§ Mrs. Ann WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will issue guidance to doctors 335W performing abortions about the interpretation of the phrase "capable of being born alive", in the Infant Life Preservation Act of 1929;
(2) if he will issue guidance to doctors performing abortions about the difference in interpretation between the phrase "capable of being born alive", in the Infant Life Preservation Act 1929 and the word "viable" in the Abortion Act 1967.
§ Mr. NewtonWe have no plans to do so. Interpretation of the statutes is a matter for the courts.
§ Mrs. Ann WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will issue guidance to doctors on the gestational limit beyond which it should be presumed that a child should be "capable of being born alive", under the terms of the Infant Life Preservation Act; and if he will make a statement outlining the specific medical evidence available to him in formulating this advice.
§ Mr. NewtonWe have no plans to do so. Whether or not any particular foetus is capable of being born alive is a matter for the clinical judgment of the doctor concerned taking into account all the circumstances of the particular case. The best advice available on this subject remains the "Report on Foetal Viability and Clinical Practice", prepared in 1985 by a working party of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists together with representations of other medical and midwifery
1986–87 Expenditure on Non-National Health Service (Agency, and So On)—Administrative and Clerical Staff Region Total Administrative and Clerical Staff £000s Typing and Secretarial Staff £000s Other Administrative and Clerical Staff £000s Northern 96 68 28 Yorkshire 670 258 412 Trent 993 486 507 East Anglian 954 488 466 North West Thames 6,407 3,489 1,918 North East Thames 5,961 3,291 2,670 South East Thames 3,783 1,930 1,853 South West Thames 6,563 1,985 4,578 Wessex 1,089 623 466 Oxford 663 258 405 South Western 791 550 241 West Midlands 1,718 860 858 Mersey 143 80 63 North Western 384 216 168 London Postgraduate Teaching Hospitals 1,962 1,594 368 Family Practitioner Committees 240 137 103 England Total 31,418 16,313 15,105 All figures independently rounded to nearest £000.
The figures exclude expenditure by certain SHAs and other bodies providing central services to the NHS. Their annual accounts do not separately identify such expenditure but, given the level of their total expenditure, that on agency staff is not thought to be significant.
§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps his Department is encouraging district health authorities to take in order to reduce dependency upon agency arrangements.
§ Mr. NewtonIt is a matter for authorities at local level to make day-to-day decisions on the deployment of staff. Agency staff are used to alleviate staffing problems for a number of reasons including cover during periods of leave and where special skills are required for short-term projects. In the nursing and midwifery grades, staff are now being offered more flexible work arrangements, more opportunities for part-time work and job sharing, and336W professional bodies, and sent to all fellows and members of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in this country. Its recommendations were unanimously supported in November 1987 in a further report by the same professional bodies, together with the Clinical Genetics Society.