex Rivers Healthcare Trust for the last five years for which data is available is:
| Number | |
The Department does not collect data in relation to the numbers of agency staff directly employed in the NHS. However, the Department does collect details of expenditure information on non-NHS staff.
The table shows the total nursing, midwifery and health visiting spend on agency staff for Essex Rivers Healthcare Trust for the previous five years.
| Agency nurse spend (£ million) | Total NHS nurse spend (£ million) | Percentage Agency of total nurse spend | |
Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many consultants per capita there were in Essex in each year since 1997; what the national average was in each year; and if she will make a statement. [68892]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The table shows the number of medical and dental consultants by organisation within Essex strategic health authority area per head of population and the average for England for each year since 1997 to 2005, which is the latest data available.
| Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) : medical and dental consultants by organisation within Essex SHA and England , as at 30 September 2005 | ||||||||||
| Number (headcount) and number per population( 1) | ||||||||||
| 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | ||
| (1) 2004 population figures from the 2001 ONS resident estimates have been used for 2005 calculations, as population figures for 2005 at organisation level are not yet available, this figure is therefore subject to change. Source: The Information Centre for health and social care medical and dental workforce census 2001 ONS Population Census |
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