28/01/2009 - Answers issued to Members on 28 January 2009

Answers issued to Members on 28 January 2009

[R] signifies that the Member has declared an interest.
[W] signifies that the question was tabled in Welsh.

Contents

Questions to the Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing

Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services

Questions to the Minister for Social Justice and Local Government

Questions to the Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing

Mick Bates (Montgomeryshire): What progress has been on the proposal to examine whether EU Convergence Funds could be used to run a competition to identify the best tidal lagoon site in Wales and support the preparatory phases of constructing a tidal-energy lagoon? (WAQ53161)

The Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing (Jane Davidson): Two tidal lagoon schemes, the Fleming Lagoon, and the Bridgewater Bay Lagoon, have been included in the proposed shortlist of Severn Tidal Power projects to be considered in its second phase. We are also interested in the potential for lagoon development outside the Severn Estuary and hope that the work planned for phase two will also help to demonstrate whether lagoons would be feasible in other locations around the Welsh coastline.

In addition, alongside DEFRA and the SWRDA, the Assembly Government will be contributing funds for further investigation of highly innovative technologies which might be used to capture tidal-range energy in the Severn and elsewhere.

Mick Bates (Montgomeryshire): Will the Minister give an update on progress towards 2010 TAN 8 targets? (WAQ53163)

Jane Davidson: Progress towards the implementation of TAN 8 targets is monitored every April and the latest information relates to April 2008.

Information supplied by local planning authorities indicates that since 2005 when the TAN was published, 47.6MW of installed capacity was operational, a further 11.7MW was under construction, 129.55MW had been consented and some 768.2MW was contained in applications which had been lodged, either with the UK Government or with local planning authorities in Wales.

Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services

Michael German (South Wales East): Further to WAQ53104, will the Minister now provide a copy of the report to Assembly Members from the review undertaken by Dr Chris Jones of the current plans for Primary Care and Community services that underpin the Gwent Clinical Futures Programme? (WAQ53165)

The Minister for Health and Social Services (Edwina Hart): I refer you to my answer provided to WAQ53104.

Peter Black (South Wales West): Will the Minister make a statement on progress made in implementing the NICE Fertility Guideline in full across Wales? (WAQ53172)

Peter Black (South Wales West): Will the Minister make a statement on what steps are being taken to move towards full implementation of the NICE Fertility Guideline? (WAQ53173)

Edwina Hart: Based on the guidelines introduced by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) it was agreed that on balance, the fairest way to implement an equitable service across Wales, within the available resources, was to offer new and existing patients one cycle of treatment which would be subject to a number of criteria. The IVF access criteria across Wales were implemented by Health Commission Wales in July 2005.

Whilst I recognise that one cycle of IVF treatment falls short of the NICE recommendation of three cycles, the budget position of the NHS in Wales does not allow an increased service at the current time beyond one cycle of treatment.

Peter Black (South Wales West): How many cycles of IVF/ICSI are provided in each of the four tertiary centres across Wales? (WAQ53174)

Edwina Hart: Health Commission Wales, which commissions IVF/ICSI in Wales, does not hold this information in the form you require.

Peter Black (South Wales West): What plans does the Assembly Government have to measure the effect on success rates for IVF of the mandatory adoption of single embryo transfer in Wales in the absence of any change from the current policy of 1 fresh cycle of IVF to a full implementation of the NICE clinical guideline which would provide up to 3 fresh cycles? (WAQ53175)

Edwina Hart: Health Commission Wales will plan and monitor NHS funded patients in accordance with the British Fertility Society guidance on 'Elective Single Embryo Transfer in IVF Treatment’. Health Commission Wales will consider any implications arising from this information on its current commissioning policy.

Alun Ffred Jones (Arfon): How many wheelchairs, hearing aids, pairs of crutches, pulpits and other pieces of medical equipment are distributed/loaned free of charge in Wales each year and how many are returned? (WAQ53167)

Edwina Hart: This information is not held centrally.

Jonathan Morgan (Cardiff North): For each year since 1999, will the Minister confirm how many Welsh domiciled mental health patients have been, and are currently being, treated outside Wales in (a) low secure units, (b) medium secure units, and (c) high secure units? (WAQ53162)

Edwina Hart: The information requested is not available centrally. However the recorded number of admissions of Welsh residents to English hospitals where the patient was being treated in a psychiatric specialty is given in the following table. It is not possible to show data by individual hospital due to some very small numbers.

Source: Patient Episode Database Wales, Health Solutions Wales

Notes

(a) As psychiatric episodes tend to be long-term episodes, and Health Solutions Wales only receive completed episodes, there may be a significant number of on-going psychiatric episodes that are not featured in this data. Therefore, these data may not be a true reflection of the number of psychiatric admissions for Welsh residents to English trusts.

(b) The data are based on data submitted from England, and the data quality and completeness may be uncertain.

(c) If a patient has more than one psychiatric admission in separate years, they are counted in the figures for each different year they have been admitted in.

Questions to the Minister for Social Justice and Local Government

Kirsty Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire): How many additional wheelchair accessible toilets will be available in Brecon and Radnorshire as part of the Welsh Assembly Government’s plans to pay businesses to open up toilets up to the public? (WAQ53164)

The Minister for Social Justice and Local Government (Brian Gibbons): Disabled access is covered by the public facilities grant scheme, but I am not in any position to estimate the number of additional wheel chair accessible toilets that will be made available, as this is dependent on the number and type of applications that are approved by each individual local authority.

The provision of public conveniences is solely a matter for local authorities who are locally accountable for determining the level of services that they provide. The Public Facilities Grant Scheme aims to improve access to privately owned toilet facilities for all sections of the community, and a condition of the grant scheme is that local authorities must be satisfied that the toilet facilities of participating businesses provide acceptable standards of safety, hygiene, accessibility for disabled people and provision for both sexes.