---

Alcohol

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) people and (b) children under the age of 18 years have been diagnosed as alcoholics in England in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [4413]

Mr. Burns: I refer the hon. Member to the replies that I gave to the hon. Member for Coventry, South-East (Mr. Cunningham) on 7 November, Official Report, columns 627-28.

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the connection between drinking at an early age and alcohol-related problems in later life. [4409]

19 Nov 1996 : Column: 529

Mr. Burns: None. However, the Department is commissioning work to produce estimates of alcohol-related mortality, which will form a basis from which estimates of life years lost due to alcohol-related illness could be made.

Medicines (Cost)

Miss Emma Nicholson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to reduce the time taken to reimburse pharmacists for the cost of medicines, to bring them into line with the repayment scale demanded by medicine wholesalers. [4504]

Mr. Malone: I refer the hon. Member to the reply that I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Mr. Viggers) on 12 December 1995 at column 580.

Barnet General Hospital

Mr. Livingstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the total sum spent by the Wellhouse Trust on consultancy fees relating to the private finance initiative for the rebuilding of Barnet general hospital, phase Ib. [3218]

Mr. Horam: The information requested is not held centrally.

Asylum Seekers

Mrs. Gorman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to assist local authorities in the funding of the cost of asylum seekers. [3122]

Mr. Burns: The Department of Health has established special grants to assist local authorities in supporting (i) children and their families, and (ii) unaccompanied children. Officials from relevant Government Departments are also working with the local authorities most concerned to assess the scale of the problem of adult asylum seekers.

NHS Facilities (Repair and Maintenance Backlog)

Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the outstanding repair and maintenance backlog at NHS facilities by regional health authority for each year since 1988. [4300]

Mr. Horam: The outstanding repair and maintenance backlog by regional health authority is shown in the table. The information is available only from 1989-90.

The figures include estimated costs for maintenance on all properties in the NHS due to be replaced, not used for patient care, awaiting planned preventive maintenance and awaiting disposal. They also include an element for meeting statutory and safety standards.

Backlog maintenance estimates (£000s) by region 1989-90 to 1992-93

Region	1989-90	1990-91	1991-92	1992-93
Northern	98,766	97,109	138,672	142,129
Yorkshire	122,422	98,988	(33)--	125,987
Trent	119,841	102,170	120,375	119,383
East Anglia	67,772	66,156	(33)--	83,462
Oxford	122,566	81,961	(33)--	89,925
North West Thames	75,234	70,934	(33)--	84,049
North East Thames	257,386	300,500	329,303	331,467
South East Thames	141,324	108,939	240,789	264,256
South West Thames	196,121	150,222	178,099	176,176
Wessex	62,060(33)	107,539	86,088	111,461
South Western	121,008	112,878	153,415	123,605
West Midlands	242,276	280,554	320,737	307,229
Mersey	80,768	50,148	46,553	64,310
North Western	95,048	104,911	126,373	144,011

(33) Data incomplete.

19 Nov 1996 : Column: 530

Backlog maintenance estimates (£ 000s) by region 1993-94 to 1995-96.

Region	1993-94	1994-95	1995-96
Northern and Yorkshire	321,103	393,068	369,388
Trent	132,983	129,252	200,193
Anglia and Oxford	243,135	186,912	222,923
North Thames	503,381	483,518	514,398
South Thames	378,527	334,987	327,671
South and West	230,419	263,322	243,891
West Midlands	382,500	310,541	290,490
North West	198,950	222,978	243,472

HIV and AIDS

Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what funding has been spent in each region on voluntary sector HIV treatment and prevention work by health authorities in (a) 1993-94, (b) 1994-95 and (c) 1995-96; [4301]

(2) what proportion of the AIDS (Control) Act 1982 reports for 1995-96 have been received by his Department; which reports are yet to be received; and of the reports so far received, what funding has been spent on HIV treatment, community care and prevention work in each region on (i) voluntary sector and (ii) statutory bodies by health authorities in (a) 1993-94, (b) 1994-95 and (c) 1995-96. [4302]

Mr. Horam: The funding spent by health authorities in the statutory and voluntary sectors for HIV treatment and prevention in the years 1993-94, 1994-95 and 1995-96 is set out in the table. Information on sums spent by health authorities on community care for both sectors is not available centrally.

Ninety-six per cent. of the AIDS Control Act reports for 1995-96 have been received to date. Those outstanding are from Camden and Islington, Avon Somerset and Walsall health authorities. The totals in the table for 1995-96 are therefore incomplete.

Treatment and prevention 1995-96(34)

		Statutory sector expenditure				Allocation to voluntary sector
		Treatment		Prevention		Treatment		Prevention
English health regions	£	Per cent.	£	Per cent.	£	Per cent.	£	Per cent.
Northern and Yorkshire	5,676.37	92.26	4,527.86	77.27	476.21	7.74	1,331.93	22.73
Trent	3,006.03	97.39	4,241.32	84.26	80.56	2.61	792.29	15.74
Anglia and Oxford	8,879.03	96.91	5,327.20	93.50	283.11	3.09	370.34	6.50
North Thames	84,397.03	84.97	8,912.94	69.61	14,928.65	15.03	3,891.17	30.39
South Thames	24,226.28	82.71	6,035.59	75.94	5,064.35	17.29	1,912.25	24.06
South and West	4,638.56	89.85	4,392.08	83.43	524.00	10.15	872.31	16.57
West Midlands	2,864.74	87.39	3,625.24	88.29	413.37	12.61	480.82	11.71
North West	9,843.32	96.86	4,909.61	86.50	319.10	3.14	766.24	13.50
Grand total	143,531.37	86.66	41,971.85	80.12	22,089.35	13.34	10,417.35	19.88

(34) These figures represent reports received to date, and are therefore incomplete.

19 Nov 1996 : Column: 531

19 Nov 1996 : Column: 531

Treatment and prevention 1994-95

		Statutory sector expenditure				Allocation to voluntary sector
		Treatment		Prevention		Treatment		Prevention
English health regions	£	Per cent.	£	Per cent.	£	Per cent.	£	Per cent.
Northern and Yorkshire	5,988.05	93.90	5,026.67	83.20	389.00	6.10	1,015.00	16.80
Trent	2,083.37	96.82	4.183.00	89.00	67.53	3.19	517.00	11.00
Anglia and Oxford	5,890.50	95.20	4,277.32	91.90	297.00	4.80	377.00	8.10
North Thames	103,181.48	94.20	3,111.96	73.50	6,353.00	5.80	1,122.00	26.50
South Thames	20,918.03	87.60	5,387.69	80.90	2,961.00	12.40	1,272.00	19.10
South and West	6,368.58	93.10	6,505.09	89.00	472.00	6.90	804.00	11.00
West Midlands	3,506.81	84.10	5,420.57	93.00	663.00	15.90	408.00	7.00
North West	6,730.03	97.10	5,813.82	91.30	201.00	2.90	554.00	8.70
Grand total	154,666.86	93.13	39,726.11	86.75	11,403.53	6.87	6,069.00	13.25

19 Nov 1996 : Column: 531

Treatment and prevention 1993-94

		Statutory sector expenditure				Allocation to voluntary sector
		Treatment		Prevention		Treatment		Prevention
English health regions	£	Per cent.	£	Per cent.	£	Per cent.	£	Per cent.
Northern and Yorkshire	6,119.11	92.60	5,591.52	89.20	489.00	7.40	677.00	10.80
Trent	2,208.25	96.80	4,648.84	90.50	73.00	3.20	488.00	9.50
Anglia and Oxford	4,545.22	91.80	4,246.00	96.50	406.00	8.20	154.00	3.50
North Thames	73,587.88	93.40	6,800.74	84.80	5,200.00	6.60	1,219.00	15.20
South Thames	19,606.79	87.90	5,811.50	79.30	2,699.00	12.10	1,517.00	20.70
South and West	6,233.65	93.10	5,474.84	89.30	462.00	6.90	656.00	10.70
West Midlands	2,817.50	92.00	5,320.97	93.40	245.00	8.00	376.00	6.60
North West	5,340.55	93.80	6,263.38	89.60	353.00	6.20	727.00	10.40
Grand total	120,458.94	92.39	44,157.80	88.37	9,927.00	7.61	5,814.00	11.63

19 Nov 1996 : Column: 531

19 Nov 1996 : Column: 531

---