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Health: MHRA Fees
Lord Faulkner of Worcester asked Her Majesty's Government:
What proportion of the fees of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency are raised from (a) the generic pharmaceutical industry; and (b) the branded pharmaceutical sector. [HL5401]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): The information is not collected in this form and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Health: Needs Assessments
Baroness Cumberlege asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will ensure pharmaceutical needs assessments feed into the health aspects of joint strategic needs assessments; and whether they will issue future guidance to primary care trusts to ensure pharmaceutical needs assessments feed into the health aspects of joint strategic needs assessments. [HL5331]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): The White Paper Pharmacy in England: Building on Strengths—Delivering the Future highlights that primary care trust pharmaceutical needs assessments should contribute to joint strategic needs assessments, which all primary care trusts and upper tier local authorities have a duty to undertake. The support programme on pharmaceutical needs assessment being devised for primary care trusts, led by NHS employers, is expected to include guidance on linking joint strategic needs assessment and pharmaceutical needs assessment.
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Health: Organ Transplants
Lord Roberts of Llandudno asked Her Majesty's Government:
What arrangements are in place to ensure that organ transplants are available across the boundaries of the devolved Administrations; and [HL5338]
What arrangements are in place to ensure that organ donations throughout the United Kingdom enter a central United Kingdom organ bank. [HL5339]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): It is important that organ donation becomes a usual part of healthcare and that as many people as possible are encouraged to consent to donation after their death. That is why all four United Kingdom health administrations agreed the continuation of a UK-wide approach to organ donation and allocation and to support implementation of the Organ Donation Taskforce recommendations published in January 2008. A programme delivery board established to oversee delivery of the recommendations includes representatives from
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Health: Patients per Doctor
Lord Roberts of Llandudno asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many patients per doctor there are in (a) England; (b) Wales; (c) Scotland; (d) Northern Ireland; and (e) each other member state of the European Union. [HL5336]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): There are 420 patients per doctor (all hospital doctors and all general practitioners (GPs) (excluding retainers)) in England.
There are 1,606 patients per GP (excluding retainers and registrars) in England.
Figures for other parts of the United Kingdom are matters for devolved Administrations, and figures for the European Union are not collected. However, figures on the number of GPs per 10,000 population are available. The table containing these figures is shown below:
| GPs per 10,000 population | |||||||
| 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
| Source: GMS Census | |||||||
Health: Pharmacists
Baroness Cumberlege asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether community pharmacists will be allowed increased access to the NHS summary care records. [HL5330]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): In order to be able to carry out their wider roles safely and effectively, we are committed to community pharmacists having appropriate access to healthcare records. In addition, pharmacists will eventually need to be able to record their interventions in these records. However, confidentiality and security will need to be assured. All of this could be facilitated by the NHS care record service being developed by Connecting for Health.
We met key stakeholders, who in general shared our views, but there are concerns in the main about practical requirements to ensure that patient consent and confidentiality will be maintained and guaranteed in a community pharmacy setting.
As outlined in the White Paper, Pharmacy in England: Building on strengths—delivering the future, we will undertake further work with one of the summary care record (SCR) early adopter primary care trusts to consider the benefits, governance and practical arrangements of community pharmacists having access to the SCR. We will then use the experience gained from this to inform a stakeholder engagement programme to consider how community pharmacy access to the care record service might be achieved nationally.
Earl Howe asked Her Majesty's Government:
When they will appoint the two new clinical leaders to champion change in hospitals and in the community in primary care as set out in the White Paper Pharmacy in England: Building on Strength— Delivering the Future. [HL5386]
Lord Darzi of Denham: We expect to appoint the two national clinical directors for pharmacy in the near future.
Earl Howe asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they plan to introduce measures to standardise systems across primary care trusts for paying community pharmacies for enhanced services. [HL5387]
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Lord Darzi of Denham: Model service specifications and a pricing toolkit have been published for local enhanced services within the community pharmacy contractual framework on the NHS Primary Care Contracting website at: www.pcc.nhs.uk/186.php.
It is for primary care trusts to commission and fund such services according to local needs. The White Paper Pharmacy in England: Building on strengths—Delivering the Future indicates that the Government will introduce a further category of community pharmacy services—directed enhanced services—where directions are issued requiring primary care trusts to commission certain services. The details of these services, including payment, will be subject to discussion with NHS employers and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee.
Health: Research
Lord Alton of Liverpool asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answers by Lord Triesman on 29 October 2007 (WA 144), 12 November 2007 (WA 1) and 12 December 2007 (WA 58) regarding funding of research, and by Lord Darzi of Denham on 10 January 2008 (WA 216) regarding compliance with the February 2004 National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines by the Newcastle primary care trust, what progress has been made in the relevant research; and what are the primary objectives of funding by the Medical Research Council and primary care trusts with regard to healthcare provision. [HL5311]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority placed the latest inspection report of this research project on its website on 1 October 2008 at www.hfea.gov.uk/en/1368.html#17. The research project is RO152. Section 5 of the report outlines the progress of the project and the use of eggs.
The primary objective of the funding provided by the Medical Research Council (MRC) is to support the aim of the project, which is to find ways of improving the efficiency of therapeutic cloning, a technique which would allow scientists to create patient-specific stem cells and develop regenerative therapies for many debilitating conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and Parkinson's disease. The MRC requires that only surplus eggs are to be used for the research, and the donor's treatment for infertility is unaffected by her decision to share eggs.
The primary objective of primary care trusts is to engage with their local populations to improve health and well-being and commission a comprehensive and equitable range of high quality, responsive and efficient services within allocated resources.
Health: Rheumatism
Lord Steel of Aikwood asked Her Majesty's Government:
What action they are taking following the declaration of the European Parliament on 5 June calling on the Council of Ministers to establish national plans to fight rheumatic diseases. [HL5334]
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): Through the musculoskeletal services framework, the department has provided the National Health Service (NHS) and social care organisations with guidance to support improvements to musculoskeletal services, including those for rheumatic diseases.
The framework, which has been placed in the Library, sets out good practice for NHS and social care organisations to consider when commissioning and providing services. It is for primary care trusts, in partnership with strategic health authorities and other stakeholders, to determine how best to use the guidance when meeting national and local priorities for improving health, and commissioning services accordingly.
Licensing
Lord Clement-Jones asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Davies of Oldham: The DCMS Licensing Advisory Group comprises representatives of the following organisations:
Action with Communities in Rural England;Alcohol Concern;Arts Council England;Association of Chief Police Officers; Association of Convenience Stores; Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers; British Hospitality Association; British Institute of Innkeeping; British Beer & Pub Association; British Marine Federation; British Retail Consortium; Business In Sport and Leisure;Chartered Institute of Environmental Health; Cinema Exhibitors Association;The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform;Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations; Federation of Small Businesses; The Guild of Master Victuallers; Justices' Clerks Society;Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services; London Councils;Paterson's;Magistrates Association; Musicians' Union; Noctis; and Working Men's Club and Institute Union/Committee of Registered Clubs' Associations.Since the advisory group comprises organisations not individuals, representation at each meeting varies. Not all organisations attend meetings on a regular basis.
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Lord Clement-Jones asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether all members of the former Live Music Forum are kept informed of discussions about entertainment licensing exemptions for small-scale performances of live music which are taking place with the former chairman, Mr Feargal Sharkey, and the Musicians’ Union. [HL5367]
Lord Davies of Oldham: No. The Live Music Forum (LMF) was established in 2004 to help maximise the take-up of reforms in the Licensing Act 2003 relating to the provision of live music, to monitor the impact of the Act on live music and to promote live music performance. The forum met 13 times, the final meeting being held on 16 April 2007. The forum's recommendations were published on 4 July 2007, after which it disbanded. The Secretary of State recently held a meeting with Feargal Sharkey in his capacity as the newly appointed chief executive of UK Music.
Lord Clement-Jones asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have determined from the survey of live music carried out in 2007 by the British Market Research Board on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (a) the proportion of interviewees who were responsible for the conversion of their venues' justices' on-licence to the new premises licence during 2005; (b) the proportion of those interviewees who started or stopped having live music since the new regime came into force who were responsible for the conversion of their venues' old justices' on-licence to the new premises licence in 2005; and (c) the proportion of interviewees who were working in the same venue since the beginning of 2005. [HL5368]
Lord Davies of Oldham: As the survey did not ask any direct questions concerning the responsibility for licence conversion, it is impossible to determine directly the proportion of interviewees who fell into that category. However, we did ensure where relevant that all respondents were responsible for the provision of live music at that venue. This means they would have had knowledge of any changes to their licence in relation to live music. The survey did not ask about the length of time the interviewee had been working at the venue but did ask a related question about the length of time they had been responsible for live music at the venue. The contractors reported that 60 per cent of respondents had held this responsibility for more than two years. This may be an underestimate as some of the 40 per cent who did not hold the responsibility may have worked there for longer than two years in some other capacity.
Licensing: Circuses
Lord Clement-Jones asked Her Majesty's Government:
What consideration they have given to exempting circus performances from the provisions of the Licensing Act 2003. [HL5369]
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Lord Davies of Oldham: We have consulted circuses directly about their experience of the Licensing Act 2003, and Ministers and officials have met circus representatives on several occasions to hear their concerns. While I am not convinced that licensable activities should be exempt simply because they are carried on within a circus, I do recognise the particular regulatory burdens placed on travelling tented circuses because they move from site to site. We are looking at how we can simplify aspects of the application processes to relieve some of the burden and have also agreed to look at the feasibility of alternative licensing arrangements which better reflect the nature of travelling entertainment performed at multiple sites.
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