Previous Section Index Home Page

23 Jun 2008 : Column 100W—continued

Terrorism: Detainees

Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department where suspects are held under the provisions of counter-terrorism legislation in pre-charge detention; whether they are allowed to see family visitors; whether they are allowed access to print, visual and online media; and if she will make a statement. [211480]

Mr. McNulty: PACE code H which covers the detention, treatment and questioning by police officers of persons under section 41 of, and schedule 8 to, the Terrorism Act 2000 states that:


23 Jun 2008 : Column 101W

These codes can be found at:

UK Border Agency: Stationery

Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much the UK Border Agency and its predecessors spent on (a) branded and (b) non-branded stationery in each year since 1997. [212355]

Mr. Byrne: Annual spend by the UK Border Agency and its predecessors is included within the Department's expenditure on (a) branded and (b) non-branded stationery. For information on the Department's expenditure on these items, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 12 June 2008, Official R eport, column 471W. Discrete spend for the UK Border Agency and its predecessors on (a) branded and (b) non-branded stationery was not separately recorded and to provide this information would incur disproportionate cost.

Work Permits

Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many holders of work permits were given indefinite leave to remain in the UK in each of the last 10 years. [212858]

Mr. Byrne [holding answer 20 June 2008]: The requested information on work permit holders granted indefinite leave to remain (settlement) is published in Table 5.3 in the Home Office Command Paper ‘Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom 2006’ which is available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics website at:

Data for 2007 are due to be published in August.

Written Questions: Government Responses

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she plans to answer Question 203949 tabled on 30 April 2008, on counter-terrorism. [208837]

Mr. McNulty [holding answer 5 June 2008]: I replied to my right hon. Friend on 16 June 2008, Official Report, columns 685-86W.

Health

Accident and Emergency Departments: Crimes of Violence

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many accident and emergency staff were
23 Jun 2008 : Column 102W
hospitalised as a result of being assaulted while on duty in each of the last three years, broken down by region. [211326]

Ann Keen: This information is not available centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

For information on reported physical assaults I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley) on 14 May 2008, Official Report, column 1654W.

Air Ambulance Services

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 16 June 2008, Official Report, column 744W, on air ambulance services, which air ambulance personnel may be classified as qualified clinical staff. [213261]

Mr. Bradshaw: It is our understanding that clinical staffing arrangements on air ambulances vary considerably from charity to charity, with different combinations of paramedics, doctors, and technicians on board. It will be for the national health service and air ambulance charities to agree which staff should be funded by the NHS.

Alcoholic Drinks: Health Education

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been spent on the Know Your Limits campaign; and what (a) mechanisms, (b) baselines and (c) targets have been established to measure the effectiveness of the campaign. [207033]

Dawn Primarolo: On 19 May 2008, the Government launched the first major advertising campaign to raise awareness about units and to help people to estimate how much alcohol they drink. The Government will spend £10 million this year on national alcohol campaigns.

We have a number of tools in place to evaluate the effectiveness of the Know Your Limits (KYL) campaign:

Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse

Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health in how many primary care trusts in (a) Cambridgeshire and (b) the east of England are the Models of Care for Alcohol Misusers best practice guidelines being implemented; and if he will make a statement. [213090]


23 Jun 2008 : Column 103W

Mr. Bradshaw: This information is not centrally held.

The responsibility for implementing Models of Care for Alcohol Misusers (MoCAM) lies with individual primary care trusts. The hon. Member may therefore wish to raise this locally.

Ambulance Services: Fuels

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has received on the supply of fuel to ambulances during the strike by fuel supply drivers. [212159]

Mr. Bradshaw: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has received only one representation on the subject of fuel for ambulances during the fuel tanker drivers' strike. This was a parliamentary question received from the hon. Member.

Antidepressants

Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research has been carried out by his Department to establish the long-term effects of Prozac and related drugs on mental health. [211264]

Dawn Primarolo: The Department has not commissioned research into the long-term effects of Prozac and other related drugs on mental health.

Cancer: Drugs

Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what unit cost the NHS pays for the drug cetuximab; what price for cetuximab it charges patients being seen privately in an NHS setting; and what estimate he has made of the full market price per unit. [210471]

Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 12 June 2008]: As listed in the “British National Formulary”, hospitals purchasing cetuximab pay the following prices:

£

100 milligram (mg)/50 millilitre (ml) vial

136.50

100 mg/20 ml vial

136.50

500 mg/100 ml vial

682.50


The Department does not hold information on charges made by the national health service to private patients.

Care Quality Commission

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what powers he plans for the Care Quality Commission to have to conduct topic-based studies into specific aspects of health and social care. [212189]

Mr. Bradshaw: Clause 44 of the Health and Social Care Bill makes provision for the Care Quality Commission to carry out special reviews and investigations.


23 Jun 2008 : Column 104W

Carers

Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the health impact on carers of balancing work with care responsibilities; if he will assess the merits of the introduction of a care voucher scheme, similar to that in operation for child care; and if he will make a statement. [162409]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: In April 2003, the Government introduced a new right for parents of children up to six and disabled children up to 18, to request flexible working and put a duty on the employer to consider their request seriously. The Work and Families Act 2006 extended this right to carers of adults from April 2007. Most carers will be given the right to request to vary their contract of employment to enable them more flexibility to carry out their out of work responsibilities.

Last week, we published the new cross-government carers’ strategy. This included significant new measures to enable carers to be better able to combine paid employment with their caring role through enhanced flexible working opportunities and increased skills training opportunities. The strategy announced some £38 million of new investment to help deliver these commitments.

We will be working with employers to develop and disseminate a good practice guide for supporting carers in the workplace—a guide that will not only considerably help individual carers themselves, but which will also point up the strong economic argument for enabling employers to retain the valuable skills that their employees have developed over time.

Carers: Wales

Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with his counterpart in the Welsh Assembly Government on the implementation of the National Carers Strategy. [211942]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The health, social care and young carer elements in the National Carers Strategy—‘Carers at the heart of 21st century families and communities: A caring system on your side. A life of your own’, are relevant to the England only—although all issues pertaining to benefits and income are applicable United Kingdom-wide. Copies of this publication are available in the Library. We are working closely with all our partners in the devolved Administrations who are also reviewing their policies and strategies around carers.

CJD

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department has commissioned or evaluated on (a) the origins, (b) a cure and (c) the potential incubation period of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. [211954]

Dawn Primarolo: In 1990 the Department established the National Surveillance Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Unit (NCJDSU), which we continue to fund. The NCJDSU monitors all cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in the United Kingdom in order to investigate each case
23 Jun 2008 : Column 105W
by clinical examination, clinical investigations, neuropathological examination, genetic analysis, molecular biological studies, collecting basic epidemiological data and carrying out a case-control study to:

The NCJDSU's annual reports which include evaluations of the origin and potential incubation period of vCJD are available at

The Department also has a ring-fenced budget for commissioning variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease research. The funded programme of current studies and projects, including those studies which are complete and await formal closure, includes the following of relevance to origins, cure and incubation period:

Project title

Past studies commissioned by the Department are included in the Medical Research Council's (MRCs) UK TSE Portfolio which is available at:


Next Section Index Home Page