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Hostels

Mr. Fitzpatrick: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) how many direct access hostel places in London currently cater for clients with partners; [9008]

Mr. Raynsford: This information is not held centrally.

Mr. Fitzpatrick: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many direct access hostel places there are currently in London. [9007]

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Mr. Raynsford: This information is not held centrally. The London Hostels Directory, published by Resource Information Service, and partly funded by my Department, gives details of more than 27,000 bedspaces in over 600 different buildings. It is not possible to say how many of these places are direct access. As part of the Rough Sleepers Initiative in London, my Department is funding 278 places in hostels and nightshelters. Most, though not all of these places will be direct access.

Council Tax

Mrs. Ballard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what research his Department has conducted into the correlation between income levels and council tax bands. [9070]

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Mr. Raynsford: None. The council tax is a property based tax and council tax benefit is available to help meet the bills of people on low incomes.

Press Releases

Mr. Chidgey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how much his Department spends on biking press releases to (a) hon. Members and (b) other individuals or groups, each time his Department issues a press release; how many such press releases were issued by his Department (i) in the period 1 May to 1 July and (ii) in the period 1 January to 1 March; and if he will review his Department's use of couriers to deliver press releases and investigate the possibility of using fax or e-mail. [8810]

Angela Eagle: The Department uses a courier for delivery of press releases to the Press Gallery. This is part of a general courier service for the Department as a whole and costs for these specific deliveries are not separately identified.

With this exception, it is not normal practice for the Department to send press releases by courier to hon. Members, other individuals or groups.

In common with other Departments, press releases are distributed to the media through the Central Office of Information's News Distribution Service, which utilises a combination of electronic and hard copy delivery methods. In addition to this, the Department issues releases to other interested parties by post, or exceptionally fax.

Roads Programme (Leicester)

Mr. Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and the Regions if orders have been submitted for (a) the Leicester Eastern district distributor road and (b) the Leicester A46-47 link road scheme stage 2. [8324]

Ms Glenda Jackson: (a) No; (b) Yes.

Mr. Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on the funding considerations underlying his Department's advice to the city council to apply for funding through the 1998-99 TPP bid for the Leicester A46-47 trunk road. [8325]

Ms Jackson: My Department's advice was that if the City Council wished the A46-47 scheme to have any possibility of obtaining funding under the 1998-99 TPP settlement they must bid for it. In giving the advice it was made clear that there can be no guarantee of funding for this or any other project, ahead of the settlement.

Mr. Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what is his Department's policy on the construction of the Leicester A46-47 link road; and what priority it accords to (a) environmental issues and (b) economic benefit in determining this policy. [8326]

Ms. Jackson: The policy on the construction of the A46-47 link road is the same as that for all road schemes presented to the Secretary of State. The overall merits are assessed in the context of the public interest.

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The A46-47 forms part of the accepted package of transport proposals which constitute the Central Leicestershire Package. Advice on the appraisal of projects and on the preparation of package bids is issued to authorities each year. This covers, inter alia, environmental issues and economic benefit.

Red Routes

Mr. Cox: To ask the secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list the red-route proposals under consideration by his Department for the London Borough of Wandsworth.[9098]

Ms Glenda Jackson: The roads in Wandsworth designated as red routs are the A3, A24, A205, A214, A217, A306, A3205 and A3220. We are currently consulting on whether the A214 should remain in the red route network. The implementation programme for other red routes in Wandsworth is set out in the Traffic Director for London's Annual Report and Accounts for 1996-97, a copy of which is in the Library.

Network Cards

Mr. Chidgey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment he has made of the decision by train operators to limit when network card holders can use their cards; and if he will make a statement. [8227]

Ms Glenda Jackson: The Government has no powers to prevent train operators changing the conditions applying to the Network Card. Train operators' participation in the Network Card scheme is entirely voluntary and there is no formal obligation on them to offer the Network Card.

HEALTH

Closures

Mr. Jack: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the hospitals and health units currently subject to proposals for closure. [6824]

Mr. Milburn: The information requested is not collected systematically. However, a recent survey carried out for management purposes identified the hospitals listed as having recently been, or are currently, the subject of consultation which could lead to the full closure. Closure is normally dependent on the reprovision of services elsewhere and/or are conditional on a successful Private Finance Initiative contract.


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NHS Expenditure

Mr. Jack: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the health authorities and trusts which have been deemed by the regional offices of the NHS Executive to have serious financial problems at the close of the 1996-97 financial year. [7758]

Mr. Milburn: The names of health authorities and trusts assessed as having serious financial problems are disclosed in the following tables.


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Mr. Jack: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the NHS trusts which have non-technical deficits indicating the amount of their (a) technical and (b) non-technical deficits. [7760]

Mr. Milburn: The information requested for 1996-97 non-technical deficits is available in the following table. The deficit disclosed for these trusts may contain an element of technical deficit but the total cannot be further analysed into technical elements and non-technical elements from information available.

Trusts with non-technical deficits at Q4 1996-97

TrustDeficit 1996-97 £000
Addenbrooke's-285
Airedale-1,700
Alexandra Health Care-1,814
Avalon, Somerset-155
Avon Ambulance Service-57
Bassetlaw Hospital and Community Services-391
Bedford Hospital-281
Bournewood Community and Mental Health-2
Brighton Health Care-2,006
Carlisle Hospitals-1,223
Central Middlesex Hospital-2,920
City Hospitals-622
Community Health Sheffield-220
Countess of Chester Hospital-1,792
Derby City General Hospital-1,194
Dorset Community-1,633
East Anglian Ambulance-200
East Cheshire-393
East Somerset-400
East Suffolk Local Health Services-422
East Surrey Priority Care-1,519
East Wiltshire Health Care-518
Eastbourne Hospitals-589
Epsom Health Care-1,492
Essex Rivers Healthcare-1,450
Forest Healthcare-4,418
Furness Hospitals-137
George Eliot Hospital-1,436
Glenfield Hospital-277
Gloucestershire Ambulance Service-98
Harrow and Hillingdon Healthcare-1,072
Heathlands Mental Health-547
Hereford Hospitals-78
Hillingdon Hospital-1,569
Ipswich Hospital-1,298
Leicester Royal Infirmary-917
Lewisham Hospital-2,866
Luton and Dunstable Hospital Trust-469
Mayday Healthcare-903
Mid Anglia Community Health-279
Mid Essex Hospital Services-1,154
Mid Kent Healthcare-226
Milton Keynes General-157
Mount Vernon and Watford Hospitals-2,232
Newham Healthcare-713
North-east Lincolnshire-4,327
North Hampshire Hospitals-135
North Hertfordshire-244
North-west Anglia Health Care-551
Northampton Community Healthcare-237
Northampton General Hospital-1,361
Northwick Park and St. Mark's-3,969
Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre-135
Oxford Radcliffe Hospital-792
Oxfordshire Mental Healthcare-175
Phoenix-512
Pinderfields Hospitals-780
Pontefract Hospitals-669
Premier Health-594
Princess Alexandra Hospital-250
Rockingham Forest-129
Royal Berkshire and Battle Hospitals-1,513
Royal Devon and Exeter Healthcare-532
Royal Hospital of St. Bartholomew, the Royal London Hospital and London Chest Hospital-4,744
Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals-3,688
Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital-54
Royal United Hospital, Bath-778
Royal Victoria Infirmary and Associated Hospitals-7,079
Scunthorpe and Goole Hospitals-1,145
South Buckinghamshire-1,350
South Devon Health Care-2,530
South Kent Community Healthcare-216
Southampton University Hospitals-250
Southend Community Care Services-585
St. Albans and Hemel Hempstead-1,383
St. James's and Seacroft University Hospital-4,894
St. Mary's-945
St. Mary's Hospital-307
St. Peter's Hospital-292
Stockport Acute Services-627
Swindon and Marlborough-744
The Horton General Hospital-467
The King's Mill Centre for Health Care Services-1,400
The Poole Hospital-1,801
The Radcliffe Infirmary-27
The Royal Surrey County and St. Luke's Hospitals-576
The Royal West Sussex-224
The West Dorset General Hospitals-1,379
United Leeds Teaching Hospitals-8,273
University College London Hospitals-2,246
Warrington Hospital-357
Wellhouse-400
West Middlesex University Hospital-1,796
Whittington Hospital-374
Wiltshire Health Care-430

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