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Performance-related Pay
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is his most recent estimate of the total cost of administering the assessment scheme in respect of performance-related pay. [114438]
Ms Estelle Morris:
Headteachers will be responsible for assessing teachers against national standards at a Performance Threshold to move to the new upper pay spine proposed by the Government. DfEE has contracted Cambridge Education Associates Limited (CEA) to manage the appointment, deployment and quality assurance of external assessors who will verify, through sampling, headteachers' assessments.
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The payment of external assessors is a matter for CEA, but it will be made on a pro rata basis dependent upon the number of applicants in each school.
The number of external assessors to be deployed will be dependent upon the number and distribution of teachers who apply to cross the Performance Threshold. This number will not be known until summer 2000. The total cost of administering the scheme will be dependent upon the number of assessments carried out and again this will not be known until later in 2000.
Mr. Welsh:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list (a) the offices (i) owned and (ii) rented by his Department and its agencies in
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Scotland and (b) the number of staff (i) employed and (ii) that can be accommodated (1) in total and (2) at each site. [114241]
Mr. Wills:
The Department has no offices in Scotland. Details of Employment Service offices in Scotland and numbers of staff employed have been placed in the Library. The Employment Service is unable to provide details of the maximum number of staff that could be accommodated at each site.
Mr. Boswell:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if the proposed loan for part-time students will be (a) confined to hardship cases and (b) made available to Open University students. [115000]
Mr. Wicks:
Loans for part-time students, which are being introduced later this year, will provide financial support to students on low incomes. It is our intention to make loans available to Open University students.
Dr. Tony Wright:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the public consultation exercises on policy matters carried out by his Department and its agencies in each of the last five years; who was consulted and by what means; how responses were analysed; how and in what form the results were transmitted to those responsible for the consultation; how the results of the consultation were published; and what analysis has been carried out of the extent and nature of policy changes resulting from the consultation. [106299]
Yvette Cooper:
The Department is fully committed to public consultation, and a great many consultative exercises are carried out by the Department and throughout the NHS. However, I regret that the information sought is not collated centrally on a regular basis and an answer could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Dr. Harris:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if people without pituitary glands qualify to receive Viagra on the NHS without referral to a consultant; and what is the basis for this approach. [111572]
Yvette Cooper:
No. We consulted widely before introducing regulations on 1 July 1999 restricting the prescribing by general practitioners of treatments for impotence, including Viagra. No representations were made suggesting that men without pituitary glands should be included in the groups of patients for whom such treatments can be prescribed. We shall be reviewing the operation of the regulations after a year.
Mr. Love:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what changes he plans to make to the breast cancer screening service in Greater London; and if he will make a statement. [111980]
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Yvette Cooper:
The national National Health Service Breast Screening Programme constantly reviews standards in all breast screening units, including those in Greater London. The NHS Executive, London Regional Office is currently reviewing breast screening services in the north of Greater London.
Mr. Harvey:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list his Department's expenditure on plants in its (a) Richmond House, (b) Wellington House and (c) Skipton House buildings for each of the last two financial years. [112943]
Yvette Cooper:
The cost of the provision and maintenance of internal and external plants is included as part of the overall contract cost for the provision of cleaning services to the Department's central London buildings. It is not budgeted for separately. However, our best estimate is an annual cost to the Department of about £4,000 for Wellington House and £2,000 for Skipton House.
Mr. Harvey:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what expenditure his Department has incurred on the renewal or replacement since 1 January of plants at Wellington House. [112944]
Yvette Cooper:
The cost of the renewal and replacement of internal and external plants forms an integral part of a lease maintenance agreement which is included in an overall contract to provide cleaning services to the Department's central London buildings. The costs of the provision and maintenance of plants are not identified separately. However, our best estimate for the cost of plant provision, maintenance and replacement since 1 January is £700.
Mrs. Spelman:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many pilot schemes with end dates his Department has created in each of the last three years; what the end dates were; and if the pilot schemes have been rolled out by their end dates. [112803]
Ms Stuart:
The Department regularly instigates a large number of pilot projects across a wide range of policy areas to assess their feasibility for possible national application, generally on a three year basis. The main areas covered in the last three years, with the number of projects involved, are:
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In addition a small number of more focused studies into more discrete, but limited, topics are also proceeding.
Details of the end dates and roll-out dates of each individual scheme could be obtained only at disproportionate cost, particularly as there is no universally agreed definition of a pilot scheme in this context. However, if the hon. Member would like specific information on any individual scheme and would let me have appropriate details, I will ensure that this information is provided.
Mr. Ruane:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the current average starting pay for (a) hospital cleaners, (b) hospital porters and (c) trainee medical laboratory science officers in the NHS. [113195]
Mr. Denham
[holding answer 6 March 2000]: It is not possible to identify separately the average starting pay for hospital porters or cleaners on national terms and conditions. It is a matter for individual employers to determine the appropriate pay scales for each occupational group within the ancillary pay structure, based upon the grading definitions contained within the Ancillary Staffs Handbook.
The current pay scale for Trainee Medical Laboratory Scientific Officers (MLSOs) is:
Personal Medical Services
Phase 1--with effect from April 1998: 85
Phase 2--with effect from October 1999: 106
General Practitioner Commissioning Groups
with effect from April 1998 for one year only: 39
Walk-in Centres
with effect from March 2000: 07; to be followed by December by a further 29
NHS Direct
Phase 1--with effect from March 1998: 3
Phase 2--with effect from January 1999: 10 new schemes
Phase 3--with effect from November 1999: 04 new schemes
Phase 4--with effect from October 2000: 5 new schemes to follow
National Booked Admission
Phase 1--with effect from November 1998: 24
Phase 2--with effect from September 1999: 60
9 Cancer networks--with effect from September 1999: covering 43 projects
Personal Dental Services
Phase 1--with effect from October 1998: 15
Phase 2--with effect from October 1999: 23.
| Pay scale | £ |
|---|---|
| 00 | 7,476 |
| 01 | 7,726 |
| 02 | 7,988 |
| 03 | 8,260 |
| 04 | 8,544 |
| 05 | 8,839 |
| 06 | 9,146 |
| 07 | 9,463 |
| 08 | 9,796 |
| Pay scale | £ |
|---|---|
| 00 | 9,420 |
| 01 | 9,747 |
| 02 | 10,090 |
| 03 | 10,443 |
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