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Whittington Hospital
Mr. Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his oral statement in the respect of future expansion of the Whittington Hospital of 3 February 1998, Official Report, column 844, when he expects funding to be available. [34311]
Mr. Milburn: The National Health Service Executive has asked the Whittington Hospital NHS Trust to bring forward proposals to improve the building fabric of the hospital. This needs to be handled through the capital planning process under which issues of funding will be addressed. The first stage of this process is the production of a strategic context document which summarises the trust's plans for developing its services and puts this in the context of the health authorities' plans for the local provision of health care. Following this, the trust can start to develop its business case for the redevelopment of the site leading, in due course, to the creation of a suitable environment for the delivery of modern health care in this part of north London. We acknowledge the Turnberg Report's emphasis on the need for swift action, but it will take some time to work through the necessary planning process.
Clinical Returns
Mr. Rhodri Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will give details of progress made in providing statutory clinical returns to ICD-10 specifications using Read Codes Version 3; and if he will make a statement. [34765]
Mr. Milburn: Read Codes Version 3 contains cross-references to the International Classification of Diseases version 10 (ICD-10). This allows users to produce data required for central statistical returns in ICD-10 format.
Pembrokeshire and Derwen National Health Service Trust is using Read Codes Version 3 to produce such data for central statistical returns and has evaluated the cross-references to ICD-10. It concluded in a report that
Copies of this report have been placed in the Library.
"Read 3 now adequately supports the business and clinical information requirements of the trust with respect to diagnoses and procedures".
AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD
Genetically Modified Organisms
Mr. Drew: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to discuss with the American authorities their intention to redefine organic food, enabling greater use of genetically modified organisms. [34098]
Mr. Rooker:
The United States Department of Agriculture has published proposed rules for organic food production and has invited comments. These proposals contain several controversial features and the Government are responding both via the European Community and in the context of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling. We are making plain that we will accept only organic imports to the European Community that are produced and certified under standards equivalent to our own.
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Mr. Swinney:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the total expenditure by his Department on (i) building maintenance and (ii) office running costs, in the last year for which figures are available (a) in total and (b) broken down by offices and buildings in (1) London and (2) Scotland. [34227]
Mr. Morley:
The latest complete financial year for which figures are available is 1996/97. In that year, a total of £26,725,000 was spent by the Department on building maintenance; this figure includes maintenance work, repairs and work carried out under facilities management contracts. Of the total, £3,658,000 related to offices and buildings in London while the total for Scotland was £215,000. It should be noted that the Department had only four properties in Scotland in that year.
The total expenditure by the Department in 1996/97 on office running costs (defined here as spending on utilities) was £3,483,000. Of this, a total of £411,000 related to buildings and offices in London and a total of £39,000 to property in Scotland.
Mr. Gill:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what payments are made by the EU for access to Greenland fishing waters. [34299]
Mr. Morley:
Under its fisheries agreement with Greenland, the EU pays 37,700,000 ECU annually for catch quotas in Greenland waters.
Mr. Gill:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food which section of his Department prepared the December 1996 supplementary memorandum for the inter-governmental conference on quota hopping. [33668]
Mr. Morley:
The supplementary memorandum on quota hopping was tabled at the inter-governmental conference in December 1996 on behalf of the previous UK Government.
Mr. Campbell-Savours:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will state his projections for the average level of subsidy per farm holding to be paid to (a) hill farmers, (b) dairy farmers and (c) cereal farmers for 1997-98. [33293]
Mr. Morley:
The projections of average level of subsidy per full-time in England in 1997-98 are as follows:
These amounts include the livestock aid package of £85m which was announced on 3 February.
Mr. Malcolm Bruce:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is his estimate of the expenditure of his (a) Department, (b) agencies and (c) non-departmental public bodies on external
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consultants in (i) 1995-96, (ii) 1996-97, (iii) 1997-98 to date and (iv) 1997-98 full year; and if he will also estimate the cost savings resulting from the employment of such consultants for each of the above years. [26586]
Mr. Morley
[holding answer 5 February 1998]: The sums spent by the Department, and by its Agencies and non-Departmental Public Bodies, on external consultants for the years specified by the hon. Member are as given in the table.
(a) Hill farms £25,000;
(b) dairy farms £4,800 and
(c) cereals farms £39,700.
| £ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995-96 | 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1997-98 | |
| April-December | Total | |||
| Core MAFF | 12,266,550 | 10,400,134 | 4,938,835 | 10,102,677 |
| Agencies | 1,513,975 | 1,611,678 | 687,330 | 1,047,442 |
| NDPBS | 183,350 | 766,253 | 1,221,165 | 1,532,431 |
| Total | 13,963,875 | 12,778,065 | 6,847,330 | 12,682,550 |
The expenditure has resulted in the development of new and enhanced systems and working methods and from the transfer of the consultants' expertise and skills in certain fields to permanent staff.
EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT
Student Maintenance Grants
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will estimate the additional cost of maintaining existing levels of maintenance grants to students and not allowing the means testing of tuition fees in the next three years. [33462]
Dr. Howells: A policy of maintaining means-tested maintenance grants at current levels and continuing to meet tuition fees in full for home and EU full-time undergraduates and students of initial teacher training would not impose any costs in 1998-99. It would lead to forgone savings estimated at £100 million in 1999-2000 and £150 million in 2000-01, rising to £1.1 billion by 2015-16. These figures are for the United Kingdom and at 1995-96 prices. They do not reflect our decision to pay out loans on a termly basis, which released money in 1998-99.
Further Education (Funding)
Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the total number of applications (a) received and (b) approved by the Further Education Funding Council restructuring fund for (i) 1993-94, (ii) 1994-95 and (iii) 1995-96 within the categories (1) teaching staff, (2) support staff and (3) management staff. [33605]
Dr. Howells: The number of applications received and approved by the Further Education Funding Council Restructuring Fund is set out in the table.
| 1993-94 | 1994-95 | 1995-96 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Applications received by the FEFC | 1,563 | 3,042 | 5,588 |
| Applications approved by the FEFC | 1,430 | 2,841 | 4,850 |
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Undergraduate Students (Fees and Grants)
Mr. Alan Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what estimate he has made of the average cost of tuition fees for undergraduate students; and what is the current maximum maintenance grant available to such students. [33799]
Dr. Howells: The average fee paid on behalf of mandatory award holders by local education authorities in England and Wales in the academic year 1997-98 is estimated to be £1,250.
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