§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what evidence he received of drug trials often not being carried out on older patients so drugs would not be designed to meet their needs, as published on page 6 of the NSF for Older People Interim report on Age Discrimination; and if he will place the evidence in the Library; [58852]
(2) what evidence he received of age discrimination in staffing ratios, as set out on page 6 of the NSF for Older People Interim report on Age Discrimination; and if he will place the evidence in the Library; [58853]
(3) if he will set out the evidence found of areas and services considered to be affected by implicit age discrimination, as set out in table 4, page 7 of the NSF for Older People Interim report on Age Discrimination; [58856]
(4) if he will set out the evidence found of council policies identified in audits that could be age discriminatory, as set out in table 3, page 7 of the NSF for Older People Interim report on Age Discrimination; [58855]
(5) what information he collects and monitors regarding Standard 1 of the NSF for Older People as set out in the NSF for Older People Interim report on Age Discrimination, page 10, paragraph 27. [58851]
§ Jacqui SmithMonitoring of the milestones in standard one of the national service framework began with the October 2001 milestone, reported on in an interim report published in April 2002. As part of the monitoring of written age related policies the older people's local implementation teams (LITs) were asked to give examples of any issues of concern in relation to implicit or wider age discrimination that arose during their local scrutiny. All the issues in the questions were reported by various LITs as having being discussed as issues of potential concern. Monitoring information on the progress against the April 2002 milestone will be available in the summer.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what further work his Department is undertaking to ensure that he receives greater detail about individual policy age discrimination, as set out in paragraph 13, page 6 of the NSF for Older People Interim report on Age Discrimination. [58854]
§ Jacqui SmithThe are no plans to collect more detailed information at a national level. A report of the local audit of written policies and the local plans to address any individual age discriminatory policies found are to be reported within the next published annual reports of local organisations.