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Vehicular Access over Common Land
Lord Hardy of Wath asked Her Majesty's Government:
- When they intend to lay draft regulations before Parliament under Section 68 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 relating to vehicular access over common land.[HL4380]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty): Draft regulations have been laid in both Houses, together with a regulatory impact assessment and an analysis of the responses made to the draft regulations circulated in July 2001. The Government's objective has been to strike a fair balance between the owners of common land and those who have for many years driven across the land to get to their homes.
The major change in the regulations is in relation to the compensation payable. This reflects the Government's view that the compensation payable in respect of older premises, already in existence when it became an offence to drive on common land, should be a relatively small amount. Owners of premises in existence on or above 31 December 1905 will pay 0.25 per cent of the value of the premises. Owners of those built between 1 January 1906 and 30 November 1930 will pay 0.5 per cent. Compensation in respect of all other premises remains at 2 per cent.
We hope that the regulations will be considered by both Houses before the Summer Recess and will then come into force as soon as possible.
Mineral Levels in Crops
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:
- In the light of research published in the April edition of Medicines Now showing that fruit and vegetables grown by traditional organic methods contain much larger quantities of essential minerals than those grown using artificial fertilisers, whether they will conduct further research into mineral loss in crops.[HL4160]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): Differences seen in the mineral content of fruits and vegetables will be due to a wide range of factors, including study methodology, variety, growth and storage conditions. The Food Standards Agency advises that available evidence does not support the conclusion that fruit and vegetables grown by organic methods consistently contain larger quantities of essential mineral than those grown using artificial fertilisers. The Government have no plans to commission research into comparative mineral levels in organically and conventionally grown crops.
Emergency Contraception
Baroness Young asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they consider that the decision by a major supermarket to make the morning-after pill available to girls under 16 encourages them to commit an offence of unlawful sexual intercourse.[HL4223]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: There is no evidence that the provision of contraception encourages sexual activity. Emergency contraception is a safe and effective method of preventing unplanned pregnancy and is considered to have the same safety profile for under 16s as for older women. As there is evidence that the method is most effective when the first dose is taken within 24 hours of unprotected sex, early uptake is vital. The provision of emergency contraception through National Health Service funded pharmacy schemes, including pharmacies within supermarket chains, is one of the ways in which local areas are seeking to improve access.
Pharmacists providing emergency contraception to under-16s do so under the established legal framework for all health professionals. This involves assessing the young person's competence to understand the choices they are making and encouraging them to talk to their parents. Pharmacists are trained to ensure that young women are informed about and encouraged to visit local services that provide regular forms of contraception and condoms to protect against sexually transmitted infections.
The Government's Teenage Pregnancy Strategy recognises the importance of helping young people resist peer pressure to have early sex, while seeking to ensure that those who are sexually active have easy access to high quality contraceptive advice, including emergency contraception. Under-16s are at particular risk of unprotected sex. Although over a quarter are sexually active, they are less likely than older teenagers to access services and use contraception.
Baroness Young asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they believe that widespread use of the morning-after pill will reduce the rate of unplanned pregnancy; and, if so, what has led them to that conclusion.[HL4224]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Emergency hormonal contraception is a safe and effective method of preventing pregnancy when a woman has had unprotected sex or when she knows something has gone wrong with her usual method. Regular methods of contraception such as the pill or condoms should be the first choice to protect against unwanted pregnancy, but in emergency situations women should be able to access this product quickly and easily. Evidence from a World Health Organisation trial demonstrated that emergency contraceptive pills prevented 86 per cent of expected pregnancies when treatment was initiated within 72 hours of unprotected sex. However this rose to 95 per cent when the first dose was taken within 24 hours of unprotected sex. We therefore want to
ensure the best possible access to emergency contraception for those that need it.Increased availability of emergency contraception should be seen in the context of a much wider programme of work we are undertaking to reduce the high number of unwanted pregnancies in this country through the Sexual Health and HIV Strategy and the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy. This includes improving access to contraceptive services and the range of contraceptive products that are available.
Abortion and Infertility
Baroness Knight of Collingtree asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How many women in Great Britain are unable to have children as a consequence of having an abortion; and whether they will investigate the issue.[HL4245]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: The information requested is not collected centrally.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists considered this issue in its evidence-based guideline The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion (2000) and concluded that published studies strongly suggest that infertility is not a consequence of uncomplicated induced abortion.
The guideline recommends that abortion care should encompass a strategy for minimising the risk of post-abortion infective morbidity.
As part of the national strategy for sexual health and HIV, the Department of Health will start rolling out national screening for chlamydia from this summer. If not detected and treated, chlamydia can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility. Young women seeking termination of pregnancy will be one of the target groups for the screening programme. maria
Cancer Treatments
Lord Morris of Manchester asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether £17 million of National Health Service funding has been ring-fenced for the provision of the breast cancer drug Herceptin; and how much National Health Service funding has been ring-fenced in the current fiscal year for the provision of the lymphatic cancer drug MabThera; and[HL4249]
Whether patients with lymphatic cancer can have access to treatment by the drug MabThera, as urgently called for by the Lymphoma Association; and[HL4251]
What financial provision has been made in the years 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06 and 2006–07 for lymphoma sufferers to receive the drug MabThera on the National Health Service in the following localities: Leicester, Shrewsbury, Cambridge, Ipswich, Sheffield, Swansea,
- Basingstoke, Cardiff, Northwood (Middlesex), Oxford, Southampton and London.[HL4252]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) issued guidance on the use of trastuzumab (Herceptin) for the treatment of breast cancer on 15 March 2002 and rituximab (MabThera) for the treatment of follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) on 28 March 2002.
NICE recommended that trastuzumab (Herceptin) is used in certain circumstances for women with breast cancer and made a limited recommendation on the use of rituximab (MabThera) for lymphoma patients in a specific state of their disease.
£407 million in 2002–03 and £570 million in 2003–04 is being made available to support implementation of the Cancer Plan, including positive recommendations from NICE on cancer drugs.
Local services have freedom to decide where National Health Service resources are best spent. However, directions have been issued obliging health authorities and primary care trusts to provide appropriate funding for treatments recommended by NICE. From 1 January this year, the NHS will have three months from the date of publication of each technology appraisal guidance to provide funding so that clinical decisions made by doctors involving NICE recommended treatments or drugs can be funded. maria
Lord Morris of Manchester asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is their response to research findings of the Lymphoma Association that one person an hour is diagnosed with lymphoma in the United Kingdom; and how much funding promised for the National Health Service over the next five years will be spent on research into the causes of lymphoma and the provision of adequate budgets for the treatment of lymphoma patients.[HL4250]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: The total government expenditure on research in any given year is not normally allocated in advance to specific diseases. Decisions depend on many variables, including the quality of proposals received. By 2003–04, the Government will be spending an additional £20 million a year on the new National Health Service infrastructure for cancer research. This will mean that more cancer patients, including lymphoma patients, will have access to new and experimental treatments. In April 2001 the Government set up the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) in partnership with charities and industry. The NCRI Clinical Studies Group provides advice to the NCRI on clinical research into lymphomas.
£407 million in 2002–03 and £570 million in 2003–04 is being made available to support implementation of the Cancer Plan. It is for local decision where NHS resources are best spent.
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