SUMMARY

Questions to the Secretary of State for Children Schools and Families (17/11/2008)

Questions to the Secretary of State for Children Schools and Families (13/10/08)

Questions to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (20/10/2008)

Questions to the Secretary of State for Health (22/07/2008)

Questions to the Secretary of State for Health (17/06/2008)

Questions to the Secretary of State for International Development (30/04/2008)

Questions to the Prime Minister (19/03/2008)

Questions to the Secretary of State for International Development (12/03/2008)

Questions to the Secretary of State for International Development (30/01/2008)

Questions to the Secretary of State for Children Schools and Families (17/11/2008)

Mr. David S. Borrow (South Ribble) (Lab): Does my right hon. Friend agree that there is a place in sex and relationships education for teaching about sexually transmitted diseases, particularly for ensuring that young people get a realistic and accurate appraisal of HIV/AIDS and its consequences?

Jim Knight: My hon. Friend is right that the subject of sexually transmitted diseases should be covered as part of sex and relationships education, on an age-appropriate basis, which currently means from secondary school age. It is compulsory for young people to learn about HIV/AIDS, and I am sure that that will continue to be the case.

For this set of questions in full click here

Questions to the Secretary of State for Children Schools and Families (13/10/08)

Mr. Graham Allen (Nottingham, North) (Lab): What steps he is taking to make the teaching of life skills to pupils between the ages of 11 and 16 years more relevant to the needs of areas with high levels of teenage pregnancy and drug and alcohol abuse and low educational aspiration; and if he will make a statement. [225778]

The Minister for Children, Young People and Families (Beverley Hughes): The flexibility in the new secondary curriculum allows teachers to tailor it to local circumstances and the needs of all pupils. Personal learning and thinking skills, which I agree are critical if children are to reach their potential, are embedded in the curriculum. Through personal, social and health education, young people are helped to develop the social and emotional skills that they need to make informed decisions and good choices. The children’s plan announced reviews of sex, relationship and drugs education, and those reviews will report shortly.

Mr. Allen: The Minister will know that the basis of all attainment is adequate social and emotional intelligence, but the provision of life skills education for those aged 11 to 16 is currently not fit for purpose in constituencies such as mine. Sex and relationship education, PSHE, civics and the secondary-level teaching of SEAL—the social and emotional aspects of learning—all create a confused, overlapping and unstructured offering. Will the Minister support Nottingham’s early intervention plan to pull together a coherent 11-to-16 life skills curriculum, including modules on preventing teenage pregnancy and reducing drink and drug abuse? Will she ensure that it reaches the years that need it most, and becomes a mandatory, tested and inspected part of the curriculum?

Beverley Hughes: Many schools across the country are already doing what my hon. Friend suggests, using the new secondary curriculum to build an innovative, personalised curriculum for their pupils that has personal thinking and learning social and emotional skills at its heart. Of course, schools now have a statutory duty to promote the well-being of their pupils. The new curriculum gives schools the flexibility to do that. There is an extensive programme of support to enable schools to start developing their curriculum. I understand that only three schools in the city of Nottingham have attended the PSHE events, and that schools there have not drawn down the expert help that we are offering. If my hon. Friend can encourage schools in Nottingham to do that, they can make the same progress that schools across the country are already making.

Angela Watkinson (Upminster) (Con): The ethos of the school and the wishes of parents and governors should be the main driver of the PSHE curriculum. Will the Minister guarantee that there will be no national prescription of the content of PSHE? There are many schools where PSHE is already very successful and reflects the cultural and religious views of the school’s community. Where it is necessary, and where there is failure, help should be given, but some schools are already perfectly capable of providing such a service.

Beverley Hughes: The hon. Lady is probably aware that there are two new, non-statutory PSHE frameworks that schools can apply and develop according to the needs of their pupils and the wishes of parents. As I have said, we are currently reviewing sex and relationship education, and will come forward with the outcome of that review shortly.

Mrs. Ann Cryer (Keighley) (Lab): Does my hon. Friend agree that there is another aspect to the lack of education about sex and unprotected sex? Many women today have to undergo invasive, unpleasant and expensive treatment to help them to conceive, but they would not have been in that position if they had had information fed to them at school about the need to have protected sex to avoid conditions such as chlamydia.

Beverley Hughes: I agree with my hon. Friend, who has done a great deal of work on the issue, that the long-term effects of early and unprotected sexual activity and of getting pregnant in one’s teens are numerous. She identifies some of the health consequences, but of course there are also other consequences, such as poverty and lack of opportunity later in life. That is why we have put a great deal of effort into reducing teenage pregnancy and making sure that young people can get the advice that they need when they need it on all aspects of sexual health.

Alistair Burt (North-East Bedfordshire) (Con): The new child maintenance and enforcement commissioner recently suggested that children as young as 11 be taught about the consequences of becoming young fathers, and the repercussions of failing to fulfil their parental responsibilities. While that is admirable, does the Minister think that there is room in the curriculum for such information, and does she think that it will be successful?

Beverley Hughes: I agree, if the hon. Gentleman is making a general point about the need to focus on the behaviour of boys as well as of girls when we try to help young people to make the right choices in relation to sexual activity. I would certainly like to see as much a focus on boys as on girls within SHE in schools and within sex and relationship education. I am sure that that is something on which the review will comment, and I hope that we can take that forward.

Kelvin Hopkins (Luton, North) (Lab): Britain stands in stark contrast to many countries in continental Europe in these matters. For example, only a little while ago in Holland, there was one sixth the number of teenage pregnancies compared with Britain. Is my right hon. Friend looking into why those contrasts are so dramatic, and can we learn something from countries such as Holland that would serve to improve the situation in Britain?

Beverley Hughes: Yes, indeed, I think that we can, and we have been looking at that quite closely. It is true that our relatively high teenage pregnancy rates in this country are long standing, and go back as far as records began, some 40 years ago. In making comparisons, a couple of factors might be associated with the different rates in different western countries. First, in Holland, there is much more acceptance by parents of the subject, and there is a freedom and lack of embarrassment among parents when talking to their children about sexual activity—much more so than here. Secondly, the quality and nature of the sex and relationship education in Dutch schools is something from which we can learn.

Robert Key (Salisbury) (Con): Whether or not it is schools teaching too much sex or parents teaching too little, or the other way round or neither, the fact is that in my constituency, which I guess is typical, the major public health problems among young people are chlamydia and penile warts, exacerbated by excessive alcohol consumption. That is a real problem, and we have been ducking it for years. It is time that we recognised that there is a free-for-all out there among young people, who are not inhibited by the social mores under which most of us grew up. Is it not time that we helped them, and whether the answer is schools or parents, or both, we have to raise the tone of this debate?

Beverley Hughes: I certainly agree that for a minority of young people, that is a problem that we have to take seriously, and we are doing so. The hon. Gentleman is right to suggest that there is clearly a link for some young people between alcohol and drug consumption and unsafe sex. However, I regret the general stereotype that he painted, because it is not true of all young people. We should be careful in the House lest we reinforce the negative stereotypes of young people that we see all around us in the press, which are very regrettable.

Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con): I congratulate the hon. Member for Nottingham, North (Mr. Allen) on his excellent work with the Centre for Social Justice and on his co-authorship of the pamphlet, “Early Intervention” because he knows more than most people about the problem, as after 11 years of Labour Government in Nottingham, his city has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in western Europe and, at 8 per cent., the lowest proportion of people going into higher education. Does the Minister agree that the teaching of life skills is not just the responsibility of teachers battling to fit everything into the curriculum, and that school nurses, parents and other professionals have a key role to play in reducing teenage pregnancies and substance abuse as a precursor to better educational achievement? In that case, why in a parliamentary answer of 3 June from a Health Minister, was it revealed that the grand total of qualified school nurses employed by Nottingham City primary care trust amounted to zero?

Beverley Hughes: The hon. Gentleman is quite right that dealing with the issue at local level involves all the relevant organisations, as well as parents, working together. Health professionals have a clear role to play. I cannot tell him what the figures are for Nottingham, but I will obtain them for him.

Tim Loughton: Zero.

Beverley Hughes: I do not think that that figure is probably right, but I will check it. The number of health qualified professionals working in the community nationally—that includes community nurses, school nurses and district nurses as well as health visitors—has risen under the Government, and I am sure that that will be shown to be the case in Nottingham as well.

5. John Bercow (Buckingham) (Con): What recent assessment he has made of the quality of sex and relationship education in schools. [225782]

The Minister for Schools and Learners (Jim Knight): As part of the children’s plan, we have given a commitment to review best practice in effective sex and relationship education and its delivery in schools. We have fully involved young people in the review, many of whom told us that they did not have the knowledge they needed to make safe and responsible choices about relationships and sexual health. We expect to announce the review’s recommendations shortly.

John Bercow: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that extremely informative reply. Given the chronic rates of teenage pregnancies in this country, the rising incidence of sexually transmitted infections among young people and the description by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority of our sex and relationship education as patchy, will the Minister now heed the call by the Sex Education Forum to make sex education part of statutory personal, social and health education, to be delivered by a qualified work force in an age-appropriate way, as a matter of priority?

Jim Knight: As ever, the hon. Gentleman makes his points clearly and forcefully; I always listen to what he has to say. Teenage pregnancy rates have fallen by 12.9 per cent. over the past 20 years, so, although there is further to go, we have made some good progress. The hon. Gentleman is right, however, that we need to improve the consistent quality of sex and relationship education. I have received many strong representations for making personal, social and health education statutory in order to address the problem. I think that that is only part of the argument, but we will make our announcement shortly.

Mr. Neil Gerrard (Walthamstow) (Lab): I am sure that my hon. Friend is aware that Ofsted has said that a substantial amount of PSHE is not satisfactory and that too many teachers are not well qualified to teach it. Will the Minister also heed that the PSHE Association, which supports teachers, has said that in many cases teachers find it difficult to get time off for professional development in that subject because the school does not regard it as a high priority? Making the teaching of PSHE statutory would, I am sure, help schools to give the subject the priority it deserves and secure better qualified teachers.

Jim Knight: My hon. Friend is right that Ofsted has raised concerns about the consistency of the quality of the teaching of sex and relationship education. That echoes the work of the UK Youth Parliament and the Sex Education Forum, which each conducted a survey of young people that showed that about 40 per cent. and a third of young people respectively said that the sex and relationship education they received was not good enough. We set up the PSHE Association in order to improve its overall quality. I am listening closely to the argument that my hon. Friend makes for statutory provision of PSHE.

Sir Patrick Cormack (South Staffordshire) (Con): Whatever may be done in secondary schools, is there not something deeply disturbing about a society in which young primary school children can be taught the mechanics of sex by those who are not allowed to put a comforting hand on their shoulders?

Jim Knight: The hon. Gentleman raises an interesting philosophical point. It is important that we as a society allow better sex and relationship education in both primary and secondary schools without sexualising young people too early. It is right to share the responsibility between home and school: it is not something that schools can deliver on their own; parents need to have a loud voice in how sex and relationship education is delivered for their children. As a Government we put the safeguarding of children as our highest priority and we will continue to do so.

Jeff Ennis (Barnsley, East and Mexborough) (Lab): On that very point, before entering this place I had 20 years’ experience as a teacher. I once had a post teaching health education, including sex education, at Hillsborough primary school in Sheffield. It was always my view that the best way to teach sex education was to do so in the early years at primary school, so involving the parents before the children reached the age of puberty. Does the Minister agree that we are talking about the beginnings of teaching sex education and that that ought to be done in the primary sector, rather than leaving it to the later stages in secondary school?

Jim Knight: My hon. Friend is right that the international evidence suggests that teaching aspects of sex and relationship education before puberty has a positive effect on such things as teenage pregnancy rates. Clearly, that has to be done with a high degree of sensitivity and, as he says, the involvement of parents, with children reaching puberty at different ages. We must ensure not only that, as a society, we are comfortable with the level of detail and of education that people receive during sex education, but that we are strong on relationship education. We are proud of the introduction of SEAL—the social and emotional aspects of learning—which my shadow described as ghastly, but which is improving relationship education in primary as well as secondary schools.

Mrs. Maria Miller (Basingstoke) (Con): The Government’s guidelines clearly say that sex education has to be delivered in the context of relationships to be effective, but the Youth Parliament has already shown that four out of 10 youngsters have not received any relationship education while at school. For more than six years, Ofsted has been calling for fundamental changes in how sex and relationship education is taught in our schools and the Minister’s new review is welcome, but when will he be able to reassure parents and young people that action has been taken and that every child will be taught sex and relationship education by a teacher who understands best how to deliver that challenging subject, because they have had some training in it?

Jim Knight: I would be happy to proceed on the issue on a cross-party basis, and I would be delighted to meet with the hon. Lady this week if she would like to discuss where we might end up with our review. She is right that it is important that we have strong relationship education as well as sex education. It is important that we have listened to the voices of young people. That is why I co-chaired the review with a member of the UK Youth Parliament, which did such useful work in its survey of more than 20,000 young people.

Questions to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (20/10/2008)

Dr. Ian Gibson (Norwich, North) (Lab): How many people with HIV have had their (a) disability living allowance and (b) incapacity benefit reduced or withdrawn in the last 12 months.

The Minister for the South East (Jonathan Shaw): The figures my hon. Friend asks for are not available in that form. However, he may know that we have been conducting a review of disability living allowance cases where the recipient has been in receipt of the benefit for three years or more and was qualified as being terminally ill. That includes some cases where the recipient has HIV/AIDS. As a result of that exercise, I can tell the House that up to the end of September, 1,040 people have had their benefit maintained or increased, 730 people saw their benefit reduced and 510 had it stopped, although these figures are likely to change as a result of any appeal or dispute.

Dr. Gibson: I congratulate my hon. Friend on his meteoric rise from having expertise on the Norfolk broads to his work and pensions brief; it is truly awesome. HIV infection leads to a fluctuating health condition for many people in that they can be assessed one week as healthy or otherwise, and the next week as quite the opposite. Will my hon. Friend’s new disability living allowance assessment procedures allow for such flexibility, so that we can have an assurance that the fear many people feel can be dismissed?

Jonathan Shaw: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for bringing this matter to the attention of the House. He will know that in special rules cases where someone is terminally ill, we ensure that decisions on disability living allowance are given within days rather than weeks. That is for the obvious reason that when someone receives disability living allowance in such circumstances, they are terminally ill. We are reviewing the situation for when people have been in receipt of it for longer than three years, however. The point my hon. Friend makes about fluctuating conditions and diseases such as HIV and AIDS is right. That is why we have consulted with HIV specialists and we are working in partnership with organisations such as the Terrence Higgins Trust, ensuring that our decision makers are fully aware of all the points my hon. Friend has made.

Mr. Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab): Given the depth of stigma that is still associated with HIV, and in particular the effect it has on an individual’s ability to work, will personal advisers under the new employment support scheme undergo any HIV-specific training for the job?

Jonathan Shaw: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that question. Under the new employment support allowance, it is essential that staff have training in a wide range of conditions so that they can assist people back into work. We are certainly aware of that issue. On the wider point about disability living allowance, I am sure my hon. Friend will agree that it is right for us to look at those in receipt of the special award that is implemented at the point when someone is diagnosed as terminally ill. We want to assist people when they have been diagnosed with that condition—we want to assist people with that condition so that they can work and get into work. My hon. Friend is also right to raise the issue of stigma; we need to continue to tackle that as well.

Mr. David S. Borrow (South Ribble) (Lab): On the question of stigma and people with HIV, surveys show that 44 per cent. of the population would expect to be told if they were working with a colleague who was HIV-positive. Does my hon. Friend recognise that, in finding jobs for people who are HIV-positive, there is a stigma in the work place and it is not just a matter of them wanting a job, but it is also a matter of the employer being prepared to take them on? Under this new scheme, the Minister and his departmental colleagues need to be aware of that.

Jonathan Shaw: Many people in society are affected by prejudice and by preconceived ideas about what they are rather than what they can do—disabled people, those with HIV/AIDS or those with a whole range of other conditions. We as a House, as Members of Parliament and as a Government need to ensure that we tackle those preconceived ideas and prejudices to ensure that employers up and down the land appreciate people for what they can do, not what condition they have.

For this set of questions in full click here

Questions to the Secretary of State for Health (22/07/2008)

John Bercow (Buckingham) (Con): Given that the list of medical exemptions to prescription charges was drawn up as long ago as 1968 and that the first case of HIV/AIDS in the United Kingdom was diagnosed only in the 1980s, does the Secretary of State agree that it would now be timely to update the list and add HIV/AIDS to it?

Alan Johnson: That is one of the purposes of the review to which my right hon. Friend the Member for Rother Valley (Mr. Barron) referred earlier. The review of prescription charges is to look again at that 1968 list to see whether we need to remove any of the illnesses that qualify for free prescriptions, or, as the hon. Gentleman suggests, add to the list.

For this set of questions in full click here

Questions to the Secretary of State for Health (17/06/2008)

Patrick Hall (Bedford) (Lab): How many newly acquired HIV infections were recorded in 2007. [211292]

The Minister of State, Department of Health (Dawn Primarolo): Data on newly acquired HIV infections are not available, but an estimated 5,817 people were reported as newly diagnosed with HIV infection in 2007, compared with 6,769 in 2006. The figures include people with long-standing infections, including many who were infected outside England but who were subsequently diagnosed in this country.

Patrick Hall: I thank my right hon. Friend for her answer. She will know that there is a serious problem not only with the overall numbers, which, although coming down, were recently still up on the 1997 figure of, I think, 3,000. She will also know about the problem of late diagnosis—people being diagnosed six or seven years after becoming infected, by which time they have become highly infectious and less likely to respond to treatment. She will be aware that London’s strategic health authority has highlighted that big problem and is trying to address it with a target to halve the number of people who are diagnosed late. Will she seek to use her influence to spread that target and practice throughout all health authorities in the country?

Dawn Primarolo: My hon. Friend raises a very important point. He will know that the prevalence of HIV in England is one of the lowest in Europe—comparable to that in Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark. Nevertheless, he is quite correct: about 31 per cent. of those who are infected are unaware of the fact. The steps that the Department has been taking have been, first, to focus on publicising the importance of early testing and on providing extra resources; secondly, to improve timely access to NHS testing, particularly in a variety of settings, not just in genito-urinary medicine clinics; thirdly, to look very specifically at where the highest risks are and to ensure that information and support are provided to those groups to encourage them to come forward for testing; and, finally, to undertake work with those in the voluntary and third sectors, as well as with local health authorities, to try to remove the stigma and the perceived discrimination that many people fear in order to encourage them to come forward.

Mr. David Heath (Somerton and Frome) (LD): Has the right hon. Lady had any recent discussions with her colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions about the growing concerns regarding medical assessments of people with HIV infections, in respect of disability allowances and of fitness for work? It is a growing concern, and it would be very useful if she were to have appropriate discussions with the DWP to ensure that it applies the right tests.

Dawn Primarolo: I have not had any discussions recently about that point, but if the hon. Gentleman has specific issues and experience in his constituency I would be very happy if he sent them to me, because clearly we must ensure that medical assessments are conducted correctly, particularly with regard to that very vulnerable group.

Mr. Neil Gerrard (Walthamstow) (Lab): I am sure that my right hon. Friend recognises the risks to public health from the greater number of new infections and from people who are undiagnosed. Given that, will she look again at including HIV in the list of infections that are exempt from NHS charges? We must have a balance between the public health risks and the financial costs, recognising that the risks outweigh the costs.

Dawn Primarolo: All people who are ordinarily resident in England are entitled to free national health service treatment, including for HIV. My hon. Friend will be aware that that is qualified by exempting categories of individuals from charges under the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 1989, as amended. He will also be aware that asylum seekers are exempt from charges for all hospital treatment, including for HIV, and will remain exempt for courses of treatment that continue if and when their applications for asylum are rejected. All the points with regard to the threat to public health that he correctly identifies are addressed in the strategies that we use.

Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con): The Minister will know even from the Government’s own data that many of the at-risk people to whom she referred are from sub-Saharan Africa. What consideration have the Government given to selected pre-screening of people who apply to move to the United Kingdom through work visas or student visas, or, indeed, as asylum seekers?

Dawn Primarolo: The hon. Gentleman will know that the Government have announced that they are investing an extra £2 million, in addition to the moneys already committed to prevention work, to look specifically at groups of highest risk, including gay men and people from African communities. Working through the African communities and the African HIV project, we are addressing particularly the issues that the hon. Gentleman mentions. It is important that people come forward for early testing. It is not necessary to have compulsory testing. We are seeing that testing through the various clinics and measures has increased dramatically—in some cases, by up to 85 per cent.

Mr. David S. Borrow (South Ribble) (Lab): Does my right hon. Friend agree that there is a danger that as more and more people are living and working with HIV/AIDS, the perception of the disease as being life-threatening recedes, and that any prevention programme therefore needs to recognise that change in perception and to focus very much on the fact that being able to take drugs and in most cases live a long and productive life is not a reason to assume that one is not at risk?

Dawn Primarolo: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. With the development of therapies and treatments, it is particularly important that people understand that HIV is still a deadly disease. We particularly need to understand—the Department is taking this forward—which groups in the community may be less aware of the risk, or have a belief that they can live with it, and to target additional information and support to them to encourage them, first, to come forward for testing, and, secondly, to desist from activities that increase their likelihood of HIV infection.

In 'topical questions' after the above session it was asked:

Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con): Would the Minister of State like to have another go at answering my earlier question about HIV/AIDS? Given the increasing number of cases of HIV/AIDS and, indeed, TB in this country, many of them brought in by people from sub-Saharan Africa, will she tell us whether she believes that selective pre-screening of those people before they enter the United Kingdom, not while they are here, is a good idea for Britain?

The Minister of State, Department of Health (Dawn Primarolo): I believe that I have already answered the question, but I will answer it again. No, the Government do not consider pre-screening to be necessary. Our policy is to encourage the highest-risk groups to come forward voluntarily for screening. The group that the hon. Gentleman has identified is not the highest-risk group, but it is one of the groups that we are addressing.

Questions to the Secretary of State for International Development (30/04/2008)

Mr. Gary Streeter (South-West Devon) (Con): I welcome the Minister’s response on this important subject, but is it not also the case that girls who are educated for seven years or more are much more likely to be empowered to reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS in their own lives and in their family? Therefore, if we are to tackle that terrible global disease, is not empowering young women by educating them one of our highest priorities? I commend what the Minister has already said and done, but will she go even further and do even more?

Gillian Merron: I welcome that commendation from the hon. Gentleman, and I thank him for his recognition of the work that the Government and others have done in promoting education. Education has been described to me as a social vaccine against HIV and AIDS, and I concur. Girls who stay in school are much more likely to know key prevention techniques and to persuade their partners to use them, and are less likely to become HIV-positive. The figures speak for themselves. In Swaziland, two thirds of teenage girls in school are free from HIV, whereas two thirds of girls out of school have HIV. Such figures concentrate our minds.

For this set of questions in full click here.

Mr. Graham Allen (Nottingham, North) (Lab): What progress has been made in halting and reversing the spread of HIV and AIDS globally by 2015 in accordance with millennium development goal

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Mr. Gareth Thomas): Progress is being made in the international effort to tackle HIV and AIDS. There has, for example, been a significant scaling up in the level of financial assistance to tackle the epidemic, and the number of people receiving antiretroviral treatment in poor countries has risen from 400,000 to more than 2 million. There is, however, a lot more to do.

Mr. Allen: Will the Minister take this opportunity to distance himself from the more weird and wacky groups that are suggesting that abstinence is the only way to combat HIV/AIDS in parts of the world? Will he also take the opportunity to tell the House that as many moneys will go via voluntary organisations and non-governmental organisations as will go through some of the dubious central Governments who operate in the areas most afflicted by HIV/AIDS?

Mr. Thomas: I can confirm to my hon. Friend that we do not support abstinence-only programmes for HIV prevention, because none of the available evidence suggests that such programmes are an effective strategy for HIV prevention. He raised a point about the valuable contribution that voluntary sector organisations make. I have had the privilege of seeing some of the work that Christian Aid supports in southern Africa, so I take his point about the need for us to continue to work with the voluntary sector. I hope that he will recognise that where we can have confidence in the commitment of Governments to preventing HIV and AIDS, we should continue to help them scale up their ability to tackle AIDS in their countries.

Mr. Mark Lancaster (North-East Milton Keynes) (Con): Will the Department’s forthcoming AIDS strategy continue to contain a dedicated funding target for AIDS, and will a percentage of that funding be allocated to supporting vulnerable children and orphans, as happens today?

Mr. Thomas: The reason why the strategy is forthcoming is that there is still work to do on its preparation, so I cannot give the hon. Gentleman a preview of what it will contain. One of the reasons why we included specific targets when we published our previous AIDS strategy in July 2004 was to generate significant new political momentum behind the effort to fight AIDS in general and the AIDS orphans crisis. I hope that he will recognise, from the research that he has done, that political momentum behind the fight against AIDS has increased significantly and that much greater effort is being put into tackling the specific problems faced by AIDS orphans.

Mr. Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab): Although it is recognised that there are many health-related problems in the developing world, does my hon. Friend agree that when money is specifically targeted at preventing HIV/AIDS and reversing that trend in that area, it should be spent on tackling HIV/AIDS and not on other health-related issues?

Mr. Thomas: We need to do both. We must ensure not only that we continue to help tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic, but, as the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington, South (Helen Southworth) indicated, that we do more to tackle a range of other health conditions. We cannot fight AIDS without more health workers—more doctors and more nurses—in-country, and we cannot tackle infant and child mortality without there being more health workers in place. We need to do more to tackle the specific problems associated with HIV/AIDS, but we must also ensure that our response to HIV/AIDS helps to tackle those broader health questions.

Mr. Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP): Does the Minister accept that on the continent of Africa where HIV/AIDS is a particularly acute problem, as well as education, the other key area is the elimination of corruption, so that the resources deployed can reach those at risk in certain nation states?

Mr. Thomas: We have had many exchanges in the House about the difficulties that corruption causes for Governments who want to help the poorest people in their countries. That is why we have a considerable number of safeguards to help to ensure that our money is spent effectively and goes where it is needed, and to help developing countries to build up their own defences against corruption. I agree that we need to continue to do more in that area.

The hon. Gentleman is also right to say that we must do more to promote education, especially girls’ education and access to primary education more generally. That is one of the reasons why my right hon. Friends the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister have made the commitment to an £8.5 billion investment over the next 10 years from the UK to seek to achieve those objectives.

Questions to the Prime Minister (19/03/2008)

Mr. John Leech (Manchester, Withington) (LD): My constituent, Adela Mahoro Mugabo, who is HIV positive after being raped and tortured in Rwanda, is threatened with being sent back to that country, where she will not be able to access the treatment that she requires to stay alive. Will the Prime Minister intervene to stop that travesty of justice?

The Prime Minister: I am very happy to look at the case that the hon. Gentleman mentions. Obviously, there is no reason to believe that people being returned to Rwanda, which is now a peaceful country, will be tortured or in difficulties as a result of that. If there is an issue about the treatment of this particular patient, we will obviously consider it.

Questions to the Secretary of State for International Development (12/03/2008)

Mr. David S. Borrow (South Ribble) (Lab): What steps his Department is taking to support orphans in Malawi. [193265]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Mr. Shahid Malik): There are 1.5 million orphans and vulnerable children in Malawi, 550,000 because of HIV and AIDS. DFID gives £2 million a year to the National AIDS Commission, which, among things, provides education and care to orphans and vulnerable children through community-based organisations. In 2006-07, just under 1 million orphans and vulnerable children received support. The commission is also supporting a pilot cash transfer, which has helped 35,000 people in four districts, including 17,000 orphans and vulnerable children.

Mr. Borrow: Will my hon. Friend join me in paying tribute to a small charity based in South Ribble, the Friends of Mulanje Orphans—FOMO—which supports 4,000 orphans in Malawi? Will he also ensure that his Department gives as much support as possible to the excellent work that organisations such as FOMO undertake?

Mr. Malik: I am more than happy to recognise the excellent work carried out by organisations such as FOMO, which, as my hon. Friend says, helps 4,000 orphans with school fees, meals and health care through a network of 10 centres covering 70 villages. That is exactly the sort of vital community-based work that Malawi’s National AIDS Commission funds. It supports some 1,800 organisations, providing care for orphans and vulnerable children across Malawi.

Mr. Gary Streeter (South-West Devon) (Con): As the Minister said, many of these children are orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS. Is he therefore confident that enough of the Department’s investment in Malawi and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa is spent on preventive measures through education, rather than just on treatment? Is it not the case that we will never get to grips with HIV/AIDS unless we can empower people to make informed lifestyle choices to deal with that dreadful disease?

Mr. Malik: The hon. Gentleman is correct. Education is vital in the fight against AIDS, but so, too, is health care. It deals with the symptoms; he is talking about the cause. I am pleased to let him know that we are investing £100 million in Malawi over six years to deal with many of these issues and that antiretroviral treatments are now available to 130,000 people compared with a figure of just 3,000 in 2003.

Ann McKechin (Glasgow, North) (Lab): As my hon. Friend will be aware, the Scottish Executive have been running a programme in Malawi for some years. Given the Paris declaration on harmonisation and alignment, does he agree that it is important that the programme should work in tandem with DFID to ensure the best and most effective aid programme for Malawi?

Mr. Malik: My hon. Friend is right. Part of the Paris declaration and its principles is that there should be alignment between different funding targeted at various areas—that would apply in Malawi too.

Mr. Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley) (Con): Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world—it is certainly one of the poorest countries in Africa. Does the Minister agree that the best help we can give its orphans is to reduce the number of children being orphaned in the first place? Ensuring access to antiretroviral drugs is vital; they must be properly delivered. What can he do to ensure that the numbers of doctors and nurses fleeing Malawi to come to countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America are greatly reduced?

Mr. Malik: The hon. Gentleman is, of course, right. A serious challenge for the developing world, and for Malawi in particular, is the fact that health workers leave those areas. I am pleased to say that between 2003 and 2007 their migration decreased by 71 per cent. The investment of £100 million to which I referred in part deals with some of those challenges. The situation has been helped by the code of conduct that this country has put together on employing overseas health workers. As a result of that £100 million investment, salaries have increased by 52 per cent. and a series of development incentives is in place for workers in Malawi. We are supporting the doubling of the number of nurses and the trebling of the number of doctors, and I am sure that he will very much welcome that.

5. Mr. Graham Allen (Nottingham, North) (Lab): What progress is being made in halting and reversing the spread of HIV and AIDS globally by 2015 in accordance with millennium development target 7.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Gillian Merron): Last year, the number of people living with HIV and AIDS levelled off for the first time. The number receiving antiretroviral treatment rose from 400,000 in 2003 to more than 2 million in 2006.

Mr. Allen: Although we all want to help people who have HIV and AIDS, does the Minister accept that we also need to ensure that proper programmes are in place to prevent the further spread of AIDS? Will she tell us what the Department is doing to help to spread the promotion of those educational programmes, in particular the further use of condoms in these areas, so that HIV/AIDS is stopped before it can begin?

Gillian Merron: My hon. Friend makes an important point, given that nearly 7,000 people are newly infected with HIV every day. Indeed, prevention is crucial to stopping and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS. We need to improve people’s knowledge, change attitudes, give women more control over their own lives, promote the availability and use of condoms and boost education. On all those matters, DFID is working directly with countries and co-ordinating with other donors.

Hywel Williams (Caernarfon) (PC): What steps are the Government taking to promote peer education on HIV and AIDS in developing countries by non-governmental organisations such as Christian Aid? Will she commend the work done by the pioneering group of young people from Wales that recently visited Sierra Leone?

Gillian Merron: I do indeed endorse peer education programmes, which are very much part of the work that we do, and I commend the young people to whom the hon. Gentleman refers. I have recently met groups of young people who are extremely committed to peer education. People listen to those with whom they identify.

Questions to the Secretary of State for International Development (30/01/2008)

Ms Sally Keeble (Northampton, North) (Lab): Whether his Department’s strategy for tackling HIV/AIDS in developing countries includes measures to support children orphaned, or made vulnerable, by that condition. [182972]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Gillian Merron): Children, including those orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS, are at the heart of the UK’s strategy for tackling the epidemic and its effect in the developing world. We are committed to spending £150 million to help meet their needs over the three years to 2008.

Ms Keeble: I welcome my hon. Friend to her new position, which I am sure she will find rewarding. It is a very important role. Is she aware that the non-governmental organisations that work on these issues particularly want to see the UK devote 10 per cent. of its funding stream on HIV/AIDS to support for orphans and vulnerable children? Furthermore, they want Government systems to improve to make sure that the aid gets to the orphans. What assurances can she give those NGOs?

Mr. Speaker: Order. This is a supplementary question.

Gillian Merron: I thank my hon. Friend for her kind words of welcome. She is a tireless campaigner on this issue; just last week, she met my predecessor to discuss it. I assure the House that following the public consultation on the UK’s strategy for tackling HIV/AIDS in the developing world, we will continue to work and build on what works best so that the needs and rights of orphans and vulnerable children remain absolutely central as we move forward to tackle the issue.

Mr. Andrew Mitchell (Sutton Coldfield) (Con): Will the hon. Lady, whom we congratulate on her promotion, look carefully at the valuable report produced by Business Action for Africa, and note the enormous importance of business and the private sector in the fight against HIV/AIDS—a recognition that has not always been part of the Minister’s Department’s DNA?

Gillian Merron: I thank the hon. Gentleman for welcoming me to my post and look forward to working with him and his team. I certainly agree about the importance of economic development and growth in combating HIV/AIDS and I look forward to considering the report to which he refers.

Mr. Mitchell: My right hon. Friend the leader of the Conservative party and I have been pressing for clear, interim targets for scaling up access to HIV prevention and treatment. Some 93 countries have now set such targets and 60 have developed national action plans. Does the Minister accept that, without those targets, we will miss the goal of universal access by 2010? Will she ensure that her Department encourages all developing countries to set such targets and develop those plans?

Gillian Merron: I assure the House that we lead the world towards achieving universal access to comprehensive prevention programmes, treatment, care and support by 2010. We remain firmly committed to that goal. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will remember that the UK has made an unprecedented, long-term commitment of £1 billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Indeed, in wanting to strengthen health care systems across the world, our Prime Minister launched the international health partnership initiative in September last year to improve the co-ordination of donors working on health and to support countries to develop better health care systems.

Mrs. Claire Curtis-Thomas (Crosby) (Lab): My hon. Friend will know that accessing health care sometimes depends on being literate. In many developing countries, the level of literacy is incredibly low. In the measures that she is proposing, will my hon. Friend ensure that, as well as the provision of registered sister nurses, there is some incentive to improve literacy in those countries?

Gillian Merron: I certainly share my hon. Friend’s views; a boost to education is the most effective and cost-effective means of HIV prevention. We promote that as a major part of our international work in addition to improving people’s knowledge, changing their attitude and behaviour, giving women more control over their own lives and promoting the availability and use of condoms.

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