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Health: Cervical Smears
Lord Steinberg asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will introduce annual cervical smear tests to detect cancer among women, instead of three-yearly tests. [HL1774]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): There are no plans to replace three-yearly cervical screening with annual cervical screening.
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In May 2004, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organisation, concluded that organised and quality controlled cervical screening can achieve an 80 per cent reduction in the mortality of cervical cancer. That women aged 25 to 49 should be screened no more than every three years, and women aged 50 to 64 no more than every five years. The IARC working group which made these conclusions consisted of 28 experts from 14 countries. This policy has been in operation in England since October 2003.
The National Health Service cervical screening programme is renowned as being one of the best in the world, and experts estimate it saves up to 5,000 lives per year.
Marine Environment: Pollution
Lord Jones of Cheltenham asked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their response to media reports claiming widespread marine plastics pollution; and whether they plan to categorise plastics as dangerous waste. [HL1865]
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Rooker): In keeping with the European waste classification system, plastic waste is classified as non-hazardous, unless it is contaminated beyond specified threshold limits by dangerous substances. Further information on the classification of hazardous waste is provided in the Environment Agency's Technical Guidance document WM2, available on their website.
Lord Jones of Cheltenham asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Rooker: Pollutants enter the marine environment by a number of different pathways, from both land and sea-based sources, and are already subject to extensive controls under a variety of different measures, permits and licensing regimes. These include Part 2 of the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 (FEPA), under which all deposits in the sea are controlled and the use of chemicals to disperse oil spills is authorised. The proposed Marine Bill intends to replace Part 2 of the FEPA with new streamlined arrangements for controlling such deposits and oil dispersants. It will also provide modernised inspection and enforcement tools and ensure that, where appropriate, a licensing authority will be able to require polluters to clean up pollution that they have caused.
Schools: Teachers
Lord Quirk asked Her Majesty's Government:
With respect to each year from 1998 to the present, how many graduates began secondary school teaching careers with degree qualifications
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Lord Adonis): Complete information relating to the degree qualification of graduates who began secondary school teaching careers is not available centrally.
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The table below shows the number of final year postgraduate mainstream initial teacher training (ITT) trainees who gained qualified teachers status (QTS) and entered a teaching post in the maintained sector within six months of gaining their QTS, broken down by the subject of their ITT training and their undergraduate degree.
- (1) Mainstream includes universities and other higher education institutions, SCITT and OU, but excludes employment-based routes.
- (3) Performance profiles data are collected at the end of a trainee’s first year, therefore 2006-07 data are collected in autumn 2007 and will be published in July 2008.
- (4) Trainees who enter teaching posts in independent schools or schools where the sector is unknown are not included in the table above.
- (5) The destination of some final year trainees remains unknown, therefore there are potentially more NQTs entering teaching posts within six months of gaining QTS year on year.
- (6) There are additional postgraduate trainees on ITT courses where the first degree is unknown, so there are potentially more graduates gaining entering teaching posts.
- (7) The degree of undergraduate trainees, should they hold one, is not collected through the performance profiles data.
- (8) The table above only covers those who hold a first degree in the subject of their ITT training course; it does not cover those who have a first degree in the subject but are entering an ITT course which is not in this subject.
- (9) Those counted as having a degree qualification in the subject of their ITT course include both direct and related matches between degree and ITT subject. A direct match to the subject of ITT would be holding a degree in the subject of training, where as a related match would be a degree with elements relating to the subject of ITT. For example within Science a degree classified as a direct match would include degrees in subjects such as biology, chemistry and physics and a degree classified as a related match would include degrees in subjects such as medicine and dentistry.
- (10) The method of classifying degree subjects changed as a result of the introduction of the JACS coding structure in 2002-03. Data collected prior to this date under the HESA coding system cannot be directly compared using the direct match alone. Therefore figures for both a direct match and a related match have been included.
- (12) Trainees taking the assessment only are not included in “All secondary subjects” in the table above.
Lord Quirk asked Her Majesty's Government:
With respect to each year from 1998 to the present, how many secondary school teachers with degree qualifications in (a) English; (b) mathematics; (c) foreign languages; (d) ICT; and (e) physics left their teaching posts (1) within the first five years, (2) after five to 10 years; and (3) after 11—15 years.[HL1972]
Lord Adonis: The information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
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