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28 Feb 2008 : Column 1878W—continued


Alcoholic Drinks: Labelling

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will bring forward proposals to introduce a standard labelling regime for alcoholic products, with particular reference to (a) alcohol content in units and (b) guidelines for daily alcohol consumption. [190201]


28 Feb 2008 : Column 1879W

Dawn Primarolo: The Government announced in May 2007 that that they had reached a ground-breaking agreement with the alcohol industry, meaning that, by the end of 2008, most alcoholic drinks labels should include alcohol unit information and the daily sensible drinking guidelines. This agreement is United Kingdom-wide.

In addition, the Government also announced revised wording on the advice on sensible drinking information on labels for pregnant women or those women who are trying to conceive. Although this is not formally part of the voluntary agreement that has been reached with the industry, it is being strongly encouraged to implement the pregnancy advice.

‘Safe. Sensible. Social. - the next steps in the National Alcohol Strategy’, published in June 2007, includes a commitment by the Government to consult by the end of 2008 on possible legislative options should insufficient progress by the industry have been made then.

Alcoholic Drinks: Marketing

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had on the introduction of a statutory code of practice on the marketing of alcohol. [190200]

Dawn Primarolo: The regulation of alcohol advertising in the United Kingdom is currently a mix of statutory regulation and co-regulation. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is responsible for enforcing the current rules.

Ofcom and the ASA jointly published ‘Young People and Alcohol Advertising’ in November 2007, a research report on the impact of alcohol advertising on young people following the tightening of the advertising codes in October 2005.

Broadly the research showed that the revised rules on alcohol advertising have ensured that fewer young people feel that television advertisements are aimed at them.

In January 2008, the Department commissioned an independent national review, by the School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield, of the evidence on how and in what circumstances price, advertising and other forms of promotion drive overall consumption of alcohol and alcohol-related harm. This will report in summer 2008.


28 Feb 2008 : Column 1880W

Depending upon the findings of this review, the Government have made it clear that they are prepared to consider strengthened controls, including, if necessary, legislation.

Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answer of 9 January 2008, Official Report, column 575W, on alcoholic drinks: misuse, (1) if he will break down the information provided by the sex of those admitted; [186989]

(2) how many children aged (a) under eight, (b) eight to 12, (c) 13 to 16 and (d) 17 to 18 years were admitted to accident and emergency departments in each strategic health authority area in England as a result of drinking alcohol in the last (i) 12 months and (ii) five years, broken down by sex. [186992]

Dawn Primarolo: The information requested is not available in the format requested.

Such information as is available for the 10 new strategic health authorities formed on 1 July 2006 has been placed in the Library.

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many admissions to hospital with an alcohol-related diagnosis via accident and emergency departments there were in (a) the former Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Strategic Health Authority area, (b) the East of England Strategic Health Authority area, (c) the West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust area and (d) the Suffolk Primary Care Trust area in each year since 1997; [Official Report, 19 May 2008, Vol. 476, c. 2MC.] [187614]

(2) how many admissions to hospital with an alcohol-related diagnosis via accident and emergency departments involving children under the age of 18 years there were in (a) the former Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Strategic Health Authority area, (b) the East of England Strategic Health Authority area, (c) the West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust area and (d) the Suffolk Primary Care Trust area in each year since 1997. [187617]

Dawn Primarolo: The following table shows finished in-year admission episodes where the patient was admitted via accident and emergency departments with an alcohol-related primary or secondary diagnosis. This is broken down by age and by the patient’s primary care trust (PCT) and strategic health authority (SHA) of residence and West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust. The latest available data are for 2006-07.


28 Feb 2008 : Column 1881W

28 Feb 2008 : Column 1882W
East of England SHA area( 1) of residence Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SHA of residence Suffolk PCT area of residence West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust
Under 18 18 and over n/k Under 18 18 and over n/k Under 18 18 and over n/k Under 18 18 and over n/k

2006-07

497

9,522

6

203

4,700

*

37

1,124

*

13

562

*

2005-06

485

8,970

*

242

4,357

*

50

924

*

22

388

*

2004-05

538

7,945

*

258

3,680

*

85

1,315

*

37

377

*

2003-04

498

6,682

*

235

3,461

*

83

953

*

29

331

*

2002-03

440

5,223

*

196

2,607

*

61

850

*

15

267

*

2001-02

458

5,006

*

196

2,463

*

83

663

*

18

236

*

2000-01

432

4,776

51

207

2,267

48

66

617

*

18

207

*

1999-2000

487

4,901

*

212

2,423

*

57

612

*

16

181

*

1998-99

410

4,636

7

188

2,316

*

55

598

*

8

184

*

1997-98

467

4,824

*

208

2,293

*

58

559

*

17

179

*

Total

—

—

67,287

—

—

32,771

—

—

8,852

—

—

3,107

(1) East of England SHA area includes the following historic organisations:
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire SHA
Essex SHA
Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SHA.
Notes:
Finished in-year admissions:
A finished in-year admission is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one health care provider, excluding admissions beginning before 1 April at the start of the data year. Admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year.
Data Quality:
HES are compiled from data sent by over 300 national health service trusts and 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.
Assessing growth through time:
HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards, During the years that these records have been collected, the NHS there have been ongoing improvements in quality and coverage. These improvements in information submitted by the NHS have been particularly marked in the earlier years and need to be borne in mind when analysing time series.
Changes in NHS practice also need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. For example, a number of procedures may now be undertaken in out-patient settings and may no longer be accounted in the HES data. This may account for any reductions in activity over time.
All Diagnoses count of Mentions:
These figures represent a count of all mentions of a diagnosis in any of the 14 diagnosis fields in the HES data set. Therefore, if a diagnosis is mentioned in more than one diagnosis field during an episode, all diagnoses are counted.
Diagnosis Codes Used:
F10 - Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol
K70 - Alcoholic liver disease
T51 - Toxic effect of Alcohol
Ungrossed Data:
Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (i.e. the data are ungrossed).
Low Numbers:
Due to reasons of confidentiality, figures between 0 and 5 have been suppressed and replaced with “*” (an asterisk).
PCT and SHA Data Quality:
PCT and SHA data were added to historic data years in the HES database using 2002-03 boundaries, as a one-off exercise in 2004. The quality of the data on PCT of treatment and SHA of treatment is poor in 1996-97, 1997-98 and 1998-99, with over a third of all finished episodes having missing values in these years. Data quality of PCT of general practitioner (GP) practice and SHA of GP practice in 1997-98 and 1998-99 is also poor, with a high proportion missing values where practices changed or ceased to exist. There is less change in completeness of the residence-based fields over time, where the majority of unknown values are due to missing postcodes on birth episodes. Users of time series analysis including these years need to be aware of these issues in their interpretation of the data.
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), the Information Centre for health and social care.

Ambulance Services

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to collect centrally information on the numbers of ambulances operating in each (a) constituency and (b) region. [189600]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Department has no current plans to collect centrally information on the numbers of ambulances operating in each constituency and region. Each ambulance service should plan to provide appropriate resources to meet local demand.

Ambulance Services: East Riding

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the response times of the Yorkshire Ambulance Service were in the East Riding of Yorkshire for each of the last two years, broken down by postcode. [189456]

Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is not collected centrally. The information of percentage of response within targets set is collected but is available only at Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust level. This information is available in the Library and at:

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