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Public Service Agreements

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he will publish the annual targets for each major business on accuracy, unit costs and customer service underlying his Department's technical note on its public service agreement; and if he will make a statement. [94876]

Mr. McCartney: Annual targets for each of the Department's Executive Agencies will be published in their respective business plans in due course. Copies will be laid before the House and placed in the Library.

Unallocated Funds

Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate the total unallocated funds within his departmental expenditure limit (a) at the start of the financial year and (b) to date. [93411]

Mr. McCartney: The Departmental Unallocated Provision at the start of the financial year was £94.088 million and remains so at 31 December 2002.

HEALTH

Unlawful Sexual Activity

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what target he has set for the reduction in (a) under-16 conceptions and (b) the incidence of unlawful sexual activity among under-16s. [89577]

Ms Blears: Our teenage pregnancy strategy, launched in 1999, has a goal of halving the under-18 conception rate and setting a firmly established downward trend in the conception rate for under-16s by 2010. There is an interim target within the NHS Plan of a 15 per cent. reduction by 2004.

The teenage pregnancy strategy is multi-faceted and based on the best available evidence. Integral to the strategy is helping young people to resist pressure to have early sex through improved sex and relationship and personal social and health education programmes in schools and out of school settings, and supporting parents in talking to their children about sex and relationships issues.

Early signs of the strategy's impact are encouraging with latest data for 2000 showing a 6.2 per cent. reduction from 1998 in both under-18 and under-16 conception rates.

Accident and Emergency Services

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS hospitals in the Greater London area provide accident and emergency services; and if he will make a statement. [94322]

Mr. Hutton: There are 27 national health service trusts in London with 24 hour accident and emergency (A&E) departments. These are spread over 32 hospital sites.

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Changes in the configuration of A&E departments are made in response to local circumstances to ensure that people have the right balance of emergency care services locally. When changes are made, clinical advice is taken about safety and quality.

Adolescent Mental Health Unit, Tooting

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the new adolescent mental health unit will open at Springfield hospital in Tooting. [93639]

Mr. Hutton: It is anticipated that the adolescent mental health unit will open in June 2003.

Beef (Spinal Cord)

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects the European Union's Beef Management Committee to discuss the practical problems of identifying spinal cord in frozen carcasses; and if he will make a statement. [92637]

Ms Blears: The European Union's Beef Management Committee has so far not discussed the practical problems of identifying spinal cord in frozen carcasses. Instead, it is foreseen that the EU's Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health will be the appropriate forum for discussing this and other specifically veterinary aspects of the supply of beef from intervention.

The United Kingdom raised this and other related issues at the meeting of this committee on 22–23 January. Those member states which have previously sent ex-intervention beef to the UK with specified risk material still attached gave assurances about the enhanced measures put in place to prevent a recurrence.

Cancelled Operations

Jon Trickett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cancelled operations in (a) England and Wales and (b) Wakefield and Pontefract hospitals have been attributed to a lack of capacity of high dependency and intensive care beds in the last 12 months for which statistics are available. [93792]

Mr. Hutton: Quarterly data are collected on the number of operations cancelled by the hospital for non-clinical reasons at the last minute, that is, on the day patients are due to arrive or after arrival in hospital, or on the day of their operation and on the day of surgery. These data are not broken down into the reasons for cancellation.

Cancelled operations data at England level and by national health service trust are available in the Library and on the Department's website at www.doh.gov.uk/hospitalactivity/data requests.htm.

Cancer

Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to place his cancer funding tracking exercise on a permanent footing. [94516]

Ms Blears: The current work to identify investment in cancer services is an exceptional exercise.

We are devolving power from the centre to locally run services, to allow the freedom to innovate and improve care for patients. The increased resources that we have

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made available and will continue to make available to support the implementation of the Cancer Plan will move to the national health service frontline.

Primary care trusts will have freedom to decide where NHS resources are best spent, but they will need to account publicly for how they have used resources against the test of high clinical standards and good value for money.

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many operations for cancer patients have been cancelled on two or more occasions in the last available 12 month period. [93793]

Mr. Hutton: Quarterly data are collected on the number of operations cancelled by the hospital for non-clinical reasons at the last minute, that is, on the day patients are due to arrive or after arrival in hospital or on the day of their operation and on the day of surgery. These data are not broken down into which specialties patients were cancelled under, nor do they show if a patient's operation has been cancelled more than once.

The NHS Plan cancelled operations guarantee has been in place since 1 April 2002. It states that if a patient's operation is cancelled by the hospital on the day of surgery for non-clinical reasons, the hospital will have to offer another binding date within a maximum of the next 28 days, or fund the patient's treatment at the time and hospital of the patient's choice.

Cancelled operations data are available in the Library and on the Department's website at www.doh.gov.uk/hospitalactivity/data requests.htm.

Chiropodists

Barbara Follett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with the Health Professions Council on the use of protected titles of chiropodist and podiatrist; and if he will make a statement. [93915]

Mr. Hutton: I met with the President and chief executive of the Health Professions Council (HPC) on 4 December 2002; at which meeting all aspects of the HPC's proposals were discussed. However, it is for the HPC to propose and the Privy Council to determine the protected titles that will be associated with the parts and sub sections of the health professions register.

The aim of registration is to assure the public of the competence of registered healthcare professionals. The HPC consulted about which titles should be protected by law and restricted to use by those registered. These titles indicate that those registered have met HPC's standards of competence. Anyone who does not meet those standards may practise using an unprotected title.

Barbara Follett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will recommend to the Health Professions Council that they institute a sub-register to enable chiropodists to practise by using an unprotected title; and if he will make a statement on the need for protected titles other than chiropodist. [93916]

Mr. Hutton: The aim of registration is to assure the public of the competence of healthcare professionals and, when necessary, to protect them. The Health Professions Council consulted about which titles should

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be protected by law and has undertaken extensive market research to understand the public's perception of titles currently in use by health professionals. The introduction of a sub register would not serve the aims of registration and would be likely to lead to confusion and would not assist the public when trying to make informed choices about whom to consult about their health.

Correspondence

Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will reply to the letter of 1 November 2002 from the hon. Member for Northavon regarding Mr. G. S., DoH reference PO 1019156. [93964]

Ms Blears [holding answer 28 January 2003]: A reply was sent to the hon. Member on 30 January.

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