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Nursing Vacancies

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many nursing posts there are in (a) London and (b) England which have been vacant for three months or more. [68157]

Mr. Hutton: The information requested is provided in the table.

	England	London region
Three month vacancy rate
Qualified staff (per cent.)	3.1	6.1
Three month vacancy numbers (wte)
Qualified staff	8,390	2,750
Staff in post (wte)
Qualified staff	255,760	41,980
Staff in Post (head count)
Qualified staff	299,950	46,470

Notes:

1. Three month vacancies are vacancies as at 31 March 2002 which trusts are actively trying to fill, which have lasted for three months or more (whole time equivalent)

2. Three month vacancy rates are three month vacancies expressed as a percentage of three month vacancies plus staff in post from this survey.

3. Vacancy and staff in post numbers are rounded to the nearest 10.

4. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place.

5. Due to rounding calculating the vacancy rates using the above data may not equal the actual.

6. Staff in data is from the non-medical work force census September 2001.

Source:

Department of Health Vacancy Survey 2002

Department of Health non medical work force census September 2001

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NHS Costs

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost of the NHS was per head of population in 2001–02. [68147]

Mr. Hutton: Public expenditure on the National Health Service in England is estimated to be £980 per head of population in 2001–02.

NHS Staff (Qualifications)

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on progress made by the NHS in England in staff undertaking NVQ levels two and three in care. [68158]

Mr. Hutton: In 2001–02, the investment identified in the NHS Plan enabled over 9,000 staff to undertake National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) training and/or assessment. The investment is designed to help those National Health Service staff without a professional qualification to access either NVQ training to levels 2 or 3 or a NHS learning account.

Overseas Recruitment

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which directorate within his Department is responsible for overseas recruitment of staff. [68109]

Mr. Hutton: The human resources directorate is responsible for the international recruitment of staff.

Non-EU Nurse Training

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 4 March 2002, Official Report, column 122W, whether the figures for the year to 31 March 2001 are available; and if he will make a statement. [68295]

Mr. Hutton: The figures for the year ending 31 March 2001 are provided in the table.

Admissions to the register 2000–01

Country	Number	Percentage
Australia	1,046	12.42
Canada	89	1.06
New Zealand	393	4.67
Nigeria	347	4.12
Philippines	3,396	40.33
South Africa	1,086	12.90
USA	147	1.75
West Indies	172	2.04
Zimbabwe	382	4.54
India	289	3.43
Other	1,073	12.74
Total	8,420	100.00

Central Council for Physical Recreation

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the Central Council for Physical Recreation report "Saving Lives, Saving Money"; and if he will make a statement. [68152]

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Ms Blears: Increasing participation in physical recreation has an important role to play in raising the rates of physical activity and improving public health. The national service framework for coronary heart disease requires the National Health Service to develop local programmes of effective policies on increasing physical activity. We welcome the findings of the Central Council of Physical Recreation report which documents the progress being made by primary care trusts towards this milestone. We are currently developing a primary care handbook which will provide guidance on delivering the national service frameworks, including advice on developing local prevention strategies and effective approaches to increasing physical activity.

Eating Disorders

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the timetable is for the guidelines on the management of eating disorders to be produced by NICE. [68151]

Mr. Lammy: Full information about the guideline on the management of eating disorders to be produced by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) may be found on the NICE website at www.nice.org.uk

The guideline is expected in September 2003.

Primary Care Trusts

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library a list of the primary care trusts which have been established. [68145]

Mr. Hutton: A full list of all 303 primary care trusts in operation at 1 April 2002 will be placed in the Library.

Student Nurses and Midwives

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to improve the help available to student (a) nurses and (b) midwives in financial hardship. [68154]

Mr. Hutton: The Government is confident that the National Health Service bursary scheme continues to provide satisfactory support for the great majority of students. At the same time we recognise that there are undoubtedly individual cases of hardship, and work is continuing to ensure we address any specific weaknesses in the support arrangements.

The Government is increasing the financial support provided for all health professional students through the NHS bursary scheme (including trainee nurses and midwives), both in terms of the basic bursary and other elements of the package. This will help ensure that as few a students as possible experience financial difficulties during their training.

The overall level of additional support available to those studying at degree level, through higher education (HE) access and hardship funds (funded by the Department for Education and Skills) in 2001–02 is £93 million, over four times that provided in 1997–98.

Nurses

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 12 June 2002, Official Report,

11 Jul 2002 : Column 1217W

column 1312W, if NHS Professionals' administration has been contracted to private nurses agencies; and if he will make a statement. [66848]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 4 July 2002]: NHS Professionals is the NHS-led approach to temporary staffing for the NHS. The administration has not been contracted out to private nurses' agencies.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how widespread the use of cognitive behaviour therapy is; and in which parts of England it is not available. [68139]

Jacqui Smith: The Department has made no recent assessment of the use of cognitive behaviour therapy. However, cognitive behaviour therapy is recognised as an effective treatment for a range of mental health problems and information relating to this treatment can be found in the national service framework for mental health (www.doh.gov.uk/mentalhealth). The Department has also published a guideline 'Treatment Choice in Psychological Therapies and Counselling' and a booklet for service users that contain information about cognitive behaviour therapy and the common mental disorders for which its use is indicated.

Food Standards Agency

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he has taken to put in place a system for measuring the performance of the Food Standards Agency; and if he will make a statement. [69088]

Ms Blears: As a non-ministerial Government Department the system for measuring the performance of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is the same as for other Government Departments. The FSA independently prepares its own submissions as part of Her Majesty's Treasury's (HMT) Spending Review although these are submitted to the HMT through my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health. HMT approve the funding of the FSA on the basis of their submission and also agree a service delivery agreement setting out the main aims and targets to be achieved over the Spending Review period. A Departmental Report is prepared annually setting out the achievements of the FSA including an assessment of progress against each of the targets.

Drug Treatment Programmes

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of problem drug misusers, including prisoners, were in drug treatment programmes in each year since 1997–98; and if he will make a statement. [69106]

Ms Blears: The estimated number of problem drug users in the United Kingdom is between 260,000 and 340,000.

It is estimated that there were around 118,500 drug misusers in treatment in England, in 2000–01 (from 'Statistics from the Regional Drug Misuse Databases on drug misusers in treatment in England, 2000/01'); comparable information is not available for earlier years. The number of users presenting to drug misuse agencies

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(including both general practitioners and other agencies) in England in each of the six month periods ending 31 March 1997 to 31 March 2001 is given in the table.

Number of users presenting for treatment to drug misuse agencies in England during the six month periods ending 31 March 1997 to 31 March 2001

Six month period ending	Number of users
March 1997	25,925
September 1997	21,996
March 1998	23,916
September 1998	28,599
March 1999	28,499
September 1999	30,545
March 2000	31,815
September 2000	33,093
March 2001	33,234

Source: Statistics from the Regional Drug Misuse Databases, Department of Health

The figures above exclude treatment in prisons. The Prison Service does not hold this information. Figures on the number of prisoners entering drug treatment programmes is available but only for the period 2000 to 2002. They are:

2000–01, there were 3,100 entrants


2001/02 there were 4,691 entrants.

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