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Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether the proposed intention of English Partnerships to place pictures of all listed properties on the Images of England website, regardless of whether or not they are open to the public, is consistent with data protection and human rights legislation.[HL2377]
Baroness Blackstone The Images of England website is operated by English Heritage; it has designed the project to ensure that it is consistent with data protection and human rights legislation.
Abortion Act 1967
Lord Alton of Liverpool asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 13 November (WA 69), how they believe disability and non-disability can be valued equally when disability alone, exclusive of any risk to the mother's life or health, can provide sufficient grounds for termination of pregnancy under the Abortion Act 1967 (as amended).[HL2154]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): Screening tests are made available because parents wish to know if their child will be affected. The decision whether or not to proceed with a pregnancy after an abnormality is detected is for the individuals concerned, provided they have grounds under the Abortion Act 1967. We believe that parents need good quality objective advice and enough time to reach an informed decision. This will provide support for parents and contribute to valuing both disability and non-disability.
Chiropodists
Lord Morris of Manchester asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What information the Department of Health has on the range of conditions treated by:
(a) state registered chiropodists; and
(b) unregistered chiropodists.[HL2296]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Chiropody (podiatry) is the clinical discipline concerned with the diagnosis and comprehensive management of foot and lower limb pathologies. It involves treatment of a wide
variety of disorders and conditions affecting the foot and lower limb function and this treatment may be curative, preventative or may involve a course of long-term palliative care or health education. Further information can be found in Benchmarking academic and practitioner standards in Podiatry published by the Quality Assurance Agency, a copy of which has been placed in the Library. The document can also be found at www.gaa.ac.uk.crntwork/benchmark/nhsbenchmark/benchmarking.htm.
The scope of practice of state registered practitioners, however, is a matter for the chiropodists board of the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine. Other non-state registered practitioners set their own scopes of practice.
Lord Morris of Manchester asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many individuals declared chiropody or podiatry to be their main occupation in the census
28 Jan 2002 : Column WA22
- conducted in 2001; and, if this information is not yet available, when it is likely to be.[HL2298]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Information on occupation categories from the 2001 census is not yet available. It is expected to be published by the Office for National Statistics in the first half of 2003.
vCJD
Lord Marlesford asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is their estimate of the total expenditure from public funds on (a) research into vCJD and
(b) treatment of patients with vCJD, in each of the past 10 years.[HL2171]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) was identified in 1996. The expenditure on research into transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) from public funds from 1990–91 to 2000–01 is shown in the table.
| Food Standards Agency (FSA) | MAFF/DEFRA(2) | AFRC/BBSRC(3) | Medical Research Council (MRC) | Department of Health (DoH) | Total | |
| £000 | £000 | £000 | £000 | £000 | £ million | |
| 1990–91 | 2,300 | 1,500 | 553 | 4.4 | ||
| 1991–92 | 4,200 | 2,950 | 567 | 7.7 | ||
| 1992–93 | 5,700 | 4,450 | 615 | 10.8 | ||
| 1993–94 | 6,200 | 4,200 | 710 | 64 | 11.2 | |
| 1994–95 | 5,800 | 2,400 | 895 | 208 | 9.3 | |
| 1995–96 | 5,600 | 3,050 | 845 | 500 | 10.0 | |
| 1996–97 | 6,800 | 3,030 | 1,462 | 270 | 11.6 | |
| 1997–98 | 10,100 | 3,723 | 1,633 | 1,100 | 16.6 | |
| 1998–99 | 12,651 | 3,587 | 3,953 | 2,100 | 22.3 | |
| 1999–2000 | 15,068 | 4,481 | 5,079 | 4,700 | 29.3 | |
| 2000–01 | 2,458 | 13,284 | 4,289 | 5,983 | 3,987 | 30.0 |
(2) The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) was formed out of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF), parts of the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions and parts of the Home Office in 2001.
(3) The Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC) became the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC) in 1994.
The cost of caring for patients suffering from vCJD varies considerably from case to case, but it is generally considered to be in line with the cost of caring for a wide range of other terminally and chronically ill patients.
Lord Alton of Liverpool asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answers by the Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 13 December 2001 (WA 235) and 17 December (WA 23), whether those individuals who donated embryos for research purposes prior to January 2001 have been asked to provide specific consent indicating whether such embryos can be used in a research project to derive stem cells in accordance with the recommendation of the Chief Medical Officer's expert group report Stem Cells:
28 Jan 2002 : Column WA22
- Medical Progress with Responsibility; and, if not, why they consider that such specific consent is unnecessary given the terms of their request that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority incorporate such a specific consent provision for embryo donations subsequent to January 2001. [HL2382]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: It is the responsibility of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to consider each application for a research licence to extract stem cells from fertilised embryos on its individual merits. The policy of the HFEA has always been to require informed consent. Potential donors should receive written details of the research project that highlight any possible consequences of the work prior to making any donation. So individuals who donated embryos before January 2001 would have given consent for how those embryos were to be used. Researchers would not be able to use them for a different purpose without breaching their research licence.
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