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8 Apr 2003 : Column 229W—continued

Departmental Spending

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his estimate is of the real growth in spending by his Department between 1997 and 2002 on (a) housing benefit, (b) council tax benefit, (c) pensions, (d) disability benefits, (e) child benefits and (f) unemployment related benefits; and if he will make a statement. [97352]

Malcolm Wicks: The information is in the table. It shows the Government is spending less on the costs of unemployment—so that the annual bill is now around £5 billion lower than in 1996–97. This allows the Government to continue to invest with confidence in the key priorities—pensioners and families.

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Total change in expenditure in real terms, Great Britain, financial years 1996–97 to 2001–02Percentage

		DWP Annually Managed Expenditure	Total Benefit Expenditure
	(a) Housing Benefit		-7.0	-12.7
	(b) Council Tax Benefit		2.3	2.2
	(c) Pensions		16.5	16.5
	(d) Disability Benefits		23.2	23.2
(e) Child Benefits	Including Family Credit/Disability Working Allowance	3.3	3.3
	Excluding Family Credit/Disability Working Allowance	14.3	14.3
	(f) Unemployment-related benefits		N/A	-57.9

Notes and definitions:

(a), (b) and (f): Second column includes Housing and Council Tax Benefit expenditure financed within local authorities' Housing Revenue Accounts and general funds.

(c) Includes Retirement Pension and equivalent benefits for people over pension age, Minimum Income Guarantee, Winter Fuel Payments and Over 75 TV Licences. Expenditure on Over 75 TV Licences includes Northern Ireland.

(d) Includes Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance, Invalid Care Allowance, Independent Living Funds and Vaccine Damage Payments.

(e) Includes Child Benefit (including Lone Parent addition), Guardian's Allowance and Child's Special Allowance, child-related elements of Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance, Family Credit and Disability Working Allowance (unless otherwise stated).

(f) Includes Jobseeker's Allowance, Unemployment Benefit, and Income Support, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit for the unemployed. Some expenditure in this category will also be included in (a), (b) and (e). Information on DWP AME is not available for this category because the data that is used to identify unemployed people in receipt of Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Benefit does not show whether their benefit is funded by DWP, or from the other sources of funding for these benefits (local authorities' Housing Revenue Accounts and general funds).

Source:

Departmental Accounts and estimated outturn underlying the Pre-Budget 2002 forecasts.

Local Authority Software

Sir Archy Kirkwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the cost of alterations to local authority software as a result of (a) the new tax credits, (b) housing benefit reform and (c) the pension credit. [106647]

Malcolm Wicks: Information is not available on the specific costs of alterations to local authority software. However, during 2002–03, we distributed £6 million to local authorities to help them meet set up costs relating to new tax credits.

We also distributed an extra £15 million for set up costs relating to the pension credit. As we recognise that some of the development for pension credit will continue beyond 2002–03, we have allocated a further £2 million for 2003–04.

We are not yet in a position to estimate the cost of software changes in the Standard Local Housing

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Allowance pathfinder authorities, but are discussing the details of the scheme with the authorities and their software providers.

Post Office Card Accounts

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer of 31 March 2003, Official Report, column 608W, on post office card accounts, if he will set out the timetable for devising and implementing the scheme. [107092]

Malcolm Wicks: We are currently exploring alternative ways in which these customers could receive their money.

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HEALTH

Advertising Campaigns

Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his Department's total spending was on advertising and promotional campaigns between April 2002 and March 2003; and what the cost of each campaign was, broken down by costs relating to (a) television, (b) radio and (c) print media. [106438]

Mr. Lammy: A list of the major campaigns run by the Department of Health's Communications directorate during 2002–03, whose advertising expenditure included television, radio and print media is shown in the table.

Name of Campaign	TV Expenditure	Expenditure on Radio	Expenditure on Print Media	Total
Antibiotics	—	—	0.44	0.44
Flu	0.95	—	0.581	1.531
Immunisation	—	0.3	0.35	0.65
Mind Out	0.056	0.014	0.072	0.142
National Health Service—
including nurse recruitment	1.986	0.0865	2.0363	4.108
NHS Direct	—	—	0.58	0.58
Organ donation	0.06	0.05	0.10	0.21
RU Thinking/teenage pregnancy	—	0.945	0.275	1.22
Sexual Health	—	0.534	0.240	0.774
Social Worker Recruitment	—	0.213	0.720	0.933
Smoking	7.524	0.050	0.935	8.509
TB Awareness	—	—	0.09	0.09
Winter	—	—	0.25	0.25

Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust

Mr. Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make available to the Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals NHS trust additional funding to enable the trust to implement immediately the recommendations of the Commission for Health Improvement report on maternity services at the hospitals, published on 31 March. [107198]

Jacqui Smith: The Department welcomes the publication of the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) report into maternity services at the Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals national health service trust. We are currently considering the recommendations contained in the report and will make a formal response shortly. However, it is a matter for the trust, working with the strategic health authority, to produce and implement an action plan for the CHI recommendations relating to the trust.

Central Records System

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the anticipated (a) benefits and (b) cost savings are of the proposed central records system in the NHS; and if he will make a statement. [108027]

Mr. Lammy: The creation of the integrated care record service (ICRS) is a core infrastructure element of the Government's modernisation programme for the national health service. Its primary focus is to enable the delivery of responsive care tailored to the needs of citizens and patients as described in the NHS Plan rather than specific cost savings.

ICRS benefits will result in improved clinical effectiveness rather than just administrative efficiency. The table provides a summary of the key benefits that are expected.

ICRS benefits

Improved efficiency	Time savings
	Reduction in duplicate tests, DNAs
	Improved scheduling
Effectiveness and Patient outcomes	Access to knowledge
	Patient outcomes
	Improved compliance with clinical protocols
Safety of care	Reduction in medical errors
Support for patient centred care	Timeliness/reduction in waiting times
	Equity
	Better patient experience
	Patient empowerment
Whole system working	Shared record
	Enables different models of care
	Support for care across organisational boundaries
Meet core corporate objectives	Performance targets
	Corporate and clinical governance

National health service health authorities and trusts will of course need to make business cases justifying their investment in ICRS implementations and demonstrating value for money.

The Government's national strategic programme for the NHS is concerned with major developments in the deployment and use of information technology (IT) in

8 Apr 2003 : Column 233W

the NHS. It aims to connect delivery of the NHS Plan with the capabilities of modern information technologies to:

support the patient and the delivery of services designed around the patient, quickly, conveniently and seamlessly;


support staff through effective electronic communications, better learning and knowledge management, cut the time to find essential information (notes, test results) and make specialised expertise more accessible;


improve management and delivery of services by providing good quality data to support national service frameworks, clinical audit, governance and management information.

The Government will continue to work closely with the clinical professions to ensure these goals are achieved.

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