§ Mr. MacdonaldTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will state in respect of environmentally sensitive areas in Scotland(a) the total extent, in hectares, of each environmentally sensitive area, (b) the extent of agricultural land within each environmentally sensitive area, (c) the number of farmers eligible to enter into management agreements in each environmentally sensitive area, (d) the number of agreements concluded with farmers in each environmentally sensitive area and (e) the total area of land covered by agreements in each environmentally sensitive area.
§ Mr. Michael Forsyth[holding answer 13 February 1989]: The information is as follows:
what information is stored in computer databanks and where; for what medical or public health purpose; and subject to what safeguards against unauthorised disclosure;
(2) what precautions are taken in respect of HIV and AIDS clinical report forms and data submitted by microbiologists or clinicians to the PHLS communicable disease surveillance centre to ensure that such information is not accessible to temporarily employed staff;
(3) in respect of AIDS surveillance clinical report forms submitted by clinicians to the PHLS communicable disease surveillance centre, to what extent the collection of data not necessary for specific medical or public health purposes has contributed to the national under-reporting of AIDS which has recently been identified and assessed by the centre and Office of Population Censuses and Surveys staff;
(4) in respect of AIDS surveillance clinical report forms submitted by clinicians to the PHLS communicable disease surveillance centre, what steps he proposes to take to limit data collection to that necessary to ensure the most comprehensive possible reporting of AIDS diagnoses and deaths.
§ Mr. FreemanThe system for reporting HIV and AIDS cases to the communicable diseases surveillance centre (CDSC) is designed to provide the data necessary for surveillance while safeguarding confidentiality.
171WThe information collected consists of personal and clinical data required to identify the health district of residence and the clinical condition. The forms used for data collection are kept under review in the light of experience, and are currently being revised.
CDSC takes a number of steps to safeguard confidentiality. It urges reporting clinicians to encode surnames and provide assistance to them on the use of the soundex code. Addresses are not usually given as only the health district of residence is required. If addresses are given, CDSC encodes them. Only certain members of the staff have access to the written reports which are stored in lockable cabinets in particularly secure buildings. Data held on computer contains no names and addresses and access to it is protected by special security software. On starting employment, all staff have to sign a form drawing their attention to their responsibility to protect confidentiality.
Current evidence suggests that the reporting of known AIDS cases is reasonably complete. To improve the completeness of reporting further, we announced on November 30 that we were asking Dr. Joe Smith, director of the public health laboratory service, to make proposals for reducing under-reporting to a minimum.