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21 July 2009 : Column 1575W—continued
Departmental Conditions of Employment
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of employees in his Department are on a (a) flexible working contract and (b) job share employment contract. [287096]
Phil Hope: The Department recognises that flexible working allows staff to combine employment and a career with other responsibilities as well as meeting personal needs. The Department encourages staff to work flexibly through providing opportunities such as part time working, job sharing, term time only working and the use of flexitime. It also provides the technology to allow staff to work at home on occasions and has in place specific arrangements to allow parents, adopters, guardians and foster carers of children under 16 (or disabled children under 18) to apply to work flexibly.
Managers have the discretion to agree flexible working arrangements locally, without making contractual changes. These arrangements are not recorded centrally so the percentage of staff working flexibly is not available but is likely to be a large fraction of the work force.
According to the Department's centrally held records (the Business Management System) at 1 April 2009 approximately 0.3 per cent, of civil servants in the Department were in job share arrangements. Approximately 9 per cent. were working part-time and approximately 0.2 per cent. were working in term time only.
Departmental Postal Services
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department spent on Royal Mail services in each of the last two years. [288739]
Phil Hope: The Department has spent the following amounts on Royal Mail in the last two years:
| Total spend (£) | |
Diabetes: Health Education
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will provide guidance for people with diabetes on eating recommended daily amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables. [288641]
Ann Keen: The Department has no plans to issue specific nutritional guidance for people with diabetes. We recommend that everybody, including those with diabetes, should eat a healthy balanced diet, which includes five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. Eating a healthy balanced diet, and taking regular physical activity are key parts of good diabetes management, and can help to prevent or delay the onset of long-term complications of the condition.
Driving Under Influence
Mark Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many drug-related finished hospital admissions with a primary or secondary diagnosis of road traffic accidents there have been for (a) males and (b) females aged (i) under 18, (ii) between 18 and 25, (iii) between 26 and 30, (iv) between 31 and 50, (v) between 51 and 70 and (vi) over 71 in each (A) region and (B) primary care trust area in each year since 1997. [286837]
Gillian Merron [holding answer 14 July 2009]: This information is not collected centrally.
There is no way of identifying whether a patient's admission was drug related or not. For example, a patient may have a drug poisoning code recorded on their episode of care, but this could be due to the over-prescription of a drug while in hospital, and does not necessarily signify that the patient came into hospital intoxicated. For these reasons the joint appearance of a drug poisoning code and a road traffic accident (RTA) code on a record of an episode of care does not signify that the patient was intoxicated at the time of the RTA.
Drugs
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent discussions he has had with pharmaceutical manufacturers on the availability of medicines; and if he will make a statement. [288893]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Ministers have had no recent meetings with pharmaceutical manufacturers on this subject. Departmental officials have frequent contact with manufacturers about shortages and discontinuations of drugs.
Drugs: Finance
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much (a) his Department and (b) its agencies spent on the implementation of drugs policies in each category in each of the last 10 years. [286733]
Gillian Merron:
The following table sets out the Department's spending on the implementation of drug policies over the last nine years. Data for 2000-01 are
unavailable. The table includes funding for the national treatment agency for substance misuse (NTA).
| Department of Health expenditure (£ millions to one decimal place) | |||||||||
| 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10 | |
| (1 )Not finalised Notes: PTB-pooled drug treatment budget, PCT-primary care trust, IDTS-integrated drug treatment system. | |||||||||
The UK Focal Point collates data and information on drug misuse in the UK and reports it to the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction.
This table does not include central voluntary sector funding, staff costs, and central programme costs, as these are more difficult to segregate out to demonstrate drugs specific expenditure.
Drugs: Misuse
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many reported incidents of overdoses of prescription drugs there have been of under 18 year olds in (a) England, (b) the North-East and (c) Teesside in each of the last 10 years. [285194]
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children aged (a) under five, (b) five to nine, (c) 10 to 16 and (d) 17 to 18 years live in a household where (i) one or (ii) both parents have a substance abuse problem; and if he will make a statement. [286738]
Gillian Merron: Although the data requested are collected via the National Drugs Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS), the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) has identified problems with the quality of this data and it believes that releasing this data in their current form would be misleading. The NTA is addressing these data quality issues and expects to publish this data, with an assessment of its quality, alongside their annual statistics release later in this financial year.
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what treatments are provided by the NHS for problem drug users; and if he will make a statement. [287688]
Gillian Merron: The National Health Service provides a range of treatments for drug misuse. 'Models of Care for Treatment of Adult Drug Misusers', published by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse in 2006, sets out a national framework for the provision of drug misuse treatment services. Types of interventions described include:
substance misuse related advice and information;
harm reduction interventions;
community prescribing interventions: general practitioner prescribing and specialist prescribing;
structured psychosocial interventions;
structured day programmes;
in-patient drug treatment;
residential rehabilitation; and
aftercare.
These interventions are provided as part of a package of care for individuals, and one person may receive a number of these interventions during their time in treatment.
In addition the NHS works in partnership with other agencies to support the social reintegration of problem drug users to help underpin the process of their becoming drug-free.
Drugs: Rehabilitation
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 3 July 2009, Official Report, column 478W, on drugs rehabilitation, how many people in each age group dependent on each drug in each year were resident in each region. [286418]
Gillian Merron: The data for 2003-04 are not available centrally. There is no regional breakdown for 2004-05, as regional data were not available for every region that year. The information available, is for 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08, and has been placed in the Library.
Epilepsy
Chris McCafferty: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library a copy of the recent letter from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health Services to strategic health authorities on epilepsy. [288423]
Ann Keen: A copy of the letter, which is expected to be sent out in the next few days, has been placed in the Library.
EU Law
Bob Spink:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate he has made of the proportion of statutory obligations provided for by legislation on
matters for which his Department is responsible which were introduced as a consequence of obligations arising from EU legislation in the latest period for which figures are available; [281863]
(2) what estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of the statutory obligations upon it provided for in legislation introduced as a consequence of obligations arising from EU legislation in the most recent 12 months for which figures are available. [283475]
Ann Keen: The information is as follows.
The Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2009 (S.I. 2009/1567)-which implement Article 17(5) third subparagraph of Directive 2003/88/EC concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time.
Estimate of costs: Nil
Any costs arising from these changes to the average maximum working week will fall to the national health service, not to the Department. Any additional work for the Department arising from this would be met within existing resources.
Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) and Blood Safety and Quality (Amendment) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/941)(1)
Medicines for Human Use (Prescribing by EEA Practitioners)Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/1692)(2)
Medical Devices (Amendment) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/2936)(1)
Medicines for Human Use (Marketing Authorisations Etc.) Amendment Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/3097)(2)
(1) To give effect to new EU obligations
(2) To give effect to existing EU obligations
Estimate of costs: Nil.
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency activities are mostly based on EC legislation they are already funded to do the work either through the medicines fees system or the Departments funding for devices. Therefore the MHRA would do the work within existing resources.
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