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Veterinary Laboratories Agency Targets
Baroness Gibson of Market Rasen asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What targets they have set the Veterinary Laboratories Agency for 2002–03.[HL5432]
Lord Whitty : We have set the Veterinary Laboratories Agency the following performance targets for 2002–03.
1. To maintain current third party accreditations.
2. To achieve ISO9000 accreditation for the TSE archive.
3. To achieve a minimum of 85 per cent of ROAME project milestones.
4. To meet 95 per cent of published turnaround time for export tests.
5. To set a baseline for the customer satisfaction survey.
6. To achieve £500k savings on procurement spending.
7. To achieve a 3 per cent improvement of overheads against turnover using the baseline established in 2001–02.
8. To recover from government departments, agencies and external customers, the full economic cost of the agency's services.
Environment Agency Management Statement
Lord Dubs asked Her Majesty's Government:
- When they expect to issue a revised management statement to the Environment Agency.[HL5433]
Lord Whitty: We are pleased to inform the House that the management statement has been issued to the Environment Agency today. The statement sets out the relationships between the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Welsh Assembly Government, exercising powers delegated by the National Assembly for Wales and the Environment Agency; the framework within which the agency will operate; and other guidance relevant to its functions. The management statement has been drawn up in consultation with the agency and is being issued jointly with the Welsh Assembly Government.
A copy of the Statement has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Animal Health and Welfare Expenditure
Baroness David asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they will provide an explanation for the animal health and welfare expenditure trends shown in the departmental report for 2002.[HL5435]
Lord Whitty: Tables 5.1 to 5.5 in the departmental report for 2002 contain a number of errors. These arose from differences in the way information is loaded on central databases, complications with compiling historical information following the recent machinery of government changes and the restructuring of Defra with the revised objectives that followed. Unfortunately, the tight timetable for producing these tables interfered with the quality assurance procedures that would normally have applied.
The department's quality assurance procedures are being revised to prevent similar errors in future. Meanwhile, work is in hand to re–issue corrected tables. This is a signifiant task involving the re–loading of central databases which are subject to a number of timetable constraints. The intention is to provide revised figures by the autumn.
Meanwhile, it is possible to clarify that underlying provision for resources available to control animal disease have risen in real terms over the period as follows:
| 1999–2000 | 2000–01 | 2001–02 | 2002–03 |
| Cash outturn | Cash outturn | Provisional resource outturn | Resource budget |
| £152 | £183m | £159m | £206m |
These figures exclude expenditure incurred on foot and mouth disease, given that this was funded centrally out of the reserve. The drop seen in 2001–02 can be explained by the diversion of state veterinary staff to tackling foot and mouth disease.
Baroness David asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many would–be adopters have been rejected after assessment in each of the last five years.[HL4934]
23 Jul 2002 : Column WA59
The Parliamentary Under–Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): The information requested is not collected centrally.
However, the department funded a study published by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering in 2000 called Children and families in the voluntary sector––An overview of child placement and adoption work by voluntary adoption agencies in England 1994–1998. This study was based on a sample of 949 cases from existing data collected and held by the Social Services Inspectorate. The SSI obtain the information during the inspection of voluntary adoption agencies. The study found that where a decision was made about applicants who had applied to voluntary adoption agencies 94 per cent were successful. The study did not include decisions made by local authorities.
Prostate Cancer and AIDS: Government Expenditure
Baroness O'Cathain asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is the total sum of government money spent on research into (a) prostate cancer and (b) AIDS; and what is the annual number of deaths due to each.[HL5023]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: In 2000–01, the latest year for which complete information is available for the United Kingdom, the total government expenditure on research into prostate cancer was estimated to be £2 million and on research into AIDS was estimated to be £21 million. In 2000, in the United Kingdom, the total number of deaths due to prostate cancer was 9,280 and the total numberof deaths due to HIV/AIDS was 418.
The total government expenditure in 2000–01 on prostate cancer research includes £1.2 million by the Department of Health on directly commissioned research. The department is committed to increasing this expenditure to £4.2 million a year by 2003–04. The total government expenditure in 2000–01 on cancer
research was estimated to be £190 million, and an unquantifiable proportion of this will have been spent on research that is relevant to many types of cancer, including prostate.HIV
Baroness Ludford asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What are the number of cases of HIV identified in (a) the United Kingdom and (b) the London region in each of the years since the condition was first recorded; whether they have identified any patterns from those figures, with particular regard to means of transmission; and whether they will give details of measures being taken to bring down the number of cases in the United Kingdom.[HL5061]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Figures for reported cases of HIV infection diagnosed in the United Kingdom and in the London region are shown in the first table.
| Year of diagnosis | London region | UK total |
| 1984 or earlier* | 774 | 1,617 |
| 1985 | 1,802 | 3,229 |
| 1986 | 1,618 | 2,767 |
| 1987 | 1,548 | 2,509 |
| 1988 | 1,202 | 1,951 |
| 1989 | 1,375 | 2,140 |
| 1990 | 1,636 | 2,543 |
| 1991 | 1,754 | 2,715 |
| 1992 | 1,697 | 2,740 |
| 1993 | 1,623 | 2,613 |
| 1994 | 1,584 | 2,571 |
| 1995 | 1,681 | 2,639 |
| 1996 | 1,705 | 2,685 |
| 1997 | 1,716 | 2,723 |
| 1998 | 1,760 | 2,799 |
| 1999 | 1,941 | 3,030 |
| 2000 | 2,262 | 3,723 |
| 2001** | 2,362 | 4,164 |
| Total | 30,040 | 49,158 |
The second table shows the figures for UK-diagnosed HIV infections according to probable route of infection.
| Year of | Sex | Sex | Injecting | Blood/ | Mother | Other/un- | Total |
| diagnosis | between | between | drug use | Blood | to child | determined | |
| men | men and | factor | |||||
| women | |||||||
| 1984 or earlier* | 684 | 26 | 312 | 569 | — | 26 | 1,617 |
| 1985 | 2,112 | 54 | 276 | 686 | 3 | 98 | 3,229 |
| 1986 | 1,989 | 156 | 448 | 89 | 10 | 75 | 2,767 |
| 1987 | 1,747 | 237 | 382 | 50 | 10 | 83 | 2,509 |
| 1988 | 1,380 | 241 | 230 | 25 | 13 | 62 | 1,951 |
| 1989 | 1,452 | 359 | 212 | 29 | 16 | 72 | 2,140 |
| 1990 | 1,700 | 534 | 200 | 24 | 29 | 56 | 2,543 |
| 1991 | 1,712 | 646 | 241 | 24 | 36 | 56 | 2,715 |
| 1992 | 1,639 | 780 | 187 | 24 | 57 | 53 | 2,740 |
| 1993 | 1,498 | 766 | 203 | 17 | 66 | 63 | 2,613 |
| 1994 | 1,480 | 793 | 168 | 17 | 60 | 53 | 2,571 |
| 1995 | 1,465 | 849 | 181 | 20 | 59 | 65 | 2,639 |
| 1996 | 1,539 | 837 | 172 | 21 | 60 | 56 | 1,685 |
| 1997 | 1,390 | 1,005 | 168 | 27 | 82 | 51 | 2,723 |
| 1998 | 1,344 | 1,154 | 130 | 10 | 92 | 69 | 2,799 |
| 1999 | 1,326 | 1,405 | 109 | 19 | 80 | 91 | 3,030 |
| 2000 | 1,437 | 1,880 | 100 | 22 | 95 | 189 | 3,723 |
| 2001** | 1,338 | 2,226 | 89 | 21 | 52 | 438 | 4,164 |
| Total | 27,232 | 13,948 | 3,808 | 1,694 | 820 | 1,656 | 49,158 |
* Data for 1984 and earlier years have been combined as these pre-date the availability of the first HIV antibody test.
** Numbers, particularly for recent years, will rise as further reports are received.
Source:
Public Health Laboratory Service: data to the end of March 2002.
A number of trends are apparent from these data. It is important to note, however, that diagnosed infections may not reflect contemporary transmission patterns, as many years may elapse between infection and diagnosis. For example, a very high proportion of infections acquired through sex between men and women were recorded as probably acquired abroad, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, although more infections have been diagnosed among heterosexuals for the past three years, sex between men remains the predominant route of HIV transmission within the UK. Around half of all HIV-infected individuals currently living in the UK were infected by this route.
The Sexual Health and HIV Strategy for England prioritises the prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. In line with the epidemiology, HIV prevention and health promotion targets those groups most at risk, particularly men who have sex with men and heterosexuals from or with close links to African countries. For a number of years we have funded the Terrence Higgins Trust to undertake national HIV prevention work for gay men through the CHAPS project (Community HIV/AIDS Prevention Strategy). As part of the implementation of the Sexual Health and HIV Strategy we are working with the African HIV Policy Network and the National AIDS Trust to develop a strategic framework for HIV prevention. The strategy also announced a new information campaign for the general population in England to raise awareness of sexually transmitted infections (including HIV) and how they can be prevented. We plan to launch the new campaign later this year.
Furthermore, the routine offer and recommendation of an HIV test to all pregnant women is enabling women to benefit from treatment for themselves and for their babies to reduce the risk of mother to child transmission. An estimated 75 infections in infants were averted in 2000.
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