§ Mr. DhandaTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with(a) other Government Departments, (b) local authorities and (c) other agencies to establish a co-ordinated approach to preventing accidents in the home. [135317]
§ Miss Melanie Johnson[holding answer 30 October 2003]: Other Government Departments, local authorities, and other agencies were represented on the Accidental Injury Task Force, whose report was published in October 2002. Subsequent discussions with Government Departments and with regional directors of public health have shown that better co-ordination will depend on integrating injury prevention into broader programmes on the needs of children and older people, with particular emphasis on health inequalities.
This is now being pursued in implementing the older peoples' national service framework (NSF), in preparing the remainder of the NSF for children, and in contributing to cross-Government policy proposals for these groups, for example in the Ministerial Sub-Committee on Older People.