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21 May 2003 : Column 843W—continued

Rafidain Bank

Mr. Gummer: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what arrangements have been made to compensate British nationals who were denied payments following the sequestration of the Rafidain bank after the Gulf War of 1991; and when they will be paid in full their outstanding moneys, including the accrued interest. [114507]

Mr. Boateng: The court placed the London branch of the Rafidain bank in provisional liquidation in 1991. The funds remain under the control of the court and, as a matter of law, must be used towards the general obligations of the bank. The Government do not compensate individuals for losses suffered or contracts broken as a result of the implementation of United Nations sanctions policies.

Research and Development Tax Credit

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the impact of the new research and development tax credit on companies (a) in the UK and (b) in Teesside. [114311]

John Healey: Research and Development (R&D) tax credits were introduced for small and medium companies in 2000. They were extended to all companies in 2002 and further improvements are being made in the Finance Bill. No specific figures are available for Teesside, but the credits helped some 3000 small and medium-sized innovative companies nationally last year, delivering £150 million of support for UK R&D.

Small Business

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the measures he has introduced since 1997, including programme names and funding allocations, to support and promote small businesses in England. [114310]

John Healey: The Government's approach to promoting small business and entrepreneurship was set out in detail in "Enterprise Britain: a modern approach to meeting the enterprise challenge", published alongside the 2002 Pre-Budget Report.

Broad estimates of spending on schemes and initiatives for small business operated at a national level are contained in the Cross-cutting review of government services for small business, published last September For many services, small businesses are one of a number of customers, so a more detailed breakdown of spending is not currently available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

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State Retirement Pension

Mr. Steen: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make it his policy to include average annual increase in council tax and utility bills rather than the retail prices index as a basis for assessing the annual increase in the state retirement pension; and if he will make a statement. [114858]

Maria Eagle: I have been asked to reply

The Retail Prices Index (RPI) is representative of consumer spending patterns. The items in the RPI are kept under review and already include average council tax bills for households in Great Britain and average rates bills in Northern Ireland. Also included are amounts for utilities including water, sewerage and environmental charges, telephone charges, electricity, gas, coal and solid fuels and oil and other fuels.

The full list of items can be found on the National Statistics website: www.statistics.gov.uk

However, we increased the basic state pension by more than RPI in the last three years.

Valuation Office Agency (Liverpool)

Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the quality of performance of the Valuation Office Agency in Liverpool. [114821]

Dawn Primarolo: The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) operates 22 Group Valuation Offices throughout England and Wales. The VOA has recently introduced a range of different indicators of performance covering customer services, people management and key business results, both financial and non-financial. Final audited figures for 2002–03 are not available, but the initial figures show the Liverpool Group in the upper quartile.

HEALTH

Sexual Health

Mr. Dhanda: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to make advice leaflets on sexual health available in more languages. [113729]

Ms Blears: Primary care trusts are responsible for providing sexual health services and information which is accessible and appropriate to local needs.

The Department of Health will shortly publish practical guidance for those undertaking sexual health promotion and HIV prevention locally. It will emphasise the importance of providing information in community languages relevant to local needs, including interpretation services where appropriate.

The Department funds HIV information resources for African communities in English and French. A pilot African AIDS Helpline is currently available in English, French and three other African languages. The national sexual health information line is available to non-English speakers through use of the Language Line translation service.

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Agenda for Change

Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what (a) proportion of the NHS pay bill and (b) cash amount will be available to pay weighting to staff in high cost areas under Agenda for Change. [113528]

Mr. Hutton: Under the proposed Agenda for Change agreement, an additional £110 million in the first full year of national implementation will be invested in a new system of high cost area payments for National Health Service staff working in London and the fringe areas. For 2005–06, this will mean total expenditure of around £700 million on high cost area payments, including on-costs, in London and the fringe, or around 3 per cent, of the NHS pay bill excluding medical and dental staff. The proposed agreement provides scope for high cost area payments to be applied in other areas in future, where appropriate and for NHS organisations to pay recruitment and retention premia locally subject to certain criteria.

Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the expected cost to the Exchequer is of (a) the pay element of Agenda for Change in (i) cash terms and (ii) real terms and (b) the administration costs of the Agenda for Change process. [113529]

Mr. Hutton: By 2005–06, the first full year of national implementation, the expected cost of the pay element of Agenda for Change proposals will be around £950 million in England. This includes provision for the costs associated with the proposals for additional annual leave and changes to working hours. The figure does not include annual uplifts in pay awards for the cost of living, which have been set at 3.225 per cent. as part of the "Agenda for Change" package. It is not possible to give a firm estimate of the projected administrative costs associated with implementing "Agenda for Change", but we anticipate that these costs will be outweighed by the longer-term savings resulting from harmonisation and rationalisation of current pay systems in the national health service.

Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his policy is on whether there should be a second ballot of the the workforce in 2004 on Agenda for Change. [113530]

Mr. Hutton: It is a matter for the National Health Service trades unions and staff organisations involved to decide when and on what questions they conduct ballots of their members. The proposed "Agenda for Change" agreement includes a partnership agreement setting out the intended benefits of pay reform for NHS patients and NHS staff and the success criteria that will be used, subject to the outcome of the unions' current consultation process, to measure progress during the 'early implementation' phase. The Department is committed to working in partnership with NHS staff organisations and NHS employers to ensure that the appropriate action is taken in the event that these criteria are not sufficiently met.

Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health for which NHS job profiles he expects an increase in the length of the working week under Agenda for Change. [113583]

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Mr. Hutton: Under the Agenda for Change proposals, there is no automatic connection between a job evaluation profile and any change in the length of the working week for a post covered by that profile. The proposals include a harmonised working week of 37½ hours for full-time national health service staff covered by Agenda for Change, including provisions to phase in these arrangements for staff who currently have longer or shorter hours. In broad terms, the proposals involve a phased increase in the working week for the Whitley groupings of professions allied to medicine, administrative and clerical, professional and technical staff B and speech and language therapists' assistants. A number of staff groups work unconditioned hours and there are national provisions for working hours to be determined locally for a number of staff groups. All of these will move over time to 37½ hours under the proposed agreement.

The implications for staff currently on local contracts will depend on the terms of their individual contracts.

Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the pay bands are for the (a) clinical coders, (b) medical secretaries, (c) medical records clerks and (d) maintenance fitters (support services); and what the proposed pay bands are under Agenda for Change. [113584]

Mr. Hutton: There are currently no nationally agreed payscales specifically for clinical coders, medical secretaries, medical records clerks or maintenance fitters (support services). Pay is determined either by reference to the national pay and grade structures for national health service administrative and clerical staff and maintenance staff or by reference to locally designed pay and grading structures.

Under the Agenda for Change proposals, there is no automatic fit between current job title and new pay band. NHS posts will, where possible, be matched against national job evaluation profiles by comparing the duties and responsibilities of the post with those described in the national profiles.

The table shows profiles that have been agreed for some medical secretary jobs, medical records clerk jobs and maintenance support worker jobs, but these profiles do not purport to cover the full range of jobs currently undertaken by staff with these job titles and further job profiles are likely to be agreed in some of these cases. A profile for a clinical coder is being produced.

The table also shows the value of the corresponding basic pay bands under the Agenda for Change proposals at 2002–03 pay levels, before taking into account the proposed 3.225 per cent. pay uplifts in 2003–04, 2004–05 and 2005–06. This excludes any additional pay that staff in these jobs may receive by virtue of recruitment and retention premia.

Job profile	Proposed basic pay range for 2002–03
Medical Secretary	£12,450 to £14,900
Medical Records Clerk	£10,100 to £11,100
Maintenance Support Worker Lower Level	£10,100 to £11,100
Maintenance Support Worker Higher Level	£10,800 to £13,400

21 May 2003 : Column 847W

Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS employees he estimates will require pay protection under Agenda for Change; and what proportion of the workforce this represents. [113585]

Mr. Hutton: Assuming no changes in the deployment of staff, we estimate that around 8 per cent. of staff covered by the Agenda for Change proposals would require pay protection. The proposed agreement includes provisions to ensure that, as soon as possible during the period of protection, there would be a review to explore whether the staff concerned could be reassigned to a higher weighted job or offered development and training to fit them for a higher weighted job.

Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the average annual increase above inflation which NHS employees will receive over the first three years if Agenda for Change is implemented. [113586]

Mr. Hutton: The Agenda for Change proposals include a 10 per cent. uplift to basic pay over the three years from April 2003 to March 2006, or 3.225 per cent. in each year. The most recent estimate of annual growth in the Retail Price Index is 3.1 per cent. We estimate that the Agenda for Change proposals, if approved following consultation by staff organisations, will result in an additional increase in basic pay of 2.5 per cent. on average over the first three years, rising to 5.9 per cent. in the longer term.

Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how long the Government have been preparing the job evaluation profiles under Agenda for Change; and for which categories these are yet to be completed. [113587]

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Mr. Hutton: The preparation of job evaluation profiles, as an integral part of the development of the new national health service job evaluation scheme, has been conducted jointly between the United Kingdom health departments, NHS staff organisations and NHS employer representatives. The process of jointly agreeing draft profiles for publication began in November 2002 when negotiations on the proposed new pay system were concluded. There is no set target for the number and categories of profiles to be produced.

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