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22 Oct 2002 : Column 269W—continued

PCTs

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what arrangements for profit-related pay and bonuses have been made for PCT management in England and Wales. [75513]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 21 October 2002]: Arrangements for performance-related pay and bonuses for primary care trust management is a matter for local determination. The Department has issued guidelines on pay but, in line with the Government's decision to decentralise the decision-making and control, it is for trusts locally to make and justify their own decisions. Copies of the guidelines have been placed in the Library.

Information in respect of the arrangements for Wales should be sought from the National Assembly for Wales.

Acute Beds and Managers

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) acute beds and (b) managers there are in the NHS; and what these figures are as a relative proportion. [75502]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 21 October 2002]: The average daily number of acute beds in England for 2001 is 107,956. This represented an extra 700 beds since 2000—the first increase in general and acute beds in 30 years. This is one third of the way towards the NHS Plan target of 2,100 extra general and acute beds by April 2004.

There are 26,285 (whole time equivalent) senior managers and managers working within the administration and estates areas of the National Health Service in England as at September 2001. The Government made a commitment to save #1 billion from management costs over five years from 1997–98. We are on course to do so and will publish the results once final accounts have been cleared and data analysed.

Electronic Appointment Technology

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish the terms of his contract with EDS to supply electronic appointment technology to the NHS; and if he will list the other firms that were invited to tender for the contract to supply electronic appointment technology to the NHS. [75521]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 21 October 2002]: No contract has been awarded to EDS to supply electronic appointment system technology to the National Health Service.

In line with the information technology procurement strategy proposed for the national programme for IT in the NHS, a selection process is underway using the NHScat managed services framework to identify and select a single ''prime service partner'' for electronic booking. The successful prime service partner will be contracted to provide and supply software products and planning and implementation services to local health communities jointly with potential systems and services suppliers.

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All companies on the NHS national framework agreement (NHScat), who were successful in the managed services category, were invited to submit proposals to become the prime service partner for the electronic booking project. The selection process is ongoing. A detailed evaluation was held of the twelve companies listed to provide IT managed services within the NHScat framework. These are BT Health, Computer Science Corporation (CSC), EDS, Elonex, Fujitsu Services, Hewlett Packard, Integris, Specialist Computer Centres (SCC), SX3, Siemens, Unisys, and Viglen. Following that, EDS and BT Health have been invited to put forward detailed proposals as potential IT managed service prime service partners for electronic booking systems. Any award of contract will be subject to successful conclusion of negotiations and approval of a formal business case.

The selection process is being conducted under the supervision of the NHS Purchasing and Supplies Agency.

Correspondence

Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects to reply to the hon. Member for Nottingham North's letters of Friday 16 August and 8 August. [74869]

Jacqui Smith: A reply was sent to my hon. Friend on 14 October.

Mr. Wilshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the hon. Member for Spelthorne will receive a reply to his letter dated 22 August in relation to correspondence with the Surrey and Sussex Health Authority dated 17 April about Mr. G. Smith, a constituent. [74802]

Ms Blears [holding answer 15 October 2002]: A reply was sent on 17 October.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Bed and Breakfast Accommodation

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many families there are in bed and breakfast accommodation in the last three years for which figures are avilable, broken down by local authority. [74203]

Mr. McNulty: Showing available information reported by local authorities in England on the total number of households—including couples and single persons without children—accommodated in bed and breakfast units under statutory homelessness provisions at the end of March in each year since 1999 is avaiblable in the Library.

National and regional figures are presented in a quarterly Statistical Release, and an accompanying Supplementary Table also summarises reported information at local authority level. Both of these are also available in the House library and via the ODPM website.

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Earlier this year the Government announced a new commitment to ensure that by March 2004 no family with children will be placed in B&B other than in an emergency, and even then for no more than 6 weeks. This was accompanied by changes in Housing Benefit subsidies to make leasing self-contained temporary accommodation more cost effective, and an additional #35 million to help local authorities find alternatives to B&B.

Local Government Finance

Dr. Cable: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the per capita central Government funding for local

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government expenditure has been for each London borough for the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement. [75109]

Mr. Raynsford: The information has been placed in the Library of the House.

Mrs. Anne Campbell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what level of rate support grant has been received by Cambridge City Council for the last five years at 2002 prices. [75007]

Mr. Raynsford: Cambridge City Council received the following revenue support grant and redistributed national non-domestic rates between 1998–99 and 2002–03.

Revenue Support Grant and Redistributed NNDR
# Thousand

1998–991999–20002000–012001–022002–03
Revenue Support Grant (cash terms)(39)5,5305,5275,4966,1575,849
National Non-Domestic Rate (cash terms)(39)3,7434,0634,5954,6155,231
Total (cash terms)9,2739,59010,09110,77211,080
Total (real terms at 2001–02 prices)(40)9,91710,01310,30810,77210,810

Notes:

(39) Source: Local Government Finance Settlements

(40) Real terms calculated using the GDP deflator


Dr. Starkey: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what level of rate support grant has been received by Milton Keynes Unitary Authority in each of the last five years at 2002 prices (a) in total and (b) per head of population. [75911]

Mr. Raynsford: Milton Keynes Unitary Authority received the following revenue support grant and redistributed national non-domestic rates (NNDR) between 1998–99 and 2002–03 (a) in total and (b) per head of population.

Revenue Support Grant and Redistributed NNDR
# Thousand

1998–991999–2002000–012001–022002–03
Revenue Support Grant (cash terms)(41)71,94274,49072,92480,69173,976
National Non-Domestic Rate (cash terms)(41)46,46151,08058,51758,18364,530
Total (cash terms)118,403125,570131,441138,874138,506
Total (real terms at 2001–02 prices)(42)126,622131,112134,267138,874135,128
Total (at 2001–02 prices) per head (#)(42),(43)691715733754733

Notes:

(41) Source: Local Government Finance Settlements

(42) Real terms calculated using GDP deflator

(43) Amounts per head have been calculated using mid-year population estimates for the appropriate year from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Figures for 2001–02 and 2002–03 use the mid-2001 population estimates, which are based on the results of the 2001 census. Population estimates for earlier years are based on uprating from the 1991 census, and these will be revised by ONS at a later date.


Mr. Swayne: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what provision he will make to fire authorities spending above their SSAs when he revises the SSA formula for fire; and if he will make a statement. [73940]

Mr. Leslie: Statutory responsibility for the provision of fire services rests locally with the fire authority.

We invited comments on options for changes to the formulae for the distribution of revenue support grant for local authority services, including fire, in a consultation period which ran from 8 July to 30 September. Our proposals will be announced in the provisional local government finance settlement later this year.

The total provision for revenue funding for fire and other local authority services is considered in the spending reviews. Under Spending Review 2002, announced in July, the fire service share of Total Standard Spending in England will be increased by #61.6 million (4 per cent.) for 2003–04 and by increases of #70 million (4.4 per cent.) and #50 million (2.9 per cent.) in the following two years.


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