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A national action plan for audiology will be published in early 2007. The action plan will be aimed at improving access and reducing waiting times through a strategic improvement approach for the service. A working group is currently developing proposals for the audiology action plan. It will consider all the services that audiology departments provide, including specialist audiology services. In addition to the development of the action plan, the department has announced the procurement of up to 300,000 audiology pathways to provide assessment, fitting and follow-up. Both these measures will assist in significantly reducing waiting times and will greatly benefit those who receive hearing aids.
Health: Regulation of Psychologists
Lord Walton of Detchant asked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their assessment of the extent to which their proposal to place the regulation of the psychological professions under the Health Professions Council will be more successful than the proposal by nine professional bodies representing psychologists to establish a psychological professions council. [HL327]
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner): The Government set out their proposals for the statutory regulation of applied psychologists in their March 2005 public consultation document, Applied Psychology—Enhancing Public Protection: Proposals for the Statutory Regulation of Applied Psychologists. More recently, the department held a four-month period of consultation on our proposals to reform the regulation of medical and non-medical healthcare professionals, following the recommendations made by Sir Liam Donaldson and the advisory group headed by Andrew Foster earlier this year. This consultation ended on
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Health: Sport and Exercise Medicine Doctors
Earl Howe asked Her Majesty's Government:
Which of the first 16 sport and exercise medicine doctors recognised by the Department of Health have been contracted by Olympic governing bodies of sport. [HL195]
Lord Davies of Oldham: At present there are three doctors in the United Kingdom who have formal recognition and a certificate of specialist training from the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine. This new faculty is recognised by the Department of Health as the official route of approval and accreditation in sport and exercise medicine, and those approved by the new faculty are then registered on the General Medical Council's specialist register. The faculty will be increasing the number of fully accredited doctors over the next few years.
Separately, the English Institute of Sport, which receives lottery funding from UK Sport, currently employs 16 doctors. These doctors specialise in sport medicine. One of these doctors is on the specialist register. All the other doctors are in the process of undergoing assessment to be included on the specialist register. Of the 16 doctors employed by the institute, 11 have contractual arrangements with Olympic governing bodies of sport, including the one doctor on the register. The Olympic governing bodies of sport all have doctors contracted to them, although these contractual arrangements vary considerably.
Immigration: Unaccompanied Children
Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many unaccompanied children arrived in England and Wales, for whom an asylum claim has been made, in each quarter or month of the last two years for which figures are available; and which were the principal countries from which they came. [HL375]
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): Asylum seekers apply to be granted refugee status in the UK rather than specifically in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Asylum applications data are not available at regional level.
Information on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children is published quarterly and annually. Copies of these publications and others relating to general immigration to the UK are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate website at http://www. homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html.
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Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the care and education of unaccompanied children, granted asylum or long-term leave to remain, are a national responsibility. [HL412]
Baroness Scotland of Asthal: Support of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children is the statutory responsibility of local authorities, but central government funding from both the Department for Education and Skills and the Home Office is available for this purpose.
Iraq: British Consulate
Lord Clement-Jones asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether suitable premises have been identified for the British consulate in Erbil, Iraq; and, if so, which premises have been identified. [HL385]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Triesman): Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials are currently reviewing plans for the future status of our consulate in Kirkuk. One of the options under consideration is to move to Erbil.
NHS: Compensation
Lord Walton of Detchant asked Her Majesty's Government:
What has been the total compensation paid to patients and families in the past five years as a result of litigation against National Health Service obstetricians alleging brain damage during pregnancy or parturition resulting from negligent clinical care. [HL328]
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner): It is not possible to differentiate claims made against obstetricians and midwife-led teams. The table shows the payments in the past five years for all claims where the injury was either brain damage or cerebral palsy.
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Olympic Games 2012: Budget
Lord Luke asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, following their objective to deliver the London Olympic Games on an all-party basis, they intend to agree all aspects of the overall budget for the London 2012 Olympic Games with representatives from the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties. [HL200]
Lord Davies of Oldham: The Government welcome the all-party support for the Olympic Games and will continue to share information about the delivery of the Games on an all-party basis. The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport has given an undertaking to continue to keep Parliament informed about Olympic costs and to report as necessary on the budget.
Palace of Westminster: Post
Lord Norton of Louth asked the Chairman of Committees:
What was the total number of items of post received in the Palace of Westminster in 2005; and what proportion was received in each of the two Houses. [HL683]
The Chairman of Committees (Lord Brabazon of Tara): Prior to the introduction of systematic screening of the post received in the Palace of Westminster, no accurate figures were kept for the volume of post. Since the introduction of this screening system in January 2006, the volume of post received has been as follows.
Royal Mail estimates that recipients in the House of Lords account for 20 per cent of the total volume. The remaining 80 per cent of the post is destined for recipients in the House of Commons.
Pensions: Richardsons Fertilisers
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will propose policy changes as a result of the collapse of the Richardsons Fertilisers pension scheme.[HL477]
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): We do not propose any policy changes as a result of the collapse of the Richardsons Fertilisers pension scheme.
Prisons: Operational Management
Lord Ramsbotham asked Her Majesty's Government:
Following the abolition of the Office for Contracted Prisons, who is responsible for the direct operational management of each of the private sector prisons containing adult prisoners. [HL587]
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): The operational management of contracted sector prisons has always been the responsibility of the contractor for each of the 11 establishments. This has been the situation both prior to and following the closure of the Office for Contracted Prisons at the end of March 2006. The Home Office is responsible for contractual management, ensuring that contractors deliver the service as set out in the individual contracts. The chief executive of the National Offender Management Service is the ultimate authority for each contract. With the exception of HMP & YOI Ashfield, this is delegated to regional offender managers for the area where the prison is located. Within each of the contracted establishments is a Home Office controller whose task is to ensure adherence to the contract on a day-to-day basis and to take remedial action in the event of non-compliance. The Home Office controllers are line-managed through the regional offender manager. The attached table lists contracted adult establishments and their respective regional offender managers.
| Establishment | Region | Regional Offender Manager |
Lord Ramsbotham asked Her Majesty's Government:
Following the abolition of the Office for Contracted Prisons, what direct operational responsibility the director-general of the Prison Service has for private sector prisons. [HL589]
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