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23 Feb 2009 : Column 194W—continued
Action on Smoking and Health
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department has paid to Action on Smoking and Health in each of the last five years. [257356]
Dawn Primarolo: The Department's grants to Action on Smoking and Health are set out in the following table.
| Financial year | Grants (£) |
Alcoholism: Health Services
Bill Etherington: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what specialist training is available for general practitioners to ensure that primary care services respond to the health needs of patients presenting with severe alcohol dependency. [255316]
Dawn Primarolo: It is the responsibility of primary care trusts to ensure that their existing health care staff are well trained and provided with the opportunity to receive continuing professional development.
However, the Government are committed to actively supporting the training of undergraduate doctors, some of whom will go on to become general practitioners, in helping to reduce the harms that are attributable to alcohol misuse.
This will include ensuring that around 60,000 new doctors leaving medical training in England, over a 10 year period, will be able to deliver competent practice in both drug and alcohol misuse, including a clear focus on the recognition and the management of risky and harmful alcohol consumption.
We allocated £650,000 in 2008 for the developmental work medical schools will need to carry out, to embed such an integrated substance misuse curriculum into their own core teaching and training programmes. This funding will enable the first major tranche of medical schools to make the changes needed; with full roll-out across all schools over the following three years.
Allergies: Medical Treatments
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations he has received on the effective ban on desensitisation as a treatment for allergy; and if he will make a statement. [242399]
Dawn Primarolo: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has received five written inquiries and three telephone inquiries, one of which related directly to one of the written inquiries, concerning sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) products used for desensitisation to allergies.
These products are unlicensed medicinal products and importation from elsewhere in the European Economic Area requires prior notification to the MHRA by a licensed importer. Notifications are assessed for regulatory compliance and for known issues with safety and quality and the MHRA may object to importation. In 2005 the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM, now the Commission on Human Medicines, (CHM) advised the MHRA that they should not object to the importation of unlicensed pollen based SLIT products, provided they were for use in non-asthmatic adults under the supervision of NHS specialists with access to resuscitation equipment. On this basis, the MHRA will object to importation of all non-pollen based SLIT products.
The MHRA has recently become aware that certain unlicensed SLIT products have been imported into the United Kingdom without prior notification to the Agency. The importer has been instructed to cease importation and distribution.
The MHRA is encouraging importers to make appropriate notifications. Some have been received and assessed in line with the CSM advice, with non-objections to import issued for pollen based SLIT products. Non-pollen based SLIT products continue to attract objections to import.
Arun Community Hospital
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his policy is on the rebuilding of the Arun Community Hospital in Littlehampton. [256914]
Mr. Bradshaw: It is the responsibility of primary care trusts (PCTs) to plan, develop and improve health services for their local population. This is therefore a matter for West Sussex PCT, which is working to develop its business case in relation to the planned new facility in Littlehampton with the support of the South East Coast strategic health authority.
Autism: Essex
Mr. Newmark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much each primary care trust in Essex has spent on services for (a) adults and (b) children with autism in the last three years. [256844]
Phil Hope: The information requested is not held centrally. However, it is the responsibility of primary care trusts to ensure that the services they commission meet the needs of the communities that they serve. This includes the commissioning of services for those people with autism.
Biobank Initiative
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people have volunteered to participate in the Biobank initiative to date; and if he will make a statement. [257455]
Dawn Primarolo: As at 6pm on 17 February 2009, UK Biobank had recruited 258,542 people. It aims to recruit 500,000 people aged 40-69 who agree to be part of this important national resource for health research. It is on target to achieve this by mid-2010.
Blood: Contamination
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what (a) correspondence and (b) meetings his Department has with the inquiry team of the independent public inquiry into contaminated blood products (i) prior to and (ii) subsequent to the beginning of the inquiry; on which dates such meetings occurred; and if he will make a statement. [256698]
Dawn Primarolo: A search of departmental records shows approximately 50 items of correspondence between the Department and the Independent Inquiry into Contaminated Blood and Blood Products.
Only one piece of correspondence dates from before the start of the inquiry (27 March 2007). This was a letter from Lord Archer to the Secretary of State dated 16 February 2007.
Officials from the Department attended four meetings with the Inquiry. These took place on 25 April 2007, 19 September 2007, 18 February 2008 and 12 June 2008. No meetings were held prior to the start of the inquiry.
The following table shows the main correspondence between the Department and the Inquiry team. The remaining items consisted of e-mails discussing administrative arrangements relating to meetings and the delivery of documents.
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