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18 May 2007 : Column 1004W—continued
Wind Power: Reaps Moss
Janet Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether the application by Coronation Power to erect a windfarm on Reaps Moss will be subject to ministerial approval. [137994]
Malcolm Wicks: Coronation Power’s proposed Reaps Moss wind farm would have installed capacity of up to 12 MW in total. Therefore the planning application will not be determined by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 as the installed capacity does not exceed 50 MW. The planning application is currently being considered by Rossendale borough council and Calderdale metropolitan borough council.
Health
Abortion
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what guidance (a) her Department and (b) the Chief Medical Officer have issued since 1997 to primary care trusts on procedures for appointment of consultants to hospital posts with duties including (i) termination of pregnancy and (ii) advice on termination of pregnancy; if she will place in the Library copies of such guidance; and if she will make a statement; [135709]
(2) whether medical students are required to undertake duties involving termination of pregnancy as part of their training; whether section 4 of the Abortion Act 1967 applies in such circumstances; and if she will make a statement; [135713]
(3) what research has been (a) funded and (b) carried out by her Department into discrimination against (i) medical students and (ii) trainee doctors who have a conscientious objection to abortion in the last five years; and if she will make a statement; [135714]
(4) what monitoring of the guidance issued by the Chief Medical Officer in 1989 on appointment of consultants: termination of pregnancy, that no reference to termination of pregnancy duties is to be made in a job advertisement for a new consultant, her Department has (a) undertaken since 2006 and (b) plans to undertake in the next 12 months; and if she will make a statement. [135722]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department last issued guidance in 1994 in Health Service Guidelines HSG(94)39 ‘Appointment of doctors to hospital posts: termination of pregnancy’. These guidelines updated the guidance issued by the Chief Medical Officer in 1989. Copies are available in the Library.
The Department checks job advertisements for hospital posts that might involve abortion on a regular basis. In addition, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists checks the job advertisements and reviews every job description. The guideline states if certain conditions have been satisfied, reference to termination of pregnancy should be included in the job description for career posts.
Section 4 of the Abortion Act 1967 allows doctors to opt out of participating in any treatment for abortion to which they have a conscientious objection. As such, medical students are not required to undertake termination of pregnancy as part of their training but they are taught theory and implications of the Abortion Act.
The House of Lords ruled in 1988 that this exemption does not extend to giving advice, performing the preparatory steps to arrange an abortion where the request meets legal requirements and undertaking administration connected with abortion procedures.
No research has been funded or carried out by the Department in the last five years on discrimination against medical students or trainee doctors who have a conscientious objection to abortion. We have no plans to do so as we have no evidence to suggest that this is an issue.
Care Workers
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 7 February 2007, Official Report, column 1016W, on care workers, which councils had not completed the task force recommendations (a) mostly and (b) in full. [131902]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Department’s task force on violence and abuse against social workers reported in 2000, and made a number of recommendations for employers, including that they should undertake a service and training needs analyses in this respect, and put in place and implement actions plans where required. The latest data collected by the Commission for Social Care Inspection from local councils for April 2005 indicate that more than 80 per cent. of councils had completed the taskforce recommendations mostly or in full. The data have not been collected for more recent years and therefore should be treated with caution as a statement of the current situation.
At that time, around half all councils had completed the tasks set by the task force.
The following two councils were classified as having not yet:
Bracknell Forest; and
Lambeth.
The following 18 councils had completed some tasks:
Brent;
Coventry;
Dudley;
Gloucestershire;
Halton;
Hertfordshire;
Lewisham;
Newham;
North East Lincolnshire;
Oldham;
Poole;
Reading;
Sefton;
Slough;
Southend-on-sea;
Sunderland;
Thurrock; and
Trafford.
The following 54 had completed most tasks:
Bedfordshire;
Bexley;
Bolton;
Bournemouth;
Brighton;
Buckinghamshire;
Bury;
Calderdale;
Cambridgeshire;
Camden;
City of London;
Coventry;
Cumbria;
Derby;
Durham;
Ealing;
East Riding of Yorkshire;
Essex;
Gateshead;
Hackney;
Hammersmith and Fulham;
Hampshire;
Harrow;
Hartlepool;
Havering;
Islington;
Kingston-upon-Thames;
Leicester;
Leicestershire;
Liverpool;
Manchester;
Merton;
Milton Keynes;
North Lincolnshire;
North Somerset;
Northumberland;
Plymouth;
Portsmouth;
Rochdale;
Rutland;
Sandwell;
Solihull;
Southwark;
Stockport;
Suffolk;
Surrey;
Sutton;
Swindon;
Torbay;
Tower Hamlets;
Waltham Forest;
Warrington;
Wokingham; and
Wolverhampton.
Childbirth
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of mothers spent (a) less than one day, (b) one day, (c) two days, (d) three days, (e) four days, (f) five days, (g) six days, (h) seven days and (i) eight days or more in hospital after giving birth in each year since 1995 for which records are available. [136527]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The information requested is set out in the following table.
| NHS hospital deliveries: duration of postnatal stay, 1995-96 to 2005-06, England | |||||||||||
| Percentage | |||||||||||
| Total number of deliveries( 1) (=100%) | Same day | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 or more | ||
| (1) Number of deliveries were taken from ONS birth registration data. Notes: 1. Figures used to calculate percentages have been adjusted for shortfalls in data. It is probable that there are duplicates included in these counts, which we have not removed. There may also be a variety of errors due to coding inconsistencies that have not yet been investigated and corrected. 2. Episode type: 2 = Delivery episode; 5 = Other delivery event 3. Data Quality: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) are compiled from data sent by over 300 NHS trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) in England. The Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data via HES processes. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) The Information Centre for health and social care | |||||||||||
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