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12 Feb 2003 : Column 811W—continued
Correspondence
Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 25 November from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Anne France; [92283]
- (2) why he has not replied to the letter to him dated 25 November from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, with regard to Anne France. [94691]
Mr. Milburn: A reply was sent to my right hon. Friend on 10 February.
Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 2 December from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr. Z. Daugavietis; [92284]
12 Feb 2003 : Column 812W
- (2) why he has not replied to the letter to him dated 2 December from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, with regard to Mr. Z. Daugavietis; [94697]
(3) when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 2 December from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr. Z. Daugavietis. [97085]
Mr. Milburn: A reply was sent to my right hon. Friend on 10 February.
Data Protection Act
Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many subject access requests for information under the Data Protection Act 1998 were received by his Department in each of the last three years; and how many were (a) fulfilled in full within the statutory period, (b) fulfilled in full beyond the statutory period, (c) fulfilled in part and (d) have not been fulfilled, in each of the last three years. [92188]
Mr. Lammy [holding answer Tuesday 21 January 2003]: The table below sets out the number of requests, on an annual basis, received since 1 March 2000, when the Act came into force. Figures in the last column represent requests that have been made where work is in progress or where more information from the data subject is awaited.
| Within statutory period | Beyond statutory period | In part | Not fulfilled/work in progress | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Mar 2000 to 31 Dec 2000 | 0 | 2 | — | — |
| 1 Jan 2001 to 31 Dec 2001 | 10 | 8 | — | — |
| 1 Jan 2002 to 31 Dec 2002 | 161 | 105 | — | 5 |
Note:Includes the Department of Health, Medicines Control Agency, Medical Devices Agency, NHS Pensions Agency, NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency.
Of 105 requests fulfilled beyond the statutory period in 2002, five were from the NHS Pensions Agency, and 100 from the Department of Health.
The Department aims to respond to requests within the statutory period and allocates resources to meet anticipated numbers of requests. Requests over the past three years have averaged three or four per month on a steady upward trend. The number of complex requests relating to contact over many years with staff in different areas of the Department has also been increasing. Each of these requires substantial effort to collect and analyse the data requested.
In June 2002, 86 requests were received from hon. Members. In July, seven of nine requests were from hon. Members. This peak of demand stretched the resources available, even though additional staff were engaged quickly.
The delays reported by the NHS Pensions Agency were associated with a transfer of responsibility for subject access requests and are not expected to occur again.
12 Feb 2003 : Column 813W
Departmental Website
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the ease of use of the Department of Health website. [95690]
Mr. Lammy: A programme of research among users of the Department's website started in autumn 2001. This extensive work used a variety of methods, such as face to face and telephone interviews, group work and online surveys, to assess the needs of professional and lay users of the website.
The initial objective was to inform changes to the site design, notably to the home page and top-level section pages, which were implemented during 2002. These re-designs were supported by usability testing—observing users carrying out specified tasks.
Follow-up research was conducted late in 2002 to assess progress and further inform future development.
Based on the findings of both these research exercises, we are now progressing major improvements to the website, which will address the key needs of users; namely the site structure, the search engine and the consistency of design and navigation.
A group of users is being consulted as this work moves forward to ensure that the resulting changes will better enable the site to meet user requirements.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many times his Department's (a) website and (b) website search engine crashed in each of the last three years; and what the length of time of each outage was. [95691]
Mr. Lammy: Information on the Department of Health website outages has only been collected since hosting was taken over by a new internet service provider on 21 June 2002.
The figures for the total downtime per month and the percentage of uptime for the Department's website, www.doh.gov.uk, are shown in table 1. We cannot provide a figure for the number of individual outages for the Department's website.
The figures for the total number of outages and the maximum total downtime per month for the Department's search engine, http://search2.openobjects.com/kbroker/doh/search.isp, are shown in table 2.
| Month/year | Total down time (mins) | Total uptime (percentage) |
|---|---|---|
| July 2002 | 137 | 99.7 |
| August 2002 | 239 | 99.5 |
| September 2002 | 759 | 98.3 |
| October 2002 | 459 | 98.9 |
| November 2002 | 203 | 99.6 |
| December 2002 | 0 | 100 |
| January 2003 | 0 | 100 |
| Total | 1,797 | 99.5 |
12 Feb 2003 : Column 814W
| Month/year | Total number of outages | Maximum total downtime (mins) |
|---|---|---|
| July 2002 | 1 | 60 |
| August 2002 | 0 | — |
| September 2002 | 0 | — |
| October 2002 | 0 | — |
| November 2002 | 0 | — |
| December 2002 | 1 | 60 |
| January 2003 | 0 | — |
| Total | 2 | 120 |
Diabetes
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, broken down by age. [96069]
Mr. Lammy: This information is not available in the form requested.
Dialysis Treatment
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients have received dialysis treatment from the NHS in each of the last three years. [97308]
Mr. Lammy [holding answer 11 February 2003]: Figures for the number of patients receiving hospital-based haemodialysis, home haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis are available from Renal Survey data. Surveys were undertaken in 1993, 1995 and 1998.
| Number of hospital haemodialysis patients in England | Number of home haemodialysis patients in England | Number of peritoneal dialysis patients in England | Total number of dialysis patients in England | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | 3,899 | 806 | 4,340 | 9,045 |
| 1995 | 5,383 | 725 | 4,880 | 10,988 |
| 1998 | 7,788 | 516 | 5,101 | 13,405 |
A further survey has been commissioned to collect data in 2002.
Doctors
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of newly qualified doctors joined the NHS in each of the past 10 years. [96514]
Jacqui Smith: Pre-registration house officers (PRHOs) are doctors who, having graduated from medical school, must successfully complete a year of work in the national health service in order to achieve full registration with the General Medical Council.
The table shows the number of PRHOs in England at 30 September in the appropriate year and graduate output from medical school at 31 July for each of those years. We do not collect data on the number of junior doctors joining the NHS each year.
Between 1992 and 2002, the number of PRHOs has increased from 3,040 to 3,680; a rise of 640, or 21 per cent.
12 Feb 2003 : Column 815W
| Year | Total output England | PRHOs England |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 2,790 | 3,040 |
| 1993 | 2,760 | 3,090 |
| 1994 | 2,870 | 3,020 |
| 1995 | 2,910 | 3,220 |
| 1996 | 2,980 | 3,220 |
| 1997 | 3,030 | 3,360 |
| 1998 | 3,260 | 3,450 |
| 1999 | 3,100 | 3,540 |
| 2000 | 3,370 | 3,640 |
| 2001 | 3,290 | 3,680 |
| 2002 | 3,280 | (21)— |
(21) Information not yet available.
Source:
Department of Health medical and dental workforce census (to nearest 10).
Emergency Readmissions
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what figures are collected on the reasons for people over the age of 75 being admitted to hospital as an emergency readmission within (a) 14 days and (b) 28 days of their discharge from hospital. [95692]
Jacqui Smith: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data include information on the reason for an admission, including a readmission, to hospital. However, only overall readmission numbers and rates are identified and calculated. The reason for an admission for people readmitted following a recent discharge has not routinely been drawn from HES and analysed.
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