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Medium-secure Units
Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will publish the findings of the current review of data collection requirements regarding escapes and absconds from medium-secure units. [93871]
Mr. Hutton: The Department is in contact with the National Health Service Executive Regional Offices to access the current data collection and to ensure that procedures are in place for recording escapes and absconds from medium-secure units. We expect these procedures will be in place later in the year.
Fundholders
Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many general practitioners fundholding practices remain. [93905]
Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the cost of sustaining residual general practitioners fundholding practices in the next financial year. [93904]
Mr. Milburn: None. The residual fundholding scheme ended on 1 October 1999.
NHS Direct
Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what qualitative studies he has commissioned regarding outcomes from calls to NHS Direct; and if he will make a statement. [93875]
Ms Stuart: The Medical Research Unit of the University of Sheffield is undertaking an independent evaluation of NHS Direct. This evaluation will include a study of the outcomes from calls to NHS Direct. We expect the University of Sheffield's full and final report to be published early next year.
Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the services of NHS Direct will be available in (a) Lymington, (b) New Milton and (c) Ringwood. [93869]
Ms Stuart: NHS Direct has been available in Lymington and New Milton since March 1999. The service will be available in Ringwood by the end of this year.
Strokes
Mr. Swayne:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham) on 13 July 1999, Official Report, column 151, on stroke services, if he will specify the funding that he is making available for initiatives related to strokes. [93902]
19 Oct 1999 : Column: 481
Mr. Hutton:
The Department is currently supporting some inititatives relating to stroke through the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. The responsiblity (and hence funding) for the Effective Health Care Bulletin, national sentinel audits and development of clinical guidelines now rests with NICE, which has total funding of just under £10 million for this financial year. The hon. Member may wish to contact the Chairman of NICE, Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, for further details.
Millennium Compliance
Mr. David Atkinson: To ask the Prime Minister if he will make a statement of progress on the millennium readiness of his Department's computer systems, and those for which it is responsible in the provision of public services; if contingency plans are in place; and what slippage has occurred since the July quarterly report to the House. [93559]
The Prime Minister: For these purposes my office is part of the Cabinet Office. I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him today by my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Official Report, columns 527-28.
White Papers
Mr. Evans: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list the White Papers published from 1998 to date indicating their sale price. [93674]
The Prime Minister: The term "White Paper" has no formal definition but is interpreted as meaning those statements of Government policy and other documents which have been published in the Command Papers series but excluding Treasury Minutes, reports from Committees and Commissions and the papers in the Treaty and other series presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. A list of those published from 1998 showing their sale price has been placed in the Library.
Yugoslavia
Sir Richard Body: To ask the Prime Minister what estimates he has received of the cost of reconstruction in Yugoslavia made necessary by the NATO offensive. [94124]
The Prime Minister: The reconstruction of Yugoslavia, and in particular Kosovo, is a huge task which will take many years. This is not just as a result of the conflict brought about by Milosevic's policy towards Kosovo, but because of the need for modernisation and democratisation of Yugoslav society and its economy. The UK will play a full part in this reconstruction.
We will not have an accurate estimate of reconstruction costs until the next donor conference held under their auspices in November. In the meantime, emergency and immediate reconstruction projects are going ahead under the auspices of the EU Task Force in Pristina and the UN Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK).
19 Oct 1999 : Column: 482
The EU Task Force in Pristina has committed 46 million euros so far. The EU has pledged a total of 137 million euros of reconstruction aid for Kosovo in 1999 through the EU Assistance Fund in addition to 378 million euros of humanitarian aid.
Sir Richard Body:
To ask the Prime Minister what consultations he has had with the heads of other NATO countries about the cost of reconstruction in Yugoslavia; and if any member country has yet agreed to contribute financially. [94125]
The Prime Minister:
The European Union (through the European Commission) and the World Bank are responsible for the co-ordination of the donor effort for the reconstruction of Yugoslavia. All NATO countries are represented in either or both of these organisations.
The EU and World Bank are organising a series of donor conferences, the first of which was on 28 July 1999. At this conference initial donor indications of financial support amounted to US$2.1 billion. NATO members indicating their intention to provide financial support at this stage were: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, The Netherlands, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States. NATO countries who are also members of the EU will also be contributing multilaterally through the European Commission.
Mr. Evans:
To ask the Prime Minister who was responsible for making the Government's Annual Report 1998-99 available to Tesco Stores Ltd. the day before it was made available to Parliament; and if he will make a statement. [94155]
The Prime Minister:
Guidance to Ministers on the publication of Command Papers and other Government documents is set out in the "Ministerial Code" and "Guidance on the work of the Government Information Service".
The Stationery Office, who published the Government's Annual Report, were responsible for the marketing arrangements with Tesco. Copies of the report were distributed in advance by The Stationery Office to Tescos and other bookshops under the usual strict embargo that they should not be placed on sale until after the Report had been presented to Parliament on the morning of Monday 26 July. I understand that, due to an oversight in one or two individual stores, a small number of copies were available on Saturday 24 July.
Mr. Evans:
To ask the Prime Minister (1) what estimate he has made of the cost to public funds of the Government's annual report 1998-99; [93670]
(3) how many copies of the Government's annual report 1997-98 were (a) printed, (b) sold and (c) distributed free of charge. [93671]
The Prime Minister:
The direct cost of preparing the Government's annual report 1998-99 for publication is estimated at £75,000. The equivalent figure for the Government's Annual Report 1997-98 is £96,000.
19 Oct 1999 : Column: 483
(2) what was the cost to public funds of the Government's annual report 1997-98; [93676]
| AR 1997-98 CM3969 | AR 1998-99 CM4401 | |
|---|---|---|
| Costs to Government: | ||
| Design and publication costs | £96,000 | £75,000 |
| Launch, distribution, etc. | £144,000 | £105,000 |
| Total cost to Government: | £250,000 | £180,000 |
| Sales: | ||
| Cover price | £5.95 | £2.99 |
| Copies printed | 20,000 | 100,000 |
| Copies bought by Government | 9,000 | 41,000 |
| Total copies sold: | 14,000 | 49,000 |
| Leaflet/summary | ||
| Numbers produced | 20,000 | 150,000 |
Note:
All figures are approximate and rounded to the nearest thousand
Mr. Luff: To ask the Prime Minister if he will make it his policy not to make command papers and other Government documents available for retail sale before making them available to parliament. [93708]
The Prime Minister: Guidance to Ministers on the publication of Command Papers and other Government documents is set out in the "Ministerial Code" and "Guidance on the work of the Government Information Service".
Mr. Luff: To ask the Prime Minister how many copies of the Government's annual report had been sold through (i) the Stationery Office and (ii) other retail outlets at the most recent date for which figures are available. [93710]
The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I have given to the hon. Member for Ribble Valley (Mr. Evans) today, Official Report column 482.
All copies of the Annual Report 1998-99 were sold by The Stationery Office, the publishers. Some have been sold direct to the public, the remainder through other retailers.
Mr. Luff:
To ask the Prime Minister (1) what was the cost of (a) copy writing, (b) design, (c) photography, (d) printing and (e) all other relevant items of the production of the Government's annual report; and how many copies were produced in total; [93713]
The Prime Minister:
Preparation of the Government's Annual Report was undertaken in accordance with the requirements of "Guidance on the work of the Government Information Service".
The approximate costs of preparing the Annual Report 1998-99 for publication were as follows: design £75,000 and photography £1,000. Copywriting was done entirely
19 Oct 1999 : Column: 484
within Government. Printing costs fall entirely to The Stationery Office, the private-sector publishers. 100,000 copies of the Annual Report were printed.
(2) how many civil servants were involved in the production of the Government's annual report; and what is his estimate of the number of person-hours involved. [93712]
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