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16 Jun 2010 : Column 436W—continued
Immigration: Married People
Mr Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether any language requirements apply to migrant spouses from other EU countries seeking to settle in the UK. [2537]
Damian Green [holding answer 15 June 2010]: On 9 June, my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary announced a new language requirement for those seeking entry to the UK as either a spouse or civil partner, fiancé or proposed civil partner, unmarried partner or same sex partner of a British citizen or someone who is present and settled in the UK.
The new language requirement will not apply to spouses of European economic area nationals or spouses who are European economic area nationals applying for the right to reside under the EU free movement directive. Spouses of EEA nationals and spouses who are European economic area nationals are required to demonstrate knowledge of English language and life in the UK if they apply for British citizenship.
Immobilisation of Vehicles
Mr Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will make it her policy to ensure that drivers disputing a fine issued in relation to the immobilisation of a vehicle on private land have recourse to an independent body. [2456]
Lynne Featherstone: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer given on 15 June 2010, Official Report, column 385W.
Dan Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what cap she plans to place on the charge levied by vehicle immobilisation businesses for the release of a vehicle. [2675]
Lynne Featherstone: The Government included in their coalition agreement, published on 12 May, a commitment to tackle the menace of rogue private sector wheel clampers, and is looking at all available options. An announcement on how we will do this will be made in due course.
Passports: Missing Applications
Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many passport applications are known to have gone missing in the post in (a) 2005, (b) 2006, (c) 2007, (d) 2008 and (e) 2009. [2197]
Damian Green: IPS does not keep records of how many passport applications have gone missing in the post.
Stansted Airport: Security
Mr MacShane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps she is taking to reduce queues and waiting times of passengers on arrival at Stansted Airport. [1886]
Damian Green: United Kingdom Border Force has a continuing dialogue with British Airport Authority managers at Stansted to monitor the arrival of passengers to the United Kingdom through the airport. The queues are regularly measured and meet with the approved target waiting times outlined in the local service level agreement with Stansted Airport Limited.
UK Border Agency: Dover Port
Charlie Elphicke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans her Department has for the continuance of Operation Evian by the UK Border Agency in Dover. [2103]
Damian Green: The Department is committed to the continuation of activity under the Evian Administrative Agreement although this agreement focuses mainly on actions in France rather than Dover. This agreement confirms both the French and United Kingdom's commitment to combating illegal immigration and improved border security through increased joint working.
Charlie Elphicke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the budget is for the operations of the UK Border Agency in the Port of Dover in 2010-11. [2105]
Damian Green: The budget for the financial year 2010-11 for the UKBA operation at the Port of Dover is £16,279,258.
UKBA Border Force, which is responsible for all frontline activities within the port has a budget of £15,600,886.
UKBA Immigration Group, which also has a number of staff based at the port (Dover Enforcement Unit) has a budget of £678,372.
UK Border Agency: Manpower
Damian Collins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will review her Department's recent decision to reduce the number of people employed by the UK Border Agency in Folkestone. [1914]
Damian Green [holding answer 14 June 2010]: The nature and volume of work undertaken by the UK Border Agency in Kent has changed over recent years following the introduction of the juxtaposed controls in Northern France. This, along with the need to establish a local immigration team in neighbouring Sussex, resulted in a review of the structure and size of the local immigration team in Kent. Working together, staff and local managers, have designed a structure which reduces the overall number of staff in Kent, by significantly reducing the number of managers. As a result of the planned restructuring, there will actually be more frontline, arrest-trained officers across Kent and Sussex. These changes are not expected to result in any compulsory redundancies.
Health
Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the NHS spent on (a) all treatments and (b) long-term treatments of alcohol-related illnesses (i) nationally, (ii) in the East Midlands and (iii) in Leicester in each of the last five years. [2559]
Anne Milton: The cost of alcohol treatment is met through national health service mainstream expenditure in line with local needs and priorities and data on NHS spend on alcohol treatment is not collected centrally.
The National Audit Office (NAO) has carried out an audit of NHS spend on alcohol treatment. Its report, Reducing Alcohol Harm: health services in England for alcohol misuse, was published in November 2008 and found, that where primary care trust expenditure on alcohol services was known, an average of £600,000 was spent on commissioning alcohol services in 2006-07.
Keith Vaz:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many persons aged (a) over 18 and (b) 18 and
under were treated for alcohol-related illnesses (i) nationally, (ii) in the East Midlands and (iii) in Leicester in each of the last five years. [2560]
Anne Milton: Data on the number of patients treated for alcohol-related illnesses is not collected centrally, however, we do collect the number of finished admissions for patients with alcohol-related illnesses and this information is shown in the following tables for the last five years for which data are available. Some patients may have had multiple admissions.
| Number of finished admissions of patients aged 18 and under and over 18 with an alcohol-related illnesses | ||||||||||
| 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | ||||||
| 18 and under | Over 18 | 18 and under | Over 18 | 18 and under | Over 18 | 18 and under | Over 18 | 18 and under | Over 18 | |
| Notes: Includes activity in English national health service hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector. Alcohol-related admissions The number of alcohol-related admissions is based on the methodology developed by the North West Public Health Observatory, which uses 48 indicators for alcohol-related illnesses. Figures for under 16s only include admissions where one or more of the following alcohol-specific conditions were listed: Alcoholic cardiomyopathy (I42.6) Alcoholic gastritis (K29.2) Alcoholic liver disease (K70) Alcoholic myopathy (G72.1) Alcoholic polyneuropathy (G62.1) Alcohol-induced pseudo-Cushing's syndrome (E24.4) Chronic pancreatitis (alcohol induced) (K86.0) Degeneration of nervous system due to alcohol (G31.2) Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol (F10) Accidental poisoning by and exposure to alcohol (X45) Ethanol poisoning (T51.0) Methanol poisoning (T51.1) Toxic effect of alcohol, unspecified (T51.9) Number of episodes in which the patient had an alcohol-related primary or secondary diagnosis These figures represent the number of episodes where an alcohol-related diagnosis was recorded in any of the 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and seven prior to 2002-03) primary and secondary diagnosis fields in a Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) record. Each episode is only counted once in each count, even if an alcohol-related diagnosis is recorded in more than one diagnosis field of the record. Ungrossed data Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (ie the data are ungrossed). Finished admission episodes A finished admission episode is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Finished admission episodes are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. It should be noted that admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. Data quality HES are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and primary care trusts in England. Data are also received from a number of independent sector organisations for activity commissioned by the English NHS. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data via HES processes. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain. Assessing growth through time HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. The quality and coverage of the data have improved over time. These improvements in information submitted by the NHS have been particularly marked in the earlier years and need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. Some of the increase in figures for later years (particularly 2006-07 onwards) may be due to the improvement in the coverage of independent sector activity. Changes in NHS practice also need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. For example, a number of procedures may now be undertaken in outpatient settings and may no longer be accounted for in the HES data. This may account for any reductions in activity over time. Assignment of Episodes to Years Years are assigned by the end of the first period of care in a patient's hospital stay. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), The NHS Information Centre for health and social care. | ||||||||||
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of (a) adults and (b) adults aged under 30 who exceeded the recommended maximum for alcohol consumption (i) nationally, (ii) in the East Midlands and (iii) in Leicester in each of the last five years. [2563]
Anne Milton: Data on alcohol consumption is collected by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as part of the General Household Survey. Figures are available for 2006 and 2008 and are in the following table. Data are not available for Leicester because the sample size is too small to produce reliable figures.
Figures are not available for 2007, as the relevant questions were not included in the General Household Survey and because of a methodological improvement introduced by ONS in 2006 comparable data are not available for earlier years.
Percentage of men and women whose average weekly alcohol consumption exceeded 21 or 14 units respectively
| Percentage | |||
| Area | Adults aged 18 or over | Adults aged between 18 and 29 | |
| Source: General Household Survey | |||
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many deaths attributable to alcohol misuse there were (a) nationally, (b) in the East Midlands and (c) in Leicester in each of the last five years. [2564]
Anne Milton: The information is shown in the table. It should be noted that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not have data for the number of deaths in Leicester.
| Number of deaths related to alcohol misuse for East Midlands and England | |||||
| 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
| Source: ONS | |||||
The ONS definition of alcohol-related deaths only includes those causes regarded as being wholly due to alcohol consumption. It does not include other diseases where alcohol has been shown to be one of a number of causes, such as cancers of the mouth, oesophagus and liver.
The definition includes all deaths from chronic liver disease and cirrhosis (excluding biliary cirrhosis), even when alcohol is not specifically mentioned on the death certificate. Apart from deaths due to poisoning with alcohol (accidental, intentional or undetermined), this definition excludes any other external causes of death, such as road traffic and other accidents. The definition allows for consistent comparisons over time for those deaths most clearly associated with alcohol consumption. International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes used in this dataset:
Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol - ICD-10 F10
Degeneration of nervous system due to alcohol - ICD-10 G31.2
Alcoholic polyneuropathy - ICD-10 G62.1
Alcoholic cardiomyopathy - ICD-10 142.6
Alcoholic gastritis - ICD-10 K29.2
Alcoholic liver disease - ICD-10 K70
Chronic hepatitis, not elsewhere classified - ICD-10 K73
Fibrosis and cirrhosis of liver - ICD-10 K74 (Excluding K74.3-K74.5 - Biliary cirrhosis)
Alcohol induced chronic pancreatitis - ICD-10 K86.0
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