§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to establish a national strategy for lung disease. [29357]
§ Yvette CooperI apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding to this question. I refer him to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002,Official Report, column 192W.
We consider the provision of first class services for people with lung disease as very important. We are taking forward a number of initiatives to drive improvements in prevention, access and delivery of services. These include:
Our £53 million investment in smoking cessation services, which has helped us exceed our "successful quitters" targets by over 50 per cent. in 2000–01–61,500 against a target of 40,000.
£4.9 million has been spent on asthma projects throughout the United Kingdom through the national research and development programme.
We have the launched the biggest ever campaign to immunise people against flu with targets to vaccinate 65 per cent. of over 65-year-olds.
By 2003–04 an additional £570 million will have been invested in cancer care.
Incidence and mortality rates for lung cancer are falling for men and incidence is falling for women.