HL Deb 28 January 2002 vol 631 cc20-1WA
Lord Morris of Manchester

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What information the Department of Health has on the range of conditions treated by:

  1. (a) state registered chiropodists; and
  2. (b) unregistered chiropodists. [HL2296]

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

Chiropody (podiatry) is the clinical discipline concerned with the diagnosis and comprehensive management of foot and lower limb pathologies. It involves treatment of a wide variety of disorders and conditions affecting the foot and lower limb function and this treatment may be curative, preventative or may involve a course of long-term palliative care or health education. Further information can be found in Benchmarking academic and practitioner standards in Podiatry published by the Quality Assurance Agency, a copy of which has been placed in the Library. The document can also be found at www.gaa.ac.uk.crntwork/benchmark/nhsbenchmark/benchmarking.htm.

The scope of practice of state registered practitioners, however, is a matter for the chiropodists board of the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine. Other non-state registered practitioners set their own scopes of practice.

Lord Morris of Manchester

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many individuals declared chiropody or podiatry to be their main occupation in the census

Food Standards Agency (FSA) MAFF/DEFRA1 AFRC/BBSRC2 Medical Research Council (MRC) Department of Health (DoH) Total
£000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £million
1990–91 2,300 1,500 553 4.4
1991–92 4,200 2,950 567 7.7
1992–93 5,700 4,450 615 10.8
1993–94 6,200 4,200 710 64 11.2
1994–95 5,800 2,400 895 208 9.3
1995–96 5,600 3,050 845 500 10
1996–97 6,800 3,030 1,462 270 11.6
1997–98 10,100 3,723 1,633 1,100 16.6
1998–99 12,651 3,587 3,953 2,100 22.3
I999–2000 15,068 4,481 5,079 4,700 29.3
2000–01 2,458 13,284 4,289 5,983 3,987 30
1The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) was formed out of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF), parts of the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions and parts of the Home Office in 2001.
2The Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC) became the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council ( BBSRC) in 1994.

The cost of caring for patients suffering from vCJD varies considerably from case to case, but it is generally considered to be in line with the cost of caring for a wide range of other terminally and chronically ill patients.