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13 Oct 2008 : Column 850W—continued
Members: Allowances
Mr. Allen: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what estimate has been made of the effect on paper usage by the Department of Resources of meeting freedom of information requests in respect of the publication of hon. Members' reimbursements; how many person hours this work has involved; and what the total cost of this operation has been to date. [224146]
Nick Harvey: There has been no discernable effect on paper usage by the Department of Resources in relation to the preparing of allowance expenditure information from the years 2004-05 to the first quarter of 2008-09 for publication later this year. The records are being reproduced electronically and will be published on the internet. The work of preparing the information for publication is being undertaken by the Department of Resources and by an outside contractor under secure conditions. Within the Department of Resources approximately 2,660 person hours have been dedicated to the project. No record is held of person hours expended by the contractor. The overall cost to date of preparing the information for publication is approximately £600,000.
Nurseries
Lynne Jones: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what recent consideration has been given by the House authorities to the provision of crèche facilities on the parliamentary estate as an alternative option alongside the childcare voucher scheme for staff of hon. Members. [225978]
Nick Harvey: The provision of a crèche on the estate has not been considered since July 2003. Following a feasibility study and a survey of Members, the Commission weighed the options carefully and considered that most parents prefer younger children to be cared for at or near their home. Child care vouchers continue to be available for staff of hon. Members and staff of the House. Following suggestions that the voucher scheme be extended to Members, the Commission recently asked the Administration Committee to look at child care again and assess the level of demand among Members for any change to the current arrangements.
Official Report
Jo Swinson: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what the average cost of making the Official Report available online was per sitting day in the latest period for which figures are available. [223991]
Nick Harvey:
House of Commons printing and publishing charges, including electronic publication charges, are calculated in arrears by financial year. The Official Report is made available online as ‘Today in the Commons’, daily part text and bound volume text forms. For FY 2007-08, the average cost of making all of these forms available online was £1,100 per sitting day. Other costs
associated with the production of House Papers, particularly staff costs which are not attributed to individual forms of publications, are not included.
Jo Swinson: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what the average printing cost of the Official Report was per sitting day in the latest period for which figures are available. [223992]
Nick Harvey: House of Commons printing and publishing charges are calculated in arrears by financial year. The Official Report is made available in printed form as daily parts and bound volumes as well as weekly volumes; and indexes are also produced. Printing costs are not separately identifiable from the total overall charge raised by the contractor, for making copies of the Official Report available in the various forms and quantities required. For FY 2007-08, the average cost of making all the forms of the Official Report available in printed form in the total quantities required was £22,000 per sitting day.
Jo Swinson: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission how many copies of the Official Report were printed on average per sitting day in (a) each year from 1998 to 2007 and (b) 2008 to date. [223993]
Nick Harvey: The following figures for the average number of copies of the Official Report printed in each year from 1998 to 2007 have been provided by the House’s printer as follows:
| Copies | |
In 2008 to date, 1,339 copies have been printed on average per sitting day.
Palace of Westminster: Theft
Mr. Sanders: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission how many articles have been reported stolen from the Palace of Westminster in the last 12 months; and what those items were. [225374]
Nick Harvey: From the latest statistical information collected, there were nine reported thefts from the Palace of Westminster in the last 12 months. Detailed information is given as follows:
One computer laptop;
One digital camera;
One set of golf clubs;
One pair of candlesticks; and
Five amounts of cash, all under £100.
Parliament: Internet
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what guidelines govern the blocking of access to websites from the parliamentary network; and if he will place in the Library a list of all blocked websites. [224558]
Nick Harvey: The Administration Committee approved the introduction of web filtering for Members on 30 January 2007 on the basis of a recommendation from the Joint Committee on Security. They did so as part of Parliaments’ range of security measures designed to protect the parliamentary network and all its users from unauthorised access and viruses. The type of sites that are blocked relate to those that are associated with deploying or containing spyware, malware, phishing and other malicious content.
Members and staff have been notified of the process that they should follow if a site is incorrectly blocked or if they wish to view a site for research or other parliamentary purposes that has been blocked correctly.
No list is maintained within Parliament of individual websites that are blocked and the filtering service runs constantly to rate and block, if appropriate, new sites that appear on the web.
Health
Abortion
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research he has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the operation of the law relating to abortion. [225311]
Dawn Primarolo: The Department has not commissioned or evaluated any research evidence on the operation of the Abortion Act 1967, as amended.
I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Southend, West (Mr. Amess) on 1 July 2008, Official Report, column 839W.
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will commission an independent investigation into the operation of the law relating to abortion. [225937]
Dawn Primarolo: The Government keep up to date with all the latest evidence and developments in this area. For these reasons, the Government have no plan to set up an independent review.
Alcoholic Drinks: Young People
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many finished admission episodes where the admission method was via accident and emergency for an alcohol-related diagnosis there were in each NHS trust where the patient was (a) under 10, (b) between 11 and 15 and (c) between 16 and 18 years old in each of the last five years. [222800]
Dawn Primarolo:
Tables have been placed in the Library which give the number of finished admission episodes where the admission method was via accident and emergency for an alcohol-related diagnosis in each
NHS trust for the last five years where the patient was under 10, between 11 and 15 and between 16 and 18 years old.
Data concerning hospital admissions are collected, analysed and published by the Information Centre for health and social care (IC). The IC methodology represents a count of all finished admission episodes where one or more of the following three diagnoses was mentioned in any of the 14 diagnosis fields in a hospital episode statistics record:
mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol (F10);
alcoholic liver disease (K70); and
toxic effect of alcohol (T51).
The North West Public Health Observatory (NWPHO) have developed a new methodology for analysing data concerning alcohol-related hospital admissions. Following international best practice, the NWPHO methodology uses alcohol attributable fractions (AAFs). These AAFs consider a much wider range of diseases and injuries in which alcohol plays a part and estimate the proportion of cases that are attributable to the consumption of alcohol. This methodology is currently being finalised and figures will be made available in due course.
Health: Tourists
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what financial assistance is available to people who are travelling abroad to help them pay for essential medicines or injections; and if he will make a statement. [225985]
Dawn Primarolo: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State recommends that all United Kingdom residents intending to travel either within or outside of Europe, take out private travel insurance before they go. Within the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland, the European Health Insurance Card does entitle British tourists to treatment that may become necessary during their trip including maternity care, renal dialysis and managing the symptoms of pre-existing or chronic conditions. The UK also has reciprocal agreements with a limited number of non-EEA countries which provide UK residents with emergency treatment at a reduced cost or sometimes for free. However, neither of those provisions cover UK residents for all potential healthcare costs for example, repatriation back to the UK or private sector treatment.
Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what (a) financial and (b) other assistance his Department has given to the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV in each year since its inception; how much is planned for 2008-09; how many officials provide the secretariat for the advisory group; what the grade is of each; what restrictions his Department places on the use of such funds; and if he will make a statement. [225712]
Dawn Primarolo:
The Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV was established in 2003 to provide advice to government and to monitor the overall success of “Better prevention, Better Services, Better
Sexual Health: the National Strategy for Sexual Health and HIV”, published in 2001. Copies of this publication have already been placed in the Library. Departmental officials have a close relationship with the chair of the group and with members. The secretariat is provided by one official at higher executive officer level on a part-time basis. Departmental funding covers the chair’s salary, members’ fees and expenses, events and publications. The value of the financial assistance to the group since its establishment is set out in the following table. In addition to this, in 2007-08 £90,000 was provided to enable the Independent Advisory Group to commission a review of the Sexual Health and HIV Strategy. The review—“Progress and priorities—working together for high quality sexual health: Review of the National Strategy for Sexual Health and HIV” was published in July 2008, copies of this publication have been placed in the Library. We plan to allocate £150,000 to the group in the financial year 2008-09.
| Financial year | £ |
Medical Treatments: Lasers
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to introduce secondary legislation to deregulate Class 3B and 4 lasers and intense light sources. [225016]
Mr. Bradshaw: Following the responses to the “Private and Voluntary Healthcare Consultation: care Standards Act 2000. Regulations and national minimum standards consultation document”, (copies of which have already been placed in the Library) we are currently undertaking further detailed work in order to examine a range of different deregulatory options regarding lasers and lights.
NHS Direct: Translation Services
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) which non-English languages are offered to users of NHS Direct services; and what the total budgetary allocation for NHS Direct translation and language services is; [225324]
(2) what assessment he has made of the efficacy of NHS Direct translation and language services in providing equitable and accessible medical advice for non-English speakers. [225325]
Mr. Bradshaw: NHS Direct offers interpretation and translation services for all callers to telephone services through Language Line in the following languages:
Assamese
Azeri
Afrikaans
Algerian
Ashanti
Akan
Albanian
Amharic
Armenian
Arabic
Assyrian
Azerbaijani
Badini
Bengali
Burmese
Bajuni
Belorussian
Bosnian
Berber
Basque
Bulgarian
Brava
Brazilian
Cantonese
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