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26 Jan 2009 : Column 218Wcontinued
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent assessment he has made of the potential contribution of energy generation from domestic waste towards meeting the UKs renewable energy targets. [247903]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: In its consultation on a renewable energy strategy, published in June 2008, the Government reported that an estimated 9 million tonnes of waste food, and 6 million tonnes of waste wood, were landfilled each year, with a combined energy value of 42 TWh. Very approximately half of the food waste and one fifth of the wood are thought to come from household sources.
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent representations he has received on the full inclusion of plastics in the Renewable Obligations Certificate system. [247902]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: There is no record of any such representations.
Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what percentage of the rebate for contractors participating in the Warm Front Scheme is withheld for administration costs. [248314]
Joan Ruddock: The rebate scheme, which began in 2006, provides pensioners who do not qualify for assistance under the Warm Front Scheme with a £300 voucher which may be used for heating work. All installers must be registered with Eaga plc., who administer the scheme on DECCs behalf.
Each voucher comprises a £50 administrative charge which will be deducted from the payment made to the installer when they submit a voucher for payment.
Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change when he expects Wylfa nuclear power station to cease to generate electricity. [249981]
Mr. Mike O'Brien [ holding answer 21 January 2009]: The current closure date for generation at Wylfa is April 2010. However, I am advised by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority that there are improving prospects of running the nuclear power station beyond its scheduled closure date. The NDAs current planning assumption is that the plant will be able to generate until December 2010 and they expect shortly to seek the appropriate regulatory approval to extend generation to this date. I am further advised that there may be opportunities to extend generation beyond this date and that the options are being studied closely to ensure that this opportunity is maintained.
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will introduce an oral swab for diagnosing acquired immune deficiency syndrome to effect rapid diagnosis. [250128]
Dawn Primarolo: Testing for HIV antibodies using oral swabs is available in England as a point of care test, used in particular outside health care settings. Results are not as reliable as tests using blood, and any individual testing positive using an oral swab test would be referred for confirmatory testing in a genito-urinary medicine clinic.
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average recorded ambulance response time for (a) the town of Bridlington and (b) England was in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [250725]
Mr. Bradshaw: Information on average ambulance response times is not collected centrally. Data on performance against ambulance response time targets at ambulance trust level are published annually by the Information Centre in the statistical bulletin Ambulance Services England. The latest bulletin, Ambulance Services, England 2007-08, has already been placed in the Library and is available at the following link:
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of people with aphasia in (a) England, (b) the North East, (c) the Tees Valley and (d) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland. [249846]
Ann Keen: We have made no estimate of the number of people with aphasia.
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what information his Department holds on the incidence of (a) asthma and (b) asthma in children; and if he will publish details of the incidence of asthma by parliamentary constituency; [249780]
(2) what information his Department holds on the incidence of asthma at (a) council ward level, (b) polling district and (c) other level of disaggregation; and if he will make a statement. [249781]
Ann Keen: Information on the incidence of asthma is not collected centrally.
Kelvin Hopkins:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to ensure that manual therapies recommended in draft guidance
issued by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence for the treatment of lower back pain are available on the NHS. [249551]
Dawn Primarolo: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has not yet published its final clinical guideline on the acute management of patients with chronic (longer than six weeks) non-specific low back pain. In the absence of NICE guidance, we expect local national health service organisations to decide which treatments they will fund based on the available evidence.
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the national communication campaign to improve the publics understanding of units of alcohol in relation to cancer risk factors; and how much longer he expects the campaign to continue. [248456]
Dawn Primarolo: The national communications campaign to improve the publics understanding of units of alcohol, launched in May 2008, featured two phases. The campaign messages were delivered across television, press, outdoor, radio and online channels. Phase 1 focused on improving peoples knowledge of how many units of alcohol are in the alcoholic drinks they consume, while phase 2 focused on improving peoples understanding of the link between their alcohol consumption and their health.
Initial assessment of the campaign shows that there is an increased agreement, from 77 to 82 per cent. that we tend to drink more than is good for us. This has clearly been influenced by the campaign as for those aware of the campaign, this figure rises to 85 per cent., while for those not aware of the campaign, this figure is 72 per cent.
The second wave of campaign tracking will be available shortly and may provide more information on how the campaign has improved the publics understanding of alcohol-related health risks.
We intend that this campaign should be sustained over a number of years. The units campaign will continue in 2009-10, with the key tasks to optimise the units messaging and to communicate the health harms associated with drinking to higher risk groups.
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many copies of the consultation document have been downloaded from the website of the Care Quality Commission since its consultation on proposals for reviews in 2009-10 was launched. [248563]
Mr. Bradshaw: The chair of the Care Quality Commission has informed us that the software supporting the operation of the commission's interim website does not support the monitoring of the number of downloads. It is therefore not possible to provide this information at present. The commission is exploring a wide range of mechanisms including the website to provide these data for 2009-10.
John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people were diagnosed with Alzheimers disease and dementia in each year from 2000 to 2008. [249419]
Phil Hope: The National Audit Office report Improving services and support for people with dementia estimated that approximately two thirds of people with dementia do not receive a formal diagnosis or have contact with specialist services at any time in their illness.
The Department does not have data on the number of people diagnosed with Alzheimers and dementia in each year from 2000 to 2008. However, for 2006-07 and 2007-08 the General Practitioner Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) has recorded the number of people with a diagnosis of dementia but this does not distinguish between Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia.
The publication Revisions to the GMS Contract 2006-07, produced by NHS Employers, states that Alzheimers disease accounts for 50-75 per cent. of
cases of dementia so the count of patients with dementia gives an indication of the number with Alzheimers disease.
In 2006-07, there were 212,794 and in 2007-08, there were 220,246 people with a diagnosis of dementia, as recorded on practice disease registers in England.
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on how many occasions in the last 12 months each of his Department's Ministers visited (a) an NHS dentist, (b) a private dentist and (c) an optometrist as part of their official duties. [246792]
Mr. Bradshaw: As part of their official duties, departmental Ministers visit a wide variety of health centres and practices meeting a number of dental and optical professionals. The following visits occurred during the period January-December 2008.
Visits by each Minister to dental practices or centres in the last 12 months are shown in the following table.
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children have received dental treatment under the NHS in each primary care trust in England in each of the last 12 months. [250175]
Ann Keen: The information is not available in the format requested. Information is available on the number of child patients seen by a national health service dentist in the previous 24 months in England is available in table D7 of annex 3 of the NHS Dental Statistics, Q1 2008-09 report. Information is provided by primary care trust and strategic health authority. Information is available as at quarterly intervals, from 31 March 2006 to 30 June 2008.
This report has already been placed in the Library and is also available on the NHS Information Centre website at:
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS dentists there were per head of population in (a) England and (b) each region in each year since 1997. [250176]
Ann Keen: The number of persons per national health service dentist in England as at 31 March, 1997 to 2006 is available in annex F of the NHS Dental Activity and Workforce Report, England: 31 March 2006 report. Information is available by strategic health authority (SHA) and primary care trust (PCT).
This measure relates to the number of NHS dentists recorded on PCT lists as at 31 March each year. This information is based on the old contractual arrangements which were in place up to and including 31 March 2006. This report has already been placed in the Library and is also available on the NHS Information Centre website at:
Information on population per NHS dentist and NHS dentists per 100,000 population, during the years ending 31 March, 2007 and 2008 is available in table G1 of annex 3 of the NHS Dental Statistics for England: 2007/08 report. This information is based on the new dental contractual arrangements. This report has already been placed in the Library and is also available on the NHS Information Centre website at:
The count of dentists is based on a revised methodology and therefore supersedes previously published workforce figures relating to the new dental contractual arrangements. It is not comparable to the information collected under the old contractual arrangements. The revised methodology counts the number of dental performers with NHS activity recorded via FP17 claim forms in each year ending 31 March.
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of the population was treated by a dentist under the NHS in each primary care trust area in each strategic health authority in (a) 2006, (b) 2007 and (c) 2008. [250306]
Ann Keen: Under the new dental contractual arrangements, introduced on 1 April 2006, patients do not have to be registered with a national health service dentist to receive NHS care. The closest equivalent measure to registration is the number of patients receiving NHS dental services (patients seen) over a 24-month period. However, this is not directly comparable to the registration data for earlier years.
The number of patients seen in the previous 24 months in England, as at quarterly intervals, from 31 March 2006 to 30 June 2008 is available in Table D3 of Annex 3 of the NHS Dental Statistics, Q1 2008-09 report. Information is provided by primary care trust and strategic health authority.
This report has already been placed in the Library and is also available on the NHS Information Centre website at:
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