HEAD LICE

That this House recognises the evidence, produced by the Bug Busting programme, run by the charity Community Hygiene Concern, that giving information to parents in the early detection and life-cycle of head lice is crucial to their control and whole-school participation in bug busting days prevents head lice from circulating; welcomes the findings of studies made by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine that a high proportion of parents provided with a bug buster kit use it repeatedly to detect and remedy head lice in their whole families, without having to use individual treatment products; calls on the Department of Health to ensure that community health providers are made aware that families often gain sustainable, cost effective control with a bug buster kit; and further calls on the Department for Education and Skills urgently to explain to primary schools the importance to public health, school and family wellbeing of promoting participation in at least one of three national bug busting days.