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Legal Aid Firms
Mr. Vaz: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many legal aid firms Ministers in his Department have visited since 7 June 2001. [31863]
Mr. Wills: The Department's Ministers occasionally visit law centres, solicitors' firms and barristers' chambers. In December 2001, as part of one such visit, the Lord Chancellor visited a Birmingham solicitors' firm which holds a contract to carry out publicly funded criminal work. In addition, the Legal Services Commission, for which the Lord Chancellor has ministerial responsibility, visits firms which carry out publicly funded work on an on-going basis, for development and audit purposes.
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Fair Trade Fortnight
Mr. Lazarowicz: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what steps he is taking to encourage participation by his Department in Fair Trade Fortnight from 4 to 17 March. [33537]
Mr. Wills: Within the context of the Department's limited opportunity to buy free trade goods, we take every opportunity to encourage their purchase in line with Government policy.
For instance, at our headquarters building, our caterers currently offer fair trade coffee and are investigating the future sale of fair trade tea. In additional, our caterers in our courts in the northern, north-eastern and north Wales regions offer both fair trade tea and coffee.
Regarding Fairtrade Fortnight, at the Department's suggestion both these caterers have agreed to support this important and worthwhile event and in the coming weeks will be producing marketing literature and advising customers of a number of linked promotions.
Census Online
Mr. Hawkins: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how much taxpayers' money is in the possession of the Public Record Office as pre-payment for Census Online. [32144]
Ms Rosie Winterton: No taxpayers' money is in the possession of the Public Record Office as a pre-payment for Census Online.
Remuneration
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if she will estimate the number of individuals in her (a) Department, (b) related agencies and (c) related non-departmental public bodies whose annual remuneration including benefits in kind exceeded (i) £100,000 and (ii) £200,000 in each of the last four years. [26318]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The number of individuals whose annual remuneration (i) exceeds £100,000 (including basis salary, allowances and bonuses, but excluding overtime and pensions benefits) is as follows:
- As at 1 April 2001
- (a) LCD Headquarters: 4
- (b) The Court Service, the Public Guardianship Office, the Northern Ireland Court Service, the Land Registry and the Public Record Office: 2
- As at 1 April 2000
- (a) 2
- (b) 0
- As at 1 April 1999
- (a) 2
- (b) 0
- As at 1 April 1998
- (a) 2
- (b) 0.
(ii) There are no individuals whose annual remuneration exceeds £200,000.
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As regards (c) I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office on 29 January 2002, Official Report, column 252W.
Ministerial Transport
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what her estimate is of the cost of (a) ministerial cars and drivers and (b) taxis for her Department in each of the last four years. [27911]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Regarding part (a), I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office on 30 January 2002, Official Report, columns 405–06W.
As for part (b), expenditure against the departmental taxi service contract has been as follows:
- 1 July 1998 to 31 March 1999: £30,596
1 April 1999 to 31 March 2000: £53,852
1 April 2000 to 31 March 2001: £71,828
1 April 2001 to 16 January 2002: £50,175.
The figures exclude any amounts spent on taxi hire outside of the departmental contract and reclaimed by officials as travel and subsistence expenditure.
Ministerial Trips
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if she will list each of the overseas trips made by the Lord Chancellor and other members of her ministerial team in each of the last four years, specifying the purpose and cost of each trip. [30179]
Ms Rosie Winterton: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister on 4 February 2002, Official Report, column 707W.
HEALTH
Dentists
Ms Munn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to change the way in which dentists are remunerated in order to encourage greater preventive care. [17959]
Ms Blears: While there are no immediate plans to change the way dentists are remunerated, we are continuing to work with the profession and other stakeholders to modernise national health service dentistry and to improve systems of delivery for NHS dentistry.
Taunton and Somerset NHS Hospital Trust
Mr. Flook: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the standard retirement age is for (a) doctors and (b) consultants in the Taunton and Somerset NHS hospital trust; how many in each category were compulsorily retired for age reasons in each of the last five years. [18402]
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Ms Blears: The information requested is not held centrally. The hon. Member may wish to contact the chair of Taunton and Somerset national health service trust for this information.
NHS Direct
Mr. Pike: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many calls NHS Direct has received. [20016]
Ms Blears: Since NHS Direct was launched in March 1998 it has handled around 9,000,000 calls. NHS Direct currently averages 120,000 calls a week.
Orthodontist Services
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children and young people under the age of 16 years in England were waiting for an appointment to see an orthodontist (a) at the latest available date and (b) in March 1997. [24710]
Ms Blears [holding answer 8 January 2002]: Information on waiting times for orthodontic treatment is not held centrally.
Health Care (Isle of Wight)
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients on the Isle of Wight waited over one hour for treatment in casualty in (a) 1997, (b) 1998, (c) 1999, (d) 2000 and (e) 2001; and what percentage each figure represents of total casualty attendances. [20380]
Ms Blears [holding answer 4 December 2002]: The information requested is not collected centrally.
The latest available figures for national health service trusts in the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and South-East Hampshire health authority area for accident and emergency attendances are 2001–02—Quarter 2 and are given in the table.
| Attendance | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Org ID/NHS organisation name | First | Subsequent | Total |
| 5FD | |||
| East Hampshire PCT | 1,305 | 324 | 1,629 |
| RHU | |||
| Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust | 29,670 | 1,879 | 31,549 |
| RR2 | |||
| Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Trust | 9,827 | 887 | 10,714 |
| Total attendances for health authority area | 40,802 | 3,090 | 43,892 |
Source:
KH09Q—Out-patients and accident and emergency services
Nursing and Residential Home Beds
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many nursing and residential home beds there were in (a) Hampshire and (b) in the Portsmouth, Isle of Wight and south east Hampshire health authority in (i) 1993, (ii) 1998, (iii) 1999 and (iv) 2000. [22376]
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Ms Blears [holding answer 11 December 2001]: The table shows the number of residential and nursing care home beds in (a) Hampshire and (b) the Portsmouth, Isle of Wight and south-east Hampshire health authority.
| (a) Hampshire(15) | (b) Portsmouth, Isle of Wight and south-east Hampshire health authority | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| At 31 March | Residential | Nursing | Residential(16) | Nursing |
| 1993(17) | (18)— | 3,659 | (18)— | 2,096 |
| 1998 | 12,181 | 5,436 | (16)4,015 | 2,174 |
| 1999 | 11,859 | 4,820 | (16)3,925 | 2,229 |
| 2000 | 11,485 | 5,027 | (16)3,829 | 2,027 |
| 2001 | 12,109 | 5,140 | (16)3,606 | 2,045 |
(15) Information is presented for the geographical area covered by Hampshire shire county and Portsmouth and Southampton unitary authorities and the north and mid-Hampshire, Portsmouth and south-east Hampshire and south-west Hampshire health authorities. The Isle of Wight is excluded.
(16) Information on residential places is for Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight unitary authorities only. Information for the south-east Hampshire health authority area is not available centrally.
(17) Nursing bed figures for 1993 were collected at the time of main inspection between 1 October 1992 and 31 March 1993.
(18) Not available
Source:
Department of Health's annual returns
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