§ Mr. Pawseyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what funding is available to responsible bodies for counselling on matters relating to AIDS.
§ Mr. NewtonThis year we have allocated the following money for counselling:
- — £ 200,000 for counselling training. This is double last year's allocation. There are currently two training centres, at Bolton and St. Mary's hosptial, Paddington. Another centre is to open at Birmingham.
- — £1 million to drug misuse centres to help them provide, among other things, counselling on AIDS for drug misusers.
- — a total of £280,000 to the six haemophilia reference centres, to counsel haemophiliacs and their families.
A number of voluntary bodies in the AIDS field are involved in counselling. Last year we allocated £469,000 to such bodies, though it is not possible to identify how much of this has been spent in counselling. We are making available increased resources to voluntary bodies for the current financial year and we are now considering their allocations. We will also be providing up to £800,000 over the next year for the new National AIDS Trust, which will co-ordinate voluntary effort on AIDS.
We are currently considering the future role of telephone services, including the National Advisory Service on AIDS, in the light of evaluation of the service during the first phase of our public education campaign.
§ Mr. Pawseyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the total funding his Department is making available for research into AIDS; and what plans he has for 1988–89 and 1989–90.
§ Mr. NewtonThe Department has so far made available £2 million for research into AIDS in 1987–88. No decision has yet been taken on the level of funding for 1988–89 and 1989–90.
Research on AIDS in the United Kingdom is coordinated by the Medical Research Council which receives its grant-in-aid from the science budget of the Department of Education and Science. This has been increased by £14.5 million over the next three years to support a 150W directed research programme aimed at developing a vaccine and anti-viral drugs. An extra £3 million has also been made available for general AIDS research.
§ Mr. Pawseyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his Department's latest estimate of the number of AIDS sufferers in the United Kingdom in 1990.
§ Mr. NewtonThe Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, which collects information about persons suffering from AIDS, has predicted that the numbers of new cases of AIDS will be 1,300 in 1987 and 3,000 in 1988. As yet there are insufficient data for reliable forecasts beyond 1988 to be made.