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Tilt Report

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps have been taken to implement the Tilt report. [22088]

Jacqui Smith: The Tilt report was published on 22 May 2000. All 86 recommendations in the report were accepted by the Government and the implementation process is on-going. Some of the report's recommendations, for example the upgrading of the perimeter security of the hospitals, have a lengthy implementation time scale. Progress is being monitored by three of the Department's regional offices with a high security hospital in their area (North-West, London and Trent), and by the high security psychiatric services commissioning national oversight group.

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much of the expenditure provided in 2001–02 to implement the Tilt report has been spent. [22087]

Jacqui Smith: £5 million of current expenditure funding and £38 million of capital expenditure funding has been provided centrally for 2001–02 to support the implementation of Tilt report recommendations.

The £5 million of current expenditure funding is to support the process of moving inappropriately placed patients out of the high security hospitals to more suitable accommodation. Agreement has been reached with the regional commissioners of high and medium secure psychiatric services about the split of the £5 million between regions, and an allocation will shortly be made to the lead commissioning health authority for each region.

The £38 million of capital expenditure relates to improvements to the physical security of the high security hospitals, particularly the upgrading of perimeter security that Sir Richard Tilt saw as being necessary in the interests of maintaining public safety. The funding was split, in line with estimated need, between the three Department of Health regional offices with performance management responsibility for a high security hospital.

13 Dec 2001 : Column: 987W

Actual spend across the three hospitals as at the end of November 2001 was £8.4 million. It is estimated that financial year-end spending will be significantly greater than this amount but that there will be a carry over of spending planned for 2001–02 into 2002–03, particularly due to a delay in the perimeter security upgrading at Ashworth hospital arising from complications in obtaining planning permission.

Children's National Service Framework

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the timetable is of the planned Children's National Service Framework. [22090]

Jacqui Smith: The Children's National Service Framework will have a broad remit encompassing social care and maternity services as well as health services for children. The standards that will be developed first, in response to the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry report, are those relating to acute/hospital care. These will be published in 2002. The timetable for the publication of the rest of NSF has not yet been finalised.

Prescription Charges

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to introduce exemption from prescription charges for those persons who suffer from severe mental illness. [22095]

Jacqui Smith: Our policy is to give priority to helping those who may have difficulty in paying charges, rather than extending the exemption arrangements to people with other medical conditions.

Podiatrists

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what consultations took place with non-state registered podiatrists prior to appointment of the podiatry representative to the Shadow Health Professions Council. [22097]

Mr. Hutton: None. There is scope on the Health Professions Council for one registrant member and one alternate for each profession regulated by the Council. The registrant and alternate members of the Shadow Council were appointed on the nomination of the relevant professional bodies.

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the time which it will take to process applications by non-state registered podiatrists for entry to the register of the Health Professions Council. [22098]

Mr. Hutton: This is a matter for the Health Professions Council. Decisions on applications must be given subject to the time limits mentioned for dealing with applications in Article 9(5) of the Draft Health Professions Order 2001.

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health under what titles and descriptions non-state registered podiatrists will be able to practice after the transition period under the Health Professions Order has expired. [22096]

Mr. Hutton: Any title or titles which are not protected under the order.

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Mental Health

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 23 November 2001, Official Report, column 567W, if he will place in the Library the report from the Mental Health Act Commission and others on ethnic monitoring, racial harassment and training. [22100]

Jacqui Smith: Copies of the report, entitled "National Visit 2, Improving Care for Detained Patients from Black and Minority Ethnic Communities" are available in the Library.

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when it is planned to launch the toolkit to support mental health services in promoting mental health for people of ethnic minority communities. [22084]

Jacqui Smith: We hope to make the toolkit available in autumn 2002.

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps are being taken to ensure equality of treatment for those who are (a) black and (b) of ethnic minority backgrounds who are suffering from severe mental illness and are detained in special hospitals. [22094]

Jacqui Smith: The principle of equality of treatment for all lies at the heart of our modernisation programme and we are taking steps to ensure that equality, diversity and inclusiveness is built into all national health service and social care service delivery.

In regard to high security (special) hospitals, each has undertaken a range of initiatives to improve the situation of black and minority ethnic patients. In the longer term the hospitals will be guided by a national strategy, currently being drafted, which will address issues surrounding black and minority ethnic mental health more widely.

Social Services

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on his plans to progress towards a population-based distribution formula for social services expenditure by county councils. [22268]

Jacqui Smith: The distribution formula for personal social services already takes account of the population base by local authority, (for example the children's formula takes account of the resident population aged 0–17), as well as relative levels of need.

The formulae are currently being reviewed in time for 2003–04 allocations. Local government representatives are being actively involved in this process, and we will be consulting widely before making final decisions.

Wanless Report

Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he first discussed (a) the interim Wanless report and (b) the conclusions of the Chancellor of the Exchequer regarding the interim Wanless report, with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. [22245]

Mr. Milburn: My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer and I meet regularly and discuss a range of issues.

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NHS Expenditure

Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list per capita spending on the NHS for each region of England in the last 12 months. [22243]

Mr. Hutton: The expenditure by weighted head of population for each English region for 2000–01 is shown in the table.

Expenditure by health authorities and primary care trusts

Region	Per capita spending (£)
Northern and Yorkshire	803.52
Trent	810.12
Eastern	803.44
London	886.12
South East	810.94
South West	849.78
West Midlands	794.52
North Western	826.84
England	825.38

Notes:

1. Expenditure is taken from health authority and primary care trust summarisation forms which are prepared on a resource basis and therefore differ from cash allocations in the year. The expenditure is the total spent by the health authority and by the primary care trusts within each region. The majority of General Dental Services expenditure is not included in the health authority or primary care trust accounts and is separately accounted for by the Dental Practice Board.

2. Health authorities and primary care trusts should account for their expenditure on a gross basis. This results in an element of double counting where one body acts as the main commissioner and is then reimbursed by other bodies. The effect of this double counting within the answer cannot be identified.

3. Some health authorities act as lead commissioners for particular specialties which inflates their figures when compared with others and also causes differences between years. Other factors may also distort the figures so the results are therefore not all directly comparable with each other and with answers to similar questions for previous years.

Sources:

Health authority audited summarisation forms 2000–01

Primary care trust audited summarisation schedules 2000–01

Weighted population estimates for 2000–01

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