§ Mr Liddell-GraingerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans there are to maintain standards in the public health laboratories after their privatisation. [78740]
§ Ms BlearsAll the laboratories of the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) are Clinical Pathology Accreditation UK Ltd, accredited. It is envisaged that those PHLS laboratories that will transfer to the National Health Service in the coming months will maintain this accreditation. There is no plan to privatise PHLS laboratories.
§ Mr Ian Liddell-GraingerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many public health laboratories will be privatised. [78742]
§ Ms BlearsNone of the laboratories will be privatised. From 1 April 2003, approximately 35 will transfer from the Public Health Laboratory Service to the management of National Health Service trusts. The remainder, approximately ten, will transfer to the Health Protection Agency when it is established.
§ Mr Ian Liddell-GraingerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what co-ordination there will be between public health laboratories; and who will be responsible for checks on them after they are privatised. [78744]
§ Ms BlearsNone of the laboratories will be privatised. The Health Protection Agency will be responsible for monitoring the specialist services across the National Health Service laboratories transferring from the Public Health Laboratory Service, as well as their own laboratories. NHS trusts will be responsible for the routine microbiology services in their own trusts. They will be subject to the same performance monitoring as well by primary care trusts. External accreditation programmes will also remain in place. In time, the laboratories will form part of local pathology managed clinical networks. It is hoped that, until then, informal links will be maintained and strengthened between individual laboratories.
§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many posts will be lost as a result of changes to the Public Health Laboratory Service. [78786]
§ Ms BlearsUnder the change management protocol which has been agreed with the current employers and the unions concerned, all staff transferring to the Health Protection Agency on its establishment or to a National Health Service trust will have guaranteed continuity of employment until April 2004.
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§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) whether the terms and conditions of employment of staff transferred to the proposed Health Protection Agency will be rationalised so that common terms and conditions apply to all staff, regardless of whether they came from the National Radiological Protection Board or the Public Health Laboratory Service; [78789]
(2) which aspects of health protection are proposed to be dealt with by the proposed Health Protection Agency; and which posts with the Public Health Laboratory Service are to be transferred to the HPA; [78790]
(3) what evaluation has been made of the case for abolition of the Public Health Laboratory Service. [78791]
§ Ms Blears"Health Protection: A Consultation Document on creating a health protection agency", published in June 2002, proposed that the agency would take on responsibilities in relation to the control and prevention of infectious disease, including most of the functions of the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS), radiological protection, protection against chemical and poisonous hazards and health emergency planning. All PHLS staff would transfer to the agency, other than those in the laboratories which will transfer to the national health service by 31 March 2003, under separate decisions announced on 3 September. We are currently considering responses to the consultation document and will announce our decisions as soon as possible.
The consultation document also proposed that staff would transfer on their existing terms and conditions of service. Future changes would be a matter for the board of the proposed agency to agree with the recognised trades unions.