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Lord Darzi of Denham: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) would expect some rationalisation in the manufacturing of herbal medicines reflecting the fact that to carry out this activity safely to systematic standards within a regulated environment requires specialist expertise. It is likely that some manufacturers lacking such specialist expertise may withdraw from the market. However, there is no basis on which to make specific estimates. Feedback to the agency from individual companies suggests that many are still developing their plans for registering
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The guidelines on the quality of herbal medicinal products prepared by the European Medicines Agency largely reflect good practice identified by the herbal industry. In its regulatory impact assessment of the THR scheme the MHRA estimated that typically the overall costs of registering a product under the scheme could be several tens of thousand pounds but that the figure would vary widely according to specific circumstances, not least depending on whether companies already had systematic quality control systems in place. This assessment has not changed.
Health: Prescribing Data
Earl Howe asked Her Majesty's Government:
With reference to page 11 of the consultation document issued by the NHS Information Centre on 4 June entitled Wider Release of Prescribing Data Consultation FeedbackDocument, what is meant by the phrase “specific NHS purpose”. [HL5172]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): The phrase “specific NHS purpose” means that the intended use of the data will be stated at the time of the request for the data and there should be a clear purpose and benefit to the National Health Service.
Earl Howe asked Her Majesty's Government:
With reference to page 4 of the consultation feedback document issued by the NHS Information Centre on 4 June entitled, WiderRelease of Prescribing Data Consultation Feedback Document, what is meant by a party (a) internal to the National Health Service, and (b) external of the National Health Service; and whether a party internal to the National Health Service includes an independent sector organisation providing services to the National Health Service. [HL5173]
Lord Darzi of Denham: Internal to the National Health Service means supply of data to an NHS organisation, which could include NHS trusts and PCTs, or organisations related to the NHS such as the Healthcare Commission, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and the National Patient Safety Agency.
External to the National Health Service means organisations which are not within the NHS family; for example, the pharmaceutical industry.
Earl Howe asked Her Majesty's Government:
Why the consultation document issued by the National Health Service Information Centre on 4 June entitled, Wider Release of Prescribing Data: Consultation Document was not accompanied by an
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Lord Darzi of Denham: Legal advice to the NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care stated that an impact assessment was not necessary to accompany the document. It is not a requirement, and it was considered to be too early to perform any level of assessment on the proposed project.
Work on a privacy impact assessment has now commenced and the following are the areas that are being currently assessed:
impact on stakeholders;information flows;information risk management;technical and operational security issues; anddata quality issues.We will be in a position to provide a copy of this impact assessment when it is has been completed.
Health: Radiologists
Baroness Tonge asked Her Majesty’s Government:
What steps they are taking to ensure that there are sufficient consultant radiologists to meet demand for scans and complex imaging as a consequence of the Government’s planned extension of the breast screening and colonic screening programmes. [HL5084]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): The number of consultant radiologists has increased from 1,473 in 1997 to 2,133 in 2007, an increase of 45 per cent. It is for cancer networks to work in partnership with strategic health authorities, primary care trusts, NHS trusts and postgraduate deaneries to put in place a sustainable process to assess, plan and review their workforce needs and the education and training of all staff linked to local and national priorities for cancer, including cancer screening programmes.
Baroness Tonge asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many (a) breast screening radiologists, and (b) colonic screening radiologists are working in the United Kingdom in the past five years. [HL5085]
Lord Darzi of Denham: The annual National Health Service workforce census does not separately identify the number of breast screening radiologists and colonic screening radiologists employed from the rest of the radiology workforce.
The department does collect the number of radiologists working in the NHS. The number of consultant radiologists working in the NHS in England over the past five years is shown below.
The number of consultant radiologists has increased by 273 (14.7 per cent) since 2003.
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| Table 7a Hospital and Community Health Service (HCHS) medical and dental consultants (including Directors of Public Health) by specialty group | |||||
| numbers | |||||
| England at 30 September | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
Health: Urology Appliances
Baroness Masham of Ilton asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many new categories and sub-categories there are in the June consultation proposed new arrangements under part IX of the drug tariff for the provision of stoma and urology appliances—and related services—in primary care. [HL4996]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): The proposed classification is as follows:
part IXA—7 chapters/ 50 sub-categories/ 95 groups;part IXB—36 chapters/ 90 sub-categories/ 132 groups; andpart IXC—29 chapters/ 125 sub-categories/ 254 groupsThe classification was determined by two panels: one to review urology appliances listed in part IXA (catheter) and part IXB; the other to review items listed in part IXC. Membership consisted of healthcare professionals, patient and industry association representatives.
Their work was also subject to “expert review” by healthcare professionals who were either currently practising within the NHS or could provide proof of extensive professional experience.
Lord Roberts of Conwy asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they took into account that the weight of a monthly home delivery for intermittent catheters is often in excess of 6 kilograms when developing their consultation document Proposed New Arrangements under Part IX of the Drug Tariff for the Provision of Stoma and Urology Appliances—and Related Services—in Primary Care. [HL5006]
Lord Darzi of Denham: In the current consultation it is proposed that every dispensing appliance contractor and pharmacy contractor in England should be required to provide the following as part of essential services for items that they supply in the normal course of their business.
First, home delivery for all items in part IXA (catheter, laryngectomy and tracheostomy), part IXB and part IXC of the drug tariff—if so requested by the user. This includes the delivery of intermittent catheters.
It is also proposed that dispensing appliance contractors and pharmacy contractors should provide, where necessary, a reasonable supply of complimentary wipes and disposal bags for some categories of prescription items in part IXA, part IXB and part IXC. All of these items are listed in annexes C1, C2 and C3.
It has been proposed that for the provision of these services, dispensing appliance contractors and pharmacy
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Calculations and underlying assumptions used in arriving at the proposed level of payment are as follows:
The weight range referred to in the above table was determined using sample data provided by the PPD. These were used to:
estimate the average weight of an item within a prescription; andestimate the average weight of a prescription, assuming that a prescription has an average of 2.2 items in it.Immigration: Armed Forces Deserters
Lord Avebury asked Her Majesty's Government:
Why the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal website lists the tribunal case of BE (Iran) as the current authority on the treatment of an asylum seeker
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal’s case law database contains all reported determinations of the tribunal.
The reported case law database is an important legal research tool and is like any other set of law reports in that it publishes a selection of decisions that were made by the tribunal. The website does not seek to annotate those decisions thereafter. It is an historical record and does not purport to represent current law.
The significance of a higher court decision that overturns a reported case will be known to the parties in the usual way. It should also be noted that the AIT website contains a disclaimer stating that the inclusion of a determination on the database should not be taken as an indication that it represents the current law.
Had BE (Military service—punishment—landmines) Iran [2004] UKIAT 00183 been a country guidance case, which it is not, paragraph 18 of the AIT practice directions would have applied. That provides that the tribunal is to maintain a list of “current” country guidance cases on the AIT website. The tribunal, through its legal research unit, does its best to ensure that when a reported country guidance determination is overturned by the higher courts and is no longer “current”, an appropriate “case note” entry is made to the AIT website as soon as is reasonably practicable. The practice directions do not, however, contain a similar requirement for non-country guidance reported determinations.
Israel and Palestine: Gaza Sewage
Baroness Tonge asked Her Majesty's Government:
What representations they have made to the World Health Organisation about discharge of sewage in Gaza and the danger of pollution and infection in the Mediterranean. [HL3433]
Baroness Crawley: The Department for International Development (DfID) monitors the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip closely. Due to fuel shortages, 60 million litres of raw and partially treated sewage flows into the Mediterranean each day and 90 per cent of mains water is polluted.
The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) leads the water and sanitation sector in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. UNICEF works closely with the coastal and municipalities water utility, the relevant Palestinian body, to address the sewage situation and minimise risks to public health. We remain in regular contact with both. We are also in regular contact with the World Health Organisation (WHO) on general health issues.
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Israel and Palestine: West Bank
Baroness Northover asked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their response to a recent report by the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs which claimed that Israel had put in place an additional 41 checkpoints and other physical limitations on the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank since September 2007. [HL4440]
Baroness Crawley: Movement and access restrictions have a significant impact on the daily life of ordinary Palestinians. While we understand Israel’s security concerns, more should be done to ease movement and access restrictions to stimulate economic activity and improve daily life. We welcomed Israeli Defence Minister Barak’s announcement in March to remove 50 obstacles. However, of these only five were assessed as “significant” obstacles by the UN. The Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports in its latest humanitarian monitor that, as of the end of June, the number of physical obstacles and checkpoints was 602.
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