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10 Feb 2003 : Column 557W—continued

Nursing

Rev. Martin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many nurses in each Board area have left the health service in each of the last two years. [95149]

Mr. Browne: The information requested is detailed in the following tables.

Figures in the following tables relate to nursing staff (including midwives) in each Health and Social Services Board that have left the health service in the last two years—leavers are defined as those who were in employment at the start of the year but who weren't in employment in the NI Health and Personal Social Services at the end of the year.

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Nursing leavers between September 2000 and September 2001

Board	Headcount	WTE(32)
Eastern Board	488	411.88
Northern Board	137	113.21
Southern Board	119	97.82
Western Board	126	111.49
Total	870	734.40

⁽³²⁾ Whole time equivalent

Nursing leavers between September 2001 and September 2002

Board	Headcount	WTE(33)
Eastern Board	594	516.74
Northern Board	126	105.75
Southern Board	141	118.49
Western Board	116	102.93
Total	977	843.91

⁽³³⁾ Whole time equivalent

Organ Retention (Royal Victoria Hospital)

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what provision has been made to assist relatives to deal psychologically with recent revelations of organ retention at the Royal Victoria hospital. [95841]

Mr. Browne: The Clinical Psychology Department of the Royal Group of Hospitals allocated resources to run a dedicated telephone enquiry line. Those in need of psychological support were identified and clinical psychology staff made themselves available to set up and attend meetings between families and hospital staff. Following the establishment of the DHSSPS Human Organs Enquiry Line on 20 November 2002, the enquiry line at the Royal was closed. Callers to the DHSSPS enquiry line are made aware that psychological support is available.

Organ Retrieval (Royal Victoria Hospital)

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what procedure is to be followed by relatives who wish to retrieve organs retained by (a) the Royal Victoria Hospital and (b) the Coroner; and what avenues are open to relatives if their request is denied. [95838]

Mr. Browne: Relatives wishing to make inquiries about the retrieval of retained organs should contact the DHSSPS human organs inquiry line on 08088008810. The enquiry line operator will then liaise with the relevant acute hospital trust or state pathology department as appropriate.

The Royal group of hospitals has a general policy that all organs reclaimed by relatives will be returned.

If a request to return organs is denied by the Coroner the decision cannot be appealed, except that all legal decisions can be challenged in the courts by way of judicial review.

Physiotherapy

Rev. Martin Smyth : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will increase resources available for the recruitment of physiotherapists; and if he will make a statement. [95152]

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Mr. Browne: The budget for 2003–04 will enable the Health and Personal Social Services to maintain and improve a range of services. It is a matter for Boards, Trusts and other bodies concerned to agree on the detailed level of service provision, including any associated recruitment of staff.

Rev. Martin Smyth : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on recruitment patterns of physiotherapists in Northern Ireland. [95159]

Mr. Browne: The recruitment of staff, including physiotherapists, is a matter for individual Health and Social Services Trusts taking into account factors such as service needs and available resources.

Post-Mortems

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many post mortems have been conducted in Northern Ireland in each of the last three decades. [95842]

Mr. Browne: The Chief Medical Officer's Report on Organ Retention, "The Investigation into Retained Organs", published in May 2001, records that between 1970 and 2000 a total of 49,310 post mortems were carried out in Northern Ireland. A further breakdown of these figures in the form requested is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland under what circumstances a post mortem can be conducted on a child without the consent of the parents. [95835]

Mr. Browne: Under Section 28 of the Coroners' Act (NI) 1959 the Coroner has the power to order a post mortem without the need for consent from the parent or legal guardian. All hospital post mortems carried out on children require the consent of those with parental responsibility.

Pre-school Education

Mr. Beggs: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether children in their immediate pre-school year will be offered funding through the Pre School Education Advisory Group scheme; and if he will make a statement. [94434]

Jane Kennedy: The objective of the Pre-school Education Expansion Programme, which is planned and delivered by a Pre-school Education Advisory Group in each education and library board area, is to provide a year of funded pre-school education for every child in Northern Ireland whose parents wish it. This is achieved through the funding of places in pre-school settings which meet the Programme's quality standards. In order to give parents a choice of pre-school setting, funded places are available both in statutory nursery schools and units and in some 400 voluntary and private playgroups.

Parental demand for funded places is estimated at up to 90 per cent. of the immediate pre-school year group, but factors such as the geographical distribution of places may involve a level of provision slightly in excess of that. The number of places funded by the Department of Education has increased from 11,100 in 1997 to

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21,600 in this school year, representing an increase in coverage from 45 per cent. to an estimated 92 per cent. of the immediate pre-school year group.

Mr. Beggs: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much funding has been allocated to each of the Education and Library Boards for pre school education for 2003–04 [94435]

Jane Kennedy: No specific allocations are made to Education and Library Boards for the core funding of pre-school education. The relative levels of initial funding for 2003–04 for pre-school education will not be known until Resource Allocation Plans are drawn up by each board and approved by the Department of Education. However, the following earmarked allocations have been made to the respective boards as part of the Pre-school Education Expansion Programme for 2003–04.

	£000
BELB	720
WELB	1,593
NEELB	2,007
SEELB	1,676
SELB	1,858

These amounts represent the recurrent funding for each board in respect of: places funded in voluntary and private sector playgroups and in new statutory nursery schools and units opened between the 2002 and 2003 school censuses; the costs of furnishing and equipping new nursery schools and units opening during the 2003–04 financial year; and administration and publicity costs.

Pre-school Places

Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time pre-school places are funded under the NI Programme for Building Sustainable Prosperity, Measure 4, Investing in Early Learning in Northern Ireland in (i) controlled, (ii) maintained and (iii) grant-maintained integrated schools; and if he will make a statement. [86868]

Jane Kennedy: A total of 11.34 million Euros (of which 8 million Euros is the EU contribution) is available to the Department of Education under Measure 3.4 of the European Union's Building Sustainable Prosperity Programme for securing the building of controlled, maintained, integrated and Irish-medium pre-school education facilities in local communities. The Measure will allow the Department to reclaim capital expenditure on a programme of nursery units, either built or to be built. The programme must, however, go through the application and selection procedure required by the EU. This procedure has not yet been concluded, and at this stage it is not possible to attribute the establishment of any units to Measure 3.4.

To date, however, 33 of the units for which the Department expects to reclaim the EU contribution have opened. These are providing places for 1,326

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children in total—702 in controlled schools (26 full-time, 676 part-time), 494 in maintained (130 full-time, 364 part-time), 78 in integrated (26 full-time, 52 part-time) and 52 in Irish medium (all part-time).

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