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1 Apr 2009 : Column 1214W—continued
| Table A | |
| £ million | |
| Table B | |
| £ million | |
Video Games: Advertising
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when he expects a revised code on advertising video games to be published. [267889]
Barbara Follett [holding answer 30 March 2009]: The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) set up a working group to look at industry's codes for advertising in autumn 2008. Following that, a compliance survey carried out by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) showed that video games advertisements had a 99 per cent. compliance rate with the regulations. The existing guidelines were therefore found to be sufficient.
On 26 March 2009 the ASA published a consultation on a review of its own codes for broadcast and non-broadcast advertising. This proposes a restriction to prevent adverts for age-restricted computer and console games appearing around TV programmes likely to appeal to children. Once this consultation is complete and new codes are in place, ELSPA will reassess industry guidelines to ensure they are still fit for purpose.
Health
Cannabis: Misuse
Mr. Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) teenagers and (b) people have been treated for addiction to cannabis in each of the last 15 years. [267674]
Dawn Primarolo: The National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS), managed by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) since 2004-05, records data on people in drug treatment in England. Data on young people are only separately available from 2005-06 when the NDTMS started collecting data from all young people’s services in England.
| Persons presenting for treatment with cannabis as primary substance misused | ||
| Young people (under 18 at triage) | All persons (inc. under 18s at triage) | |
Contraceptives
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which primary care trusts fund non-latex condoms on prescription. [267880]
Dawn Primarolo: This information is not collected centrally. Non-latex condoms are a non-prescribable item and they do not appear in the Drug Tariff.
Deaf
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what support is available from his Department to deaf parents and their families. [264556]
Phil Hope: Deaf parents and their families are recognised as requiring support, as are all disabled parents and families. Local health bodies are responsible for commissioning health and social services to meet the needs of their local population and adult social services have an ongoing duty to support disabled parents, including deaf parents in carrying out their parenting role, ensuring that all disabled people have the same rights of access to social care and support as non-disabled parents.
The Government have a significant programme of work aimed at supporting parents in general, and a range of initiatives aimed at supporting groups of parents experiencing particular difficulties, such as deaf parents. The Parenting Implementation Project for example is developing good practice in relation to commissioning and implementing parenting and family support services.
Dental Services
Dr. Richard Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) orthodontic units of activity were provided and (b) courses of orthodontic treatment were completed in each primary care trust area in (i) 2006-07 and (ii) 2007-08. [267947]
Ann Keen: The information requested could be provided only at a disproportionate cost.
Departmental Energy
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent progress his Department has made towards the target of increasing its energy efficiency per square metre of its Estate by 15 per cent. by 2010, relative to 1999-2000 levels; and if he will make a statement. [266879]
Phil Hope: The Department supports and aims to meet the Government’s targets to reduce carbon emissions and improve the energy efficiency of the Government estate. While we have increased the efficiency (measured as consumption per m(2)) of our gas usage, our energy consumption has increased over the period, due largely to our policy of closing buildings and concentrating more staff in our remaining estate.
The changes in energy efficiency of our buildings (measured in kWh per m(2)) since 1999-2000, which is the earliest year for which figures are available, are:
| Percentage | ||
| 2007-08 | 2006-07 | |
We have been working with the Carbon Trust over the past two years to identify energy saving measures, and this has been reflected in an improvement in our performance on energy efficiency in 2007-08, compared with 2006-07. We have a number of further initiatives planned, which should improve these figures further in the coming year.
Departmental Internet
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on how many occasions his Department's website has been temporarily unavailable due to a technical problem in each year since 2001. [268056]
Mr. Bradshaw: Prior to 21 June 2002 the Department's website was hosted by the Office of Government Commerce on shared servers. This service was shut down in 2002 and the required information is not available.
Between June 2002 and February 2004 the Department's website was hosted by EDS. Recording of periods of unavailability is not available from this hosting contract and it would incur disproportionate cost to provide this.
Between February 2004 to March 2007 the Department's website was hosted as part of a shared service run by the Office of the e-Envoy. During this period there were no occasions when the website was temporarily unavailable due to a technical problem.
In March 2007, the Department's website transferred to a new managed service, shared with Directgov. Since then, the Department's website has been temporarily unavailable due to a technical problems as follows: five occasions between March 2007 and December 2007, 11 occasions between January 2008 and December 2008 and four occasions from January 2009 to date.
Drugs: Advisory Services
Mr. Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) which (a) drug charities, (b) drug bodies and (c) scientific authorities provide drug information to the drugs advice organisation, FRANK; [267677]
(2) how much funding was provided for the drugs advice organisation FRANK in the last 12 months; [267678]
(3) what training is provided for the advisers at the drugs advice organisation FRANK; and what qualifications such advisers are required to have. [267679]
Dawn Primarolo: The voluntary organisations which have provided advice to FRANK are: Adfam, the Scottish Drugs Forum and DrugScope. Scientific and other information about drugs and drug misuse treatment services has been provided by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and the Forensic Science Service.
FRANK received approximately £2 million from the Department of Health in 2008-09. FRANK also received
in the same year approximately £2.7 million from the Home Office and £1.8 million from the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
The Scottish Drugs Forum provides a comprehensive training programme for FRANK advisors to include a number of themes such as drugs and their effects, attitudes and awareness of drugs, how problematic drug use affects children and families and child protection. Only individuals who have worked in relevant settings, for example the drugs field, counselling, nursing or social work, and who have excellent communication skills are recruited to become FRANK advisors.
Drugs: Misuse
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many drug-related hospital admissions were attributable to each drug in class (a) A, (b) B and (c) C in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [267866]
Dawn Primarolo: This information is not collected centrally.
DrugScope: Finance
Mr. Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding the charity DrugScope has received from the Government in each of the last 10 years. [267676]
Phil Hope: The following table shows the awards by the Department to DrugScope through the Section 64 General Scheme of Grants which funds voluntary organisations in England whose activities support the Department’s policy priorities. Funding for DrugScope began in 2001-02 following the organisation’s founding in 2000.
The figures do not include any payments made to DrugScope from other budgets held by the Department or other Government Departments in respect of services commissioned from DrugScope.
| Type of grant | Amount (£) | |
Hearing Aids
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) which health authorities were re-testing digital hearing aids before the issue of guidance on the matter in 2007; [267671]
(2) whether he has issued target durations for re-testing of digital hearing aids. [267672]
Phil Hope:
Information around which health authorities undertook pro-active re-testing of digital hearing aids before the issue of guidance on this matter in 2007 is
not collected. The Department has no plans to issue target durations for the pro-active re-testing of digital hearing aids.
People are referred by their general practitioner to their local audiology clinic when they experience problems with their hearing and it is for local health professionals to determine and agree with an individual as to the type of hearing assistance that may be required. Re-assessment generally takes place after three years unless an individual experiences further hearing loss, in which case they may be re-assessed earlier.
Hospitals: Infectious Diseases
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 24 March 2009, Official Report, column 225W, on hospital-acquired infections, if he will place in the Library the dataset used to calculate the 65 per cent. reduction in methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus against the 2003-04 baseline. [267903]
Ann Keen: The data used to calculate the 65 per cent. reduction in methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) on the 2003-04 baseline were the October to December 2008 national quarterly data published by the Health Protection Agency (HPA).
These data show there were 676 reports in October to December 2008 and 7,700 reports in the baseline year 2003-04. This gives a quarterly average of 1,925 for the baseline year and 676 is a 65 per cent. reduction from this.
These data are publicly available from the HPA quarterly counts of MRSA for October to December 2008 and financial year reports of MRSA from 2001-02 to 2005-06, which can be found at:
www.hpa.org.uk/webw/HPAweb&;HPAwebStandard/HPAweb_C/1233906819629?p=1191942169773
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