My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper. In doing so, I must declare an interest as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will reconsider their decision to withdraw, from July 2005, their funding for the Evidence and Guidance Collaborating Centre on Childhood Accidents, formerly funded by the Health Development Agency.

No, my Lords. The contract for this collaborating centre is a matter for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. I understand that the work commissioned from the centre will be completed in September 2005. It is for the institute, which has a world-class reputation, to determine whether it wishes to contract for further work from the collaborating centre.

My Lords, in thanking the Minister for that reply, does he agree that the problem of accidental injury to children is a significant public health issue? Does he further agree that it was disappointing to see that this did not receive prominent coverage in the Government's white paper on public health? Is he also aware that this collaborating centre, in collaboration with the Child Accident Prevention Trust, was given to understand by the Health Development Agency that its grant would run for three years, whereas since that agency was merged with NICE, the grant is now to be terminated in July of this year?

My Lords, I am sure that the whole House would want to associate itself with Child Safety Week, which began yesterday. It is run by the Child Accident Prevention Trust with funding from the Department of Health and four other government departments. The fact that this contract has not been continued by NICE does not mean in any way that the Government remain other than fully committed to reducing the level of childhood accidents both within and outside the home. We are carrying out a wide-ranging programme of initiatives to ensure that this takes place. The National Service Framework for Children details a number of actions in the area.

I understand that the issue of this particular contract is a matter for NICE. The work has been done and the collaborating centre is still on the list of bodies that NICE can use, but no further work is being offered to the centre at this time.

My Lords, the Minister will be aware that a number of other collaborating centres are also carrying out extremely valuable work on issues including drug prevention, obesity, physical activity and smoking cessation. Can the Minister tell the House whether funding for those collaborating centres is also under threat?

My Lords, I think that there may be a misunderstanding about the nature of these contracts. The Health Development Agency established a network of 10 collaborating centres and entered into what might be described as framework agreements so that the centres could be used when there were certain pieces of work to do. NICE has now reviewed the 10 arrangements and is continuing with seven centres, one of which is the centre mentioned in the Question, but no particular pieces of work for the centre are being commissioned by NICE at the moment.

My Lords, can the Minister tell the House what guidance has been issued to NICE to ensure that both the research elements and the provision of information and training being carried out by the collaborating centres are sustained under the new contract?

My Lords, I think that the relationship with NICE is rather different from the one the noble Baroness suggests. The Department of Health, on behalf of the Government, agrees a set of referrals to NICE. The methodologies that NICE uses to carry out those referrals is a matter for that body. As I have said, it has a world-class reputation and it is not a body to which we give detailed instructions.