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Funding (Wigan and Bolton Health Authority)

Mr. Neil Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what (a) increases in funding have been given to the Wigan and Bolton health authority and (b) grants for specific projects have been given to the Wigan Leigh NHS Hospital Trust since May 1997. [32217]

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Jacqui Smith: Wigan and Bolton health authority received the following increases in allocations since May 1997:

	£000	Percentage
1997–98	11,928	4.62
1998–99	14,021	5.41
1999–2000	24,996	7.18
2000–01	35,415	9.46
2001–02	37,252	9.10
2002–03	45,361	10.17

The former ¹ Wigan and Leigh Health Services National Health Service Trust received the following conditional capital allocations during this period:

1997–98: £1,563,000: Final element of the Phase 3 refurbishment scheme;


1998–99: £665,000: Mental Health Intensive Care Unit;


1999–2000: £480,000 ² : Start of Phase 4 service rationalisation;


Between 1999–2000 and 2000–01: £1,950,000 in respect of modernisation, waiting list moneys as well as "action on funds"; and


2001–02: £2,700,000 for accident and emergency reprovision together with £961,000 for a new mortuary.


¹ The Wigan and Leigh Health Services NHS Trust merged with the Wrightington Hospital NHS Trust on 1 April 2001 to form the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust. Conditional capital allocations to the Wrightington hospital have not been included in this response.


² The total value of this scheme is £22,000,000 and is due to be completed in 2004–05.

Primary Care Trusts

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total cost was for setting up primary care trusts within the NHS; and if he will make a statement. [36304]

Mr. Hutton: Approximately £63.1 million of central funding has been made available to support the establishment of primary care trusts.

	£ million
1999–2000	6.6
2000–01	27.0
2001–02	29.5

Maternity Services

Ms Drown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how the £100 million for maternity services has been allocated; and whether it has been spent in the way originally intended. [36418]

Yvette Cooper: The £100 million was allocated on the basis of individual bids submitted by maternity units after consultation with local staff and users. The bids were prioritised and allocations recommended by regional offices to target hospitals which were in greatest need. A central panel reviewed the bids to ensure national consistency.

Over 200 units across the country received a share of this investment. Regional offices are monitoring the expenditure and progress reports will be provided. Plans

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are well under way for the refurbishment work, and all projects are due to be completed by the end of March 2003.

Mixed Sex Wards

Dr. Richard Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to reduce the use of mixed sex wards in NHS hospitals; and if he will make a statement about the scale of use of such wards. [36452]

Ms Blears: Guidance on maintaining privacy and dignity was first issued to the service in 1997 and since then the national health service has been working towards a clear target to eliminate mixed sex accommodation in 95 per cent. of national health service trusts by December 2002.

Ongoing monitoring of the progress of the project continues and indicates that progress towards the targets is being maintained and work is continuing to ensure that this remains so.

Additional professional and technical support is being made available to those who are finding meeting the targets particularly challenging.

It is not possible to provide information at the level of the individual ward. The majority of hospital wards are usually subdivided into bays which are designated as male or female. Depending on the case mix and local need, the exact proportion of male to female bays will vary.

Dentistry

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the national average has been in the last five years of the numbers of registrations to NHS dental practices. [36398]

Ms Blears: The average number of General Dental Service (GDS) registrations in England during the years 1996–97 to 2000–01 is shown in the table.

Registration numbers were reduced by the shortening of the registration period for new registrations from September 1996. For adults the period fell from 24 to 15 months. Children's registrations used to lapse at the end of the following calendar year; they now last for 24 months. This affected registration numbers between December 1997 and August 1998. Data for 1996–97, 1997–98 and 1998–99 are not comparable with later years.

Patients who are not registered with a dentist or choose not to register, can obtain treatment on an occasional basis.

General Dental Service: Average registration list sizes from 1996–97 to 2000–01, England

	Adults	Children	Total
1996–97	19,582,630	6,897,598	26,480,228
1997–98	19,082,300	7,036,038	26,118,339
1998–99	16,945,524	6,782,506	23,728,030
1999–2000	16,673,848	6,829,233	23,503,081
2000–01	16,818,256	6,846,298	23,664,553

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the future resources that will be made available to NHS dentists. [36396]

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Ms Blears: An estimated £1.2 billion will be spent on the general dental service and in excess of £50 million revenue will be invested in personal dental service pilot schemes in the current financial year. In addition local health authorities invest their own resources in the community dental services (information on the levels of this investment is not held centrally). These levels of expenditure are anticipated to continue in the next financial year.

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of people are registered with an NHS dentist in (a) Stoke-on-Trent, North, (b) Staffordshire, (c) Stoke-on-Trent and (d) the United Kingdom. [36395]

Ms Blears: The number of people registered with General Dental Services (GDS) dentists as a percentage of the population in North and South Staffordshire health authority areas at 31 December 2001 was 43 per cent. and 46 per cent. respectively. The combined North and South Staffordshire HA registration rate at 31 December 2001 was 44 per cent. The registration rate in the United Kingdom was 48 per cent.

Patients who are not registered with a GDS dentist, or choose not to, can attend occasionally.

The numbers of dental registrations for Stoke-on-Trent, North, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent are not available centrally.

Drug Abuse

Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many residential places were available for the treatment of drug addicts in (a) 1992, (b) 1997 and (c) 2000; and if he will make a statement. [37103]

Ms Blears: Statistics are not held centrally for the years requested. However, the Department conducted a survey in 2001 to establish the number of residential places across England for those requiring treatment for substance misuse problems, including drugs and alcohol. The results of this indicate that there are approximately a total of 3,100 residential places covering both adults and young people available within this sector.

Commission on Health Improvement

Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance is given to the Commission on Health Improvement on taking evidence from local trade union representatives when they are investigating local health facilities; and if he will make a statement. [36613]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 25 February 2002]: We have given no guidance to the independent Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) on those bodies or individuals from whom it should take evidence when investigating local health facilities.

However, when carrying out a local review, CHI spends two days meeting with local people and non-statutory organisation with an interest in the national health service trust concerned. Stakeholders may include members of the public, voluntary and non-profit organisations, staff associations and trade union representatives.

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Health Action Zones

Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the expenditure in each of the past three years (a) on each health action zone and (b) envisaged for 2002–03. [36612]

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Ms Blears [holding answer 25 February 2002]: The table lists expenditure for each of the 26 health action zones in the three years from 1999, and that envisaged for 2002–03, some £237 million. In addition, health authorities in HAZ areas have received targeted funding or health inequalities adjustment funding of £305 million in the same period.

HAZ expenditure 1999–2000 to 2002–03£000

HAZ	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	Planned 2002–03	Grand total
Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham	4,356	3,818	3,808	3,871	15,853
East London	3,962	3,152	3,216	3,362	13,692
Plymouth	1,545	1,401	1,438	1,301	5,685
Luton	960	1,580	1,587	1,039	5,166
Sandwell	1,617	1,249	1,535	1,634	6,035
South Yorkshire Coalfields	3,821	3,051	3,058	3,188	13,118
Manchester, Salford and Trafford	4,853	4,080	4,484	4,643	18,060
Bradford	2,740	2,540	2,538	2,653	10,471
Tyne and Wear	6,170	4,564	4,612	4,898	20,244
Northumberland	1,771	1,524	1,413	1,299	6,007
North Cumbria	1,670	1,259	1,351	1,363	5,643
1 wave total	33,465	28,218	29,040	29,251	119,974
Tees	1,958	2,834	2,932	2,831	19,555
Wakefield	978	1,206	1,296	1,264	4,744
Leeds	2,040	2,721	2,766	2,726	10,253
Hull and East Riding	1,668	2,377	2,415	2,377	8,837
Merseyside	4,221	5,794	5,773	5,859	21,647
Bury and Rochdale	1,152	1,558	1,558	1,545	5,813
Nottingham	1,768	2,385	2,370	2,355	8,878
Sheffield	1,736	2,222	2,041	2,048	8,047
Leicester City	925	1,361	1,467	1,391	5,144
Wolverhampton	868	1,247	1,343	1,280	4,738
Walsall	845	1,248	1,286	1,245	4,624
North Staffordshire	1,251	1,581	1,639	1,544	6,015
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly	1,369	1,688	1,906	1,902	6,865
Camden and Islington	1,453	1,893	1,904	1,878	7,128
Brent	793	1,031	1,039	982	3,845
2 wave total	23,025	31,146	31,735	31,227	117,133
Grand total	56,490	59,364	60,775	60,478	237,107

Note:

The totals indicated in the table include Smoking Cessation, Drugs Prevention and Innovations Fund Moneys as well as core Programme and Development funding. (There has been no Drugs Prevention funding allocated for 2002–03).

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