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Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many health trusts within the health services in Northern Ireland currently offer deaf awareness training. [HL5900]
Lord Rooker: All trusts in the health and personal social services currently provide deaf awareness training either as a specific training course or as part of disability awareness training.
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Rooker: The Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency (NIMDTA) provides postgraduate training to general practitioners. From 2004, deaf awareness training has been included as part of training child health surveillance, disability awareness training and ear, nose and throat (ENT) courses. To date, 257 GPs have undertaken these courses. It should be noted that an individual GP may have attended more than one of the above courses.
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
What provision in Northern Ireland is made for the deaf and hearing impaired in (a) pre-school education; (b) primary education; (c) secondary education; and (d) further education. [HL5902]
Lord Rooker: Pupils of primary or post-primary age without significant hearing impairment have provision made in mainstream schools or in special units attached to mainstream schools. Specialist teachers of the deaf
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provide support to children, parents and teachers in these settings. The education and library boards' hearing support services provide support to pre-school children in liaison with specialist clinics. Jordanstown Special School makes special educational provision for children with more severe hearing losses. This school uses total communication methods; that is to say, a mixture of speech, lip-reading and signing.
The Department for Employment and Learning has put in place a range of initiatives to assist colleges to discharge their responsibility towards all students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, including the deaf and hearing impaired. The initiatives include enhanced funding under the further education funding formula, support for staff development activities and the additional support fund, which provides financial assistance towards the costs of technical or carer support.
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
In Northern Ireland, how many full-time deaf teachers are employed in (a) pre-school education; (b) primary education; (c) secondary education; and (d) further education. [HL5903]
Lord Rooker: The equal opportunities officers in the education and library boards, which employ teachers, have advised that, since 1997, all applicants are asked to include any information regarding disabilities on their application forms, and hearing is included as a category. They do not, however, hold specific information on how many current teaching staff have a hearing impairment, hearing difficulties or are deaf.
The further education colleges have advised that there are no full-time deaf teachers in FE colleges. There are 27 part-time deaf teachers and eight teachers with hearing impairments, three of whom are part time.
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Rooker: Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 there are no categories of public service in Northern Ireland from which deaf people are excluded from employment. All occupations are covered by the Disability Discrimination Act with the sole exception of people employed in the Armed Forces. The law applies to all aspects of employment—recruitment and selection, promotion, redundancy or dismissal.
Medicines: Animal Testing
Baroness Greenfield asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many drug products currently approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency have not been tested on animals at some point in their research or development; and what proportion of approved drug products this figure represents. [HL5912]
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner): All approved medicinal products have been tested on animals or refer to supportive data which have been generated from animal testing at some point. While the marketing authorisation applications for a large number of generic medicinal products will not, in themselves, be supported by animal test data, they do rely on animal test data previously provided by the originator for the products.
NHS: Drug Tariff Part IX
Earl Howe asked Her Majesty's Government:
In what ways the proposed changes to Part IX of the Drug Tariff will be amended in the light of the responses to the recent consultation on the issue; and [HL5932]
Whether reform of Part IX of the Drug Tariff will be completed in a single stage as favoured by the majority of correspondents to the consultation on the issue. [HL5933]
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner): The consultation on Part IX of the Drug Tariff closed in January 2006. Following that initial consultation, the Department of Health decided to adopt a relevant approach for each category. Therefore, the work is proceeding as follows:
Incontinence and Stoma Appliances
The department is having further discussions with industry to identify how best to achieve transparency between item price and service costs in each of these areas.
At the same time, it will explore with the National Health Service, patient groups and industry how to ensure that those contractors that provide valued services are fairly remunerated for the services they provide, that patient care is maintained and that the NHS secures value for money.
In relation to reagents and dressings, the department is consulting with the market again. This consultation, which was published on Monday, 8 May 2006, covers a sub-set of dressings and a sub-set of reagents in Part IX of the Drug Tariff. This consultation document can be found on the department's website at www.dh.gov.uk·liveconsultations.
Once these periods of discussion and consultation have been completed, the department will be able to take a view on whether further changes need to be explored.
Earl Howe asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether reform of Part IX of the Drug Tariff will promote patient safety and choice more successfully than the status quo; and, if so, why. [HL5934]
Lord Warner: The initial consultation stated that a key objective was to maintain and, where applicable, improve the current quality of care to patients.
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This continues to be the Department of Health's objective as it enters into further consultation regarding some dressings and some reagents, and discussions relating to incontinence and stoma appliances.
No decisions will be taken that compromise patient safety.
Earl Howe asked Her Majesty's Government:
What steps they will take to promote innovation as part of the review of Part IX of the Drug Tariff. [HL5935]
Lord Warner: The Department of Health is undertaking further consultation and discussions with stakeholders. No decisions have yet been reached.
Parliamentary Ombudsman
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Bassam of Brighton on 29 March (WA 126), on how many occasions since 1997, and in respect of which specific recommendations, the Government Office for the Regions has refused or omitted to give effect to the recommendations of the Parliamentary Ombudsman. [HL5727]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Andrews): Information available in the Department for Communities and Local Government of specific cases that concern government offices show they have not refused or omitted to give effect to the recommendations of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, either concerning complaints about administrative practices, service delivery or complaints made under the code of practice on access to government information.
The Department for Communities and Local Government holds no comprehensive central information on the status of all ombudsman cases in other government departments involving, or partly involving, government offices. That information would be available only at disproportionate cost.
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