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Rural White Paper

Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much of the

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money available under Rural Transport Partnership was spent in 2001–02 and 2002–03 broken down by (i) date and (ii) county. [77083]

Alun Michael: The Rural Transport Partnership fund is administered by the Countryside Agency, which has supplied the following information for Defra. Funds are not allocated to specific geographic areas and the level of spend in each region is dependent on the applications approved. The allocation for 2001–02 of #6.89 million was overspent by #0.155 million. #10.35 million has been allocated for the whole period 2002–03. The spend until 24 October 2002 is #4.475 million. Figures at county level are not held centrally. The amount of money spent by region is shown in the table.

#

Region	2001–02	2002–03(23)
North East	639,282	453,994
North West	514,782	375,700
Yorkshire and the Humber	990,110	479,718
East Midlands	578,518	291,800
West Midlands	1,280,871	821,660
East of England	851,494	493,517
South East and London	1,185,032	731,916
South West	950,466	826,544

⁽²³⁾ Until 24 October

HEALTH

Children in Care

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many immigrant children have gone missing from social services care in each of the last five years; how many of these were suspected victims of trafficking; and if he will make a statement. [Transferred] [77331]

Jacqui Smith: Based on the information returned to the Department by local authorities, in 2000–01 the number of children that went missing from care for 24 hours or more was approximately 790. The majority of young people were missing for less than one week, while 2 per cent. were missing for over six months. Comparable data for previous years are unavailable, as prior to 2000–01, councils were only required to return data on children who were missing for more than seven days. Provisional data about missing from care episodes in 2001–02 will be available at the end of November 2002.

It is not possible to identify immigrant children from the above data. From 2002–03, councils will be returning statistics on unaccompanied asylum seekers. This information will be available in autumn 2003.

Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) chiropody and (b) podiatry new episodes of care per head of population there were in each of the NHS regions in each of the last three years. [76305]

Jacqui Smith: Information about the number of new chiropody/podiatry episodes of care per 1,000 population for 1999–2000 and 2000–01 by national health service region is shown in the following table.

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NHS region	1999–2000	2000–01
England	17.3	16.6
Northern and Yorkshire	17.1	16.8
Trent	17.2	17.4
Eastern	10.0	10.7
London	18.3	16.3
South East	12.8	11.3
South West	21.0	21.3
West Midlands	19.3	19.5
North West	23.1	22.0

Source:

Form KT23, Department of Health, Statistics Division (SD3G)

From 1 April 2002 the NHS was reorganised with the establishment of strategic health authorities; the old health authorities and regional offices were abolished. Information about new chiropody episodes of care per 1,000 population is now available by Government Office regions for 2001–02 and is shown in the table.

Government Office Regions	2001–02
England	17.1
North East	16.9
North West	21.5
Yorkshire and Humber	17.6
East Midlands	16.9
West Midlands	20.5
East of England	12.2
London	17.6
South East	11.9
South West	20.2

Source:

Form KT23 Department of Health, Statistics Division (SD3G)

Further information about patient contacts with the chiropody service in England is available in the publication XChiropody services: summary information for 2001–02, England". A copy is available in the Library and on the internet at www.doh.gov.uk/public/kt230102.

Biological Attack

Mr. Dalyell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on measures he has taken with regard to the availability of vaccines intended to protect the population against biological attack. [75386]

Mr. Hutton: The Department has contingency plans to deal with the deliberate release of a biological agent. These plans include stocks of antibiotics, antitoxins and vaccines, which can be mobilised rapidly. Specific details concerning vaccine stocks and their availability is not being made public as this information could be of use to terrorists.

Cancer Research

Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much money his Department has spent on research into (a) breast cancer, (b) lung cancer, (c) prostate cancer and (d) leukaemia for each year since 1997. [75792]

Ms Blears: It is not possible to give meaningful estimates of these figures, for two reasons. First, it is difficult to distinguish expenditure on research that is relevant to one particular tumour site from research on other or all cancers. Second, over 75 per cent. of the

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Department's total expenditure on research, including that on cancer, are devolved to national health service and details of these figures are not collected centrally.

We are tackling both of these difficulties. The National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) is developing a database of research funded by NCRI members. Research projects are being classified according to the "Common Scientific Outline" system drawn up by the National Cancer Institute in the United States of America. This will enable all NCRI members to use the same system for distinguishing expenditure on research that is relevant to one particular tumour site from research on other or all cancers.

The modernisation of the NHS research and development funding system should enable a significant proportion of funds that are currently devolved to the NHS to be entered on to the NCRI database and analysed in a similar way.

Cancer Services

Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much money from the NHS Cancer Plan has been spent to date on cancer services. [75375]

Ms Blears: The Cancer Plan is being backed by a big increase in funding with an extra #407 million in 2002–03 compared with 2000–01. #76 million of this money was earmarked within national health service budgets for 2002–03 to ensure that investment gets through to the front line to be spent on the priorities for cancer services identified by doctors, nurses and other frontline staff. We are looking very closely at progress this year and Professor Mike Richards is working with chief executives of StHAs to ensure that the money gets through to cancer services and that Cancer Plan targets are met.

Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total cost of (a) prostate, (b) lung, (c) ovarian and (d) leukaemia cancer services was in each year since 1997. [75810]

Ms Blears : The Department does not collect figures on the cost of services provided by the national health service in a way that enables an accurate figure to be calculated for the cost of a particular disease. The cost of cancer care to the NHS has been estimated to be approximately 6 per cent. of hospital expenditure.

The Cancer Plan set out the Government's commitment that an extra #570 million would be made available for cancer services by 2003–04.

Care Homes (Closure)

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his estimate is of the (a) number of residential care homes that have closed and (b) number of residential

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care home beds lost in Portsmouth, South in each of the past five years for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [76489]

Jacqui Smith: Information is not available by constituency. The number of residential care homes and care home beds in Portsmouth unitary authority is shown in the table at 31 March for the years 1998 to 2001. Data for 2002 are not yet available.

Number of residential care homes and care home beds in Portsmouth unitary authority at 31 March, 1998 to 2001

As at 31 March	Care homes	Care home beds
1998	165	1,890
1999	165	1,850
2000	155	1,735
2001	140	1,595

Mrs. Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make a statement on the closure of care homes. [75363]

Jacqui Smith: Department of Health figures show that between 1997 and 2001 the most recent figures available the number of care homes in England reduced by only 640 or 2 per cent. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced, on 23 July, an extra #1 billion for social services by 2006. Some of this money can be used to boost capacity in the care home sector.

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