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Departmental Performance Report

Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 27 January, Official Report, column 672W, on the Departmental Performance Report, when the Chief Executive's report will be reviewed; and when his Department will publish its service delivery agreements. [99011]

Mr. Lammy: The Department's Autumn Performance Report has been published and can be found on the Department's website at: http://www.doh.gov.uk/nhsreport/autumn2002perfreport.pdf. Copies have also been placed in the Library.

The Department has set out its approach to delivery in a key publication, 'Improvement, Expansion and Reform: The next three years Planning and Priorities Framework 2003–06', which can be found on the departmental website at: http://www.doh.gov.uk/

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planning2003–2006/index.htm. This document fulfils the service delivery agreement requirements and is also available via Her Majesty's Treasury website.

Diabetes

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many diabetic patients with heart disease were given stents in percutaneous coronary intervention in the last five years. [102142]

Ms Blears: No information is held on numbers of patients suffering from diabetes who have been given stents during percutaneous coronary angioplasty.

Food Labelling

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much money has been allocated for developing the identity and materials for the five-a-day logo for use on food packaging and in related campaigns. [96887]

Ms Blears: The total cost of developing the identity and materials for the five-a-day logo on food packaging and related campaigns is £125,000.

Food Standards Agency

Mr. Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) staff and (b) inspection staff have been employed by the Food Standards Agency in each year since 1997. [99765]

Ms Blears: The Food Standards Agency (FSA) was established in April 2000 on a United Kingdom-wide basis. It employed 594 staff at 31 March 2001 and 657 at 31 March 2002. The FSA's audit and veterinary meat hygiene adviser team of 11 staff carries out audit visits and reports on the performance of the meat hygiene service (MHS). The MHS employs 1,300 meat hygiene inspectors and meat technicians.

Free NHS Treatment

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what checks GPs have to carry out on their patients during registration with the GP practice, in order to discover whether they qualify for free NHS treatment. [101245]

Mr. Hutton: Patients register with a general practitioner for general medical services by completing a GMS1 form. This asks for a name and address, previous address for the purposes of tracing previous medical records and whether the patient is from abroad. For personal medical services pilot providers, patients apply by making a signed application or presenting a medical card.

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will make a statement on the calculations that have been made of the cost to the NHS in (a) London and (b) England of treating patients who are not eligible for NHS services; [101301]

(2) how much money, in each of the last five years, has been paid to the NHS by people using the NHS who did not qualify for free NHS treatment and services. [101305]

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Mr. Hutton: The national health service is first and foremost for the benefit of people who live in the United Kingdom. A person who is not ordinarily resident in the UK, but who requires NHS hospital treatment is subject to the provisions of the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 1989, as amended (in 1991 (SI No: 438), 1994 (SI No: 1535), 2000 (SI No: 602), 2000 (SI No: 909)).

These regulations place a duty on NHS trusts to establish the residential status of all patients. Where a NHS trust identifies a person who is not ordinarily resident in the UK and is not otherwise exempt from charge then the regulations provide for the making and recovery of a charge by the trust for most types of hospital treatment.

General Practitioners

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the latest average waiting time is for a GP appointment in Great London; and what the average waiting time for a GP appointment was in May 1997. [101252]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 6 March 2003]: The information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Department.

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many GP practices in Greater London have closed their books to new registrations; and what percentage of GP practices in Greater London these represent. [101317]

Mr. Hutton: The information on closed lists is not held centrally.

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many GP vacancies there are in Greater London; and how many there were in May 1997. [101307]

Mr. Hutton: The latest available information held centrally on general practitioner vacancies in London is for the 12 month period ending 28 February 2002. 280 unprincipled equivalent GP vacancies were reported in this period by health authorities within the Directorate of Health and Social Care London area.

We did not carry out a GP vacancy survey prior to 2000.

Health Protection Agency

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the Health Protection Agency will, from 1 April, be able to call for special investigations on outbreaks of infection. [100394]

Ms Blears: We intend to establish the Health Protection Agency as a special health authority from 1 April 2003. Its functions will be specified in the Order which establishes it.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 6 February 2003, Official Report, column 443W, on the Health Protection Agency, when the board of the agency will be appointed; and how long it will take for staff to be identified as at risk of redundancy. [101138]

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Ms Blears: Subject to legislation it is intended that the non-executive members of the Board of the Health Protection Agency will be appointed on 1 April 2003. As indicated in the earlier answer, any staff at risk of redundancy cannot be identified until after the Board has agreed an organisational structure. The timetable will be for the Board to establish.

Hospital Building Maintenance

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding to NHS trusts has been allocated this year for (a) essential repairs to hospital buildings and (b) ensuring that fire and safety regulations are met. [100508]

Mr. Hutton: National health service trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) receive operational capital to maintain the asset base of the organisation. NHS trusts and PCTs decide how to spend their operational capital on the competing priorities they have for investment. These priorities will include fire and health and safety compliance work and other capital investment, such as the replacement of equipment.

£767 million was allocated as operational capital in 2002–03. The recently announced three-year capital allocations provide £844 million for operational capital in 2003–04, £928 million for 2004–05 and £1,021 million for 2005–06.

In addition, a proportion of both the strategic health authorities' strategic capital and the investment secured through the private finance initiative will go towards meeting fire and health and safety compliance.

Iraq

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which hospitals are designated to accept potential casualties from any conflict in Iraq. [102381]

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the number of beds in national health service hospitals which are being prepared in anticipation of casualties from hostilities in the Gulf; and what proposals he has to fund them. [100412]

Mr. Hutton: There are no plans to ask hospitals to set aside specific beds in anticipation of any conflict in Iraq. We plan to operate a rotation of airports across the UK to which casualties will be returned and, as a result, make use of beds from a wider range of hospitals.

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the impact on the NHS of the use of medical and nursing reservists in the event of conflict in Iraq. [102428]

Mr. Hutton: Medical reservists are being called out from a number of national health service organisations across the country. The NHS bodies concerned are developing plans to deal with the loss of staff, and we are working closely with the Ministry of Defence to ensure that the effects of call outs are kept to a minimum.

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