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Statutory Instruments
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the statutory instruments issued by his Department in the last 12 months, indicating (a) the purpose of each and (b) the cost of each to (i) public funds, (ii) businesses and (iii) individuals. [106327]
Mr. Lammy: The number of statutory instruments issued by the Department of Health between 1 April 2002 and 31 March 2003 was 182. These include Orders in Council.
The purpose of each statutory instrument is outlined in its explanatory note.Where a statutory instrument imposes costs to public funds, local businesses and individuals, a regulatory impact assessment is prepared and placed in the Library.
Teenagers
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans the Government has to designate teenagers as a specific group for the collection of health statistics. [107706]
Ms Blears: The Government have no plans to designate teenagers in this way. Where practicable, relevant and justified, statistical collections include information on the date of birth or age of patients or other statistical subjects. These permit analysis by
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different age groups of interest. In other areas, the data collected may include analysis by age groups that are relevant for policy, legal or other reasons to the subject matter of the statistics, and these may cover partly or wholly the 13 to 19 age group.
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many teenagers with cancer in Southend West are treated in wards for older people. [107704]
Mr. Lammy: No statistics are available centrally which allow distinction between adult and children's wards.
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps Southend Primary Care Trust is taking to tackle (a) late diagnosis and (b) mis-diagnosis of teenagers with cancer. [107705]
Mr. Lammy: Southend Primary Care Trust board regularly reviews two week cancer waiting times as part of their review of performance indicators. Audit systems are in place for the treatment of cancer patients at the acute trust.
Tobacco Advertising
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with (a) the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and (b) tobacco companies concerning the removal of billboard tobacco advertising. [106559]
Ms Blears: No specific discussions have taken place with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister or the tobacco companies concerning the removal of billboard advertising. The Department of Health published its consultation document on the regulations to the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002 with provisions concerning the removal of billboard advertising and a risk impact assessment. The consultation exercise ran from 22 August 2002 to 15 November 2002, which included the tobacco companies. A copy of the consultation document is available in the Library.
Waiting Lists/Times
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients in the Buckinghamshire Health Authority area waited more than (a) three months, (b) six months, (c) nine months, (d) 12 months, (e) 15 months, (f) 18 months and (g) 24 months for (i) heart operations, (ii) cancer treatment and (iii) hip replacements in 2001–02. [106955]
Ms Blears: The information for the number of patients who waited for heart operations, cancer treatment and hip replacements in 2001–02 is shown in the table. It shows the cumulative figures on hip replacement operations or heart operations and procedures and primary diagnosis of cancer (neoplasms), count of finished in year admission episodes, admissions from waiting list and booked cases by waiting time group in National Health Service hospitals, Buckinghamshire Health Authority 2001–02.
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| Waiting time group | Heart Operations | Hip replacements | Cancer treatment (neoplasms) |
|---|---|---|---|
| More than three months | (43) | 369 | 343 |
| More than six months | 0 | 290 | 258 |
| More than nine months | 0 | 201 | 175 |
| More than 12 months | 0 | 140 | 120 |
| More than 15 months | 0 | 66 | 57 |
| More than 18 months | 0 | 27 | 21 |
| More than 24 months | 0 | 9 | 8 |
(43) Due to reasons of confidentiality, figures below five have been suppressed.
Note:
HES data include suspended patient waits.
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Department of Health.
Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of patients waited over four hours in accident and emergency departments in each West Sussex hospital in each of the last four years. [107593]
Ms Blears [holding answer 7 April 2003]: Information on the total time spent in accident and emergency (A&E) is not collected for individual A&E departments. Information on the total time spent in A&E for each national health service trust has been collected and published since July 2002 on the Department of Health website at http://www.doh.gov.uk/hospitalactivity.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Benefit Fraud
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what mechanisms have been put in place by his Department to identify second and further convictions for benefit fraud. [107006]
Malcolm Wicks: Following the implementation of the 'two-strikes' provision of the Social Security Fraud Act 2001, we have set up a special database to identify and track people prosecuted for benefit fraud more than once after 1 April 2002.
Benefits (Verification Compliance)
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) if he will make a statement on verification framework compliance by housing benefit departments of local authorities; [107104]
- (2) if he will make a statement on the success of the local authority verification framework compliance procedure in tackling housing benefit fraud; [107105]
(3) how many housing benefit departments of local authorities are now verification framework compliant; and how many have not achieved verification framework compliance; [107106]
(4) if he will make a statement on the additional resources made available by the Government to assist in making local authority housing benefit departments verification framework compliant; [107107]
(5) whether his Department plans to commit ring-fenced funding to local authority housing benefit departments for (a) IT and administrative support and
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- (b) document imaging systems as a result of the demands created by the requirement for verification framework compliance; [107108]
(6) whether his Department plans to extend the requirement for verification framework compliance to other providers of benefits. [107109]
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many local authorities have not implemented the Verification Framework for housing benefit. [107416]
Malcolm Wicks: A total of 327 local authorities have taken up the Verification Framework (VF) so far. They include those who are fully compliant, those who have taken up one or two modules and those who are in the process of implementation. To date, 81 local authorities have not applied to take up VF.
At present 74 per cent. of housing benefit expenditure is processed through VF. We aim to have 100 per cent. of housing benefit expenditure processed through VF by 2006.
We are developing a more targeted method of identifying high-risk cases for VF interventions. This will replace the routine checking that is currently carried out on all claims as a matter of course when a claim reaches the end of its benefit period. We want local authorities' efforts to focus on more cost-effective activities and therefore we expect the VF to become more attractive.
Management information returns indicate that local authorities who operate VF procedures identify 6 per cent. of new claims as being fraudulent or in error and
identify in 5 per cent. of renewal claims and at 5 per cent of VF visits an actual or potential overpayment. It is not possible to measure directly how much of this incorrectness would have been found had the local authorities hot been VF compliant.
The Departmental funding for VF is in the form of a one-off payment for set-up costs and on-going funding for the running of the scheme. The set-up cost is intended for costs incurred in the implementation phase and would cover such areas as training, IT changes, staff recruitment, etc. Each local authority's capacity to implement the scheme would dictate how they would need to spend the set-up costs and it is left to their judgment. Purchase of document imaging systems would be one of their options. The funding is not ring-fenced but conditional upon the local authority delivering the specified outcomes.
A total of £223 million is available for the VF scheme for three years from April 2003. This represents a 50 per cent. increase on the 2002–03 allocation for set-up costs and on-going funding. This is the biggest increase since the VF was introduced and will help to increase take-up even further.
The VF was designed specifically for use by local authorities. However, there are already procedures in place to check evidence for other DWP benefit claims.
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