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Haemophilia
Lord Morris of Manchester asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How many infections have been recorded from the prescription for haemophilia patients of recombinant clotting factors; how many recorded
- infections there have been to date from prescribing plasma products; and whether they will detail the infections caused by each treatment. [HL2860]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Information on all adverse events associated with medicinal products is not collected centrally. However, reports of suspected adverse drug reactions are made voluntarily by doctors to the Medicines Control Agency through the Yellow Card Scheme. The Medicines Control Agency has received notification of one case of Hepatitis A and one of septicaemia in patients receiving recombinant factor VIII, and two cases of Hepatitis B infection in two patients receiving human albumin solution. A report of a suspected reaction does not necessarily mean that it has been caused by the drug.
Dentistry
Lord Colwyn asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether in view of the agreement between the Department of Health, the General Dental Council and the dental profession that it would be beneficial to revise the legislation that will abolish the restriction on numbers of corporate bodies that may organise the practice of dentistry, they have any plans to bring forward the proposed revision date of 2002–03. [HL3214]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Work is under way for the revision to be made during 2002–03. Our intention is to amend Section 42 of the Dentists Act 1984 by using the order-making powers under the Regulatory Reform Act 2001. There are prescribed requirements for preliminary consultation and parliamentary consideration in Sections 5 and 8 of the Act which mean that it is not possible to bring the timetable forward. lynne
Government Departments: Assets of Cultural Significance
Lord Freyberg asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Further to the Written Answer by the Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 12 February (WA 138–39), whether there will be a bidding process when the silver is offered for sale to institutions "willing to display the items to the public", or whether preferred institutions will be selected; and, if the latter, by whom and on what criteria; and [HL2917]
Further to the Written Answer by the Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 12 February (WA 138–39), whether they think it appropriate for a national musuem to bid for these items, if the institution would have to use public or charitable funds to secure them; and [HL2918]
Further to the Written Answer by the Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 12 February (WA 138–39), whether they intend to disperse the four lots among a number of different instititions or
- to keep them together as part of a dispersed collection; and [HL2919]
Further to the Written Answer by the Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 12 February (WA 138–39), whether they will stipulate conditions as to what constitutes an acceptable level of public access; and, if so, whether the absence of admission charges will be one of those conditions.[HL2920]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: Current plans are for the Government to identify institutions willing to display the items to the UK public. These institutions would then be invited to submit bids against specified criteria. These criteria would cover both the arrangements for display and the proposed price. Admission charges will not be a criterion; nor will the bidding institution's source of funding. The items would be sold as a single group. lynne
Lord Freyberg asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Further to the Written Answer by the Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 12 February (WA 138–39), whether they will list all the assets of cultural significance that each government department has identified among its other holdings. [HL2921]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The material assets of government departments are identified in their resource accounts and in their respective entries in the National Asset Register.
Foot and Mouth Disease Contingency Plans
The Countess of Mar asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Further to the answer by the Lord Whitty on 6 February (HL Deb, cols. 631–34), whether Lord Whitty was referring to the general contingency plans published as Appendix 6(i) to the Report of the European Commission for the Control of Foot and Mouth Disease, Rome, Italy, 27 to 30 April 1993, or to the Foot and Mouth Disease Contingency Plans for Great Britain, last revised in July 2000. [HL3030]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty): I was referring to the Foot and Mouth Contingency Plans for Great Britain, last revised in July 2000. lynne
Pyre Sites
Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How many foot and mouth disease pyre sites are being dug up, how many are planned to be dug up; and how many sites have had a risk assessment carried out on them. [HL3248]
Lord Whitty: Our records indicate that to date, ash has been removed from 160 pyre sites in England and Wales. In many cases, ash has been removed from the surface of sites. At some locations, the removal operation has involved removing the soil originally placed on top of the trenches to stabilise the sites, followed by the excavation of ash from the pyre trench itself. While this may appear to involve "digging up" the ash, we are not aware of any ash being dug up from sites where ash has been buried in accordance with DEFRA guidelines. A further 11 sites are currently either programmed for removal or are undergoing site specific risk assessments. Risk assessments have been undertaken at all sites where ash removal has taken place.
Incinerators
Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How many incinerators capable of burning waste at 1,000oC are now in existence in the United Kingdom; how many of them are used to dispose of
- rendered cattle carcasses; what is their combined disposal rate; what is the current level of carcasses in store; and how this compares with two years ago. [HL3251]
Lord Whitty: Records of incinerator gas temperatures are not gathered centrally. However, there are some 180 authorised incinerators in the UK. Combustion gas temperatures will reach 850 degrees centigrade in nearly all of these, and the majority will be capable of achieving 1,000 degrees centigrade.
Five plants are currently incinerating meat and bone meal (MBM), from rendered cattle carcasses from the Over Thirty Months Slaughter Scheme (OTMS). Four of these five plants recover energy from the incineration process and all maintain temperatures of over 850 degrees centigrade in line with SEAC recommendations. They have a combined contracted disposal capacity to incinerate 225,000 tonnes of MBM per year.
There are no carcasses in long-term storage awaiting disposal. However, some 276,000 tonnes of MBM generated from the OTMS are currently held in secure storage pending destruction, compared with over 460,000 tonnes two years ago.
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