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14 Nov 2007 : Column 281W—continued
Vocational Training
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will make a statement on his Department’s plans to place new duties on employers in relation to education and training for young people between the ages of 16 and 18 years. [163324]
Jim Knight: We will legislate through the Education and Skills Bill, announced in the Queen’s Speech last week, to require all young people to continue in education or training until the age of 18, from 2015. There will be no duties on employers if they employ a 16 or 17-year-old for less than 20 hours a week, or if they provide accredited training. If they employ a young person for more than that, without training, the young person will need to provide evidence that they are in learning before they can start employment, and the employer will need to check this. The employer will also need to release the young person from work for the equivalent of a day each week so that they can train elsewhere, and will not be required to pay them for this time.
The Secretary of State and I published the document “Raising Expectations: staying in education and training post-16—From policy to legislation” on 5 November. This sets out our plans to raise the participation age and the aspects that require a change in the law. Copies have been placed in the Library of the House.
Innovation, Universities and Skills
Departmental Manpower
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many and what proportion of his departmental staff were previously employed by other departments, broken down by the other departments concerned. [161932]
Mr. Lammy: The Department was created as part of the machinery of government changes announced on 28 June 2007. The change involved the transfer of 536 staff from the Department for Education and Skills (a proportion of 69 per cent. of the staff) and 243 staff from the Department of Trade and Industry (31 per cent. of staff).
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what proportion of staff formerly employed by the Department for Education and Skills is now employed by his Department. [162817]
Mr. Lammy: 69 per cent. of staff in the Department were formerly employed in the Department for Education and Skills.
Departmental Pay
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills if he will list the 10 highest salaries paid by his Department and its predecessor since January 2007. [161908]
Mr. Lammy: The Department was created as a result of the machinery of government changes in June.
The top 10 highest paid salaries for staff transferring to the new Department are detailed in the following table.
| £ | |
| Number | Annual salary |
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what the total wage cost was of his Department's predecessor in 1997; and what it is expected to be for his Department in 2007. [161909]
Mr. Lammy: The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) came into existence this year and we are, therefore, unable to provide total wage costs back to 1997. We estimate that the total paybill outturn for DIUS in 2007-08 will be around £47million.
Health
Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the incidence of serious alcohol dependency in the general population was in each of the last 10 years; and what the expenditure was on treatment and rehabilitation for people dependent on alcohol outside the criminal justice system over the same period. [162874]
Dawn Primarolo: The information requested is not collected centrally. The Alcohol Needs Assessment Research Project published in November 2005, found that in 2003-04, a total of £217 million was being invested by the national health service and local authorities in specialist alcohol treatment. In that year, 63,000 people received treatment for alcohol-related disorders and around 1.1 million people were actually dependent on alcohol.
Animal Experiments
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will hold discussions with wholesale manufacturers of health products to introduce mandatory labelling for products that have been (a) tested on animals and (b) not tested on animals. [162034]
Dawn Primarolo: The Government have no plans to meet with pharmaceutical companies to discuss this issue.
Medical Devices are regulated under the Medical Devices Regulations 2002 which transpose three main European Union medical devices directives into UK law. The regulations control the first placing on the market and/ or putting into service of medical devices by manufacturers. The directives place various labelling requirements on medical device manufacturers but these do not include the requirement to indicate whether the device was tested on animals or not. To make such a requirement mandatory would require a change to European legislation.
Campylobacter
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the transmission routes of (a) campylobacter and (b) listeria in the human population. [162912]
Dawn Primarolo: Published figures on trends in indigenous foodborne disease and deaths in England and Wales, 1992-2000(1) include estimates that 80 per cent. of Campylobacter and 99 per cent. of Listeria monocytogenes infections in humans are foodborne.
Laboratory confirmed Campylobacter and Listeria monocytogenes human infections are monitored as part of the Food Standards Agency’s strategy to reduce foodborne disease.
Source:
(1) Adak GK, Long SM, O’Brien S. Trends in indigenous foodborne disease and deaths, England and Wales:1992 to 2000. Gut 2002;51:832-841.
Cancer: Screening
Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the attendance rate for (a) breast cancer, (b) cervical cancer and (c) bowel cancer screening in each year since 2000 was, broken down by primary care trust. [164036]
Ann Keen [holding answer 13 November 2007]: The information requested has been placed in the Library.
Chiropody
Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) whether NHS chiropody services are defined as health care; [164247]
(2) if the Government will make an assessment of standards of chiropody services provided by primary care trusts. [164248]
Ann Keen: Chiropody services provided by the national health service are health care.
There are no plans to carry out a central assessment of chiropody services. It is for primary care trusts in partnership with local stakeholders to determine how best to use their funds to meet national and local priorities for improving health, outlined in the national service frameworks and to commission services accordingly. This process provides the means for addressing local needs within the health community, including the provision of chiropody.
Dental Services
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with the General Dental Council on whether dental bleaching may be carried out by qualified hygienists or qualified dental auxiliaries after training by a dentist (a) in a surgery and (b) at a patient's home using surgery-supplied equipment. [163050]
Ann Keen [holding answer 12 November 2007]: Under the policy of successive governments that healthcare professions like medicine and dentistry should be self-regulating, the General Dental Council (GDC) is independent of Government. I understand that the GDC considers that tooth whitening constitutes the practice of dentistry and that only registered dentists are suitably trained and competent to carry it out. Dental professionals are required to practice within their respective professional boundaries and to only undertake work which they are trained and competent to do. Any registrant who undertakes work for which they are not sufficiently competent risks fitness to practice proceedings. However, I also understand that the General Dental Council is currently reviewing the scope of practice of dentists and dental care professionals and expects to consult on its proposals in 2008.
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what changes to the system of dental contracts the NHS Dental Contract Implementation Group have introduced in the last 12 months; and what changes they plan to introduce in the next 12 months. [163051]
Ann Keen [holding answer 12 November 2007]: The Implementation Review Group (IRG) is an external key stakeholder group set up by Ministers to monitor and provide feedback to the Department on the implementation of the reforms. It is for the Department rather than the IRG or any other external stakeholder group to make or plan policy changes.
The role of IRG, which is chaired by the chief dental officer and includes representatives of the dental profession, citizens' organisations and the national health service, is to ensure that key stakeholders have an appropriate collective voice in discussions with the Department on the dental system.
Departmental Board
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the (a) dates, (b) locations and (c) costs were of the last four away days of his Department’s Departmental Board. [162250]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is set out in the table as follows.
| Date | Location | Cost (including VAT) (£) |
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