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Care Standards

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will (a) list and (b) publish the directions he has issued to the National Care Standards Commission since its inception. [114748]

Jacqui Smith: The Secretary of State for Health has not issued any directions to the National Care Standards Commission since its inception.

Protective Suits

Mr. Kenneth Clarke: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much additional central funding has been allocated this year to the health and ambulance authorities in Nottinghamshire to provide improved personal protective equipment, including respirators and mobile decontamination units to be used in response to nuclear, biological or chemical terrorist attack; and how many staff have been given specialist training in (a) the use of such equipment and (b) the response to such attacks. [116481]

Mr. Lammy [holding answer 3 June 2003]: The Department allocated £5 million in 2002–03 nationally for the provision of additional and updated personal protective equipment for health service personnel. That equipment has been delivered to hospital accident and emergency departments and to ambulance services, and relevant training programmes have been implemented. Some £130,000 was allocated to health service providers who serve Nottinghamshire. This bought equipment for the East Midlands Ambulance service (EMAS) (which also serves Derbyshire and Leicestershire), Queens Medical Centre (QMC), Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust. The health community is actively undertaking training for staff. EMAS has, for example, trained 30 staff across its area of operation and has plans to train a further 30, and 60 staff at the QMC have been trained in the use of the personal protection equipment.

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Mr. Kenneth Clarke: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many ambulance service staff in the East Midland Region have been issued with the newly designed protective suit for use in response to nuclear, biological or chemical attack by terrorists; and how many of these staff have so far received specialist training in the response to such incidents. [116482]

Mr. Lammy [holding answer 3 June 2003]: There are three ambulance trusts that serve the East Midlands and the information requested for each of those trusts is shown in the table.

Ambulance Trust	Number of suits available	Number of staff trained
East Midlands Ambulance Service	150	30
Lincolnshire Ambulance	100	116
Two Shires Ambulance	100	40

CABINET OFFICE

Agency Workers

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many agency workers have been employed by the Department in each of the last two years; and at what cost to public funds. [115203]

Mr. Alexander: Information on the number of agency workers that have been employed by the Cabinet Office in each of the last two years is not held centrally and is therefore available only at disproportionate cost.

Estimated expenditure on agency workers in the Cabinet Office is as follows:

Year	£000
2001–02	1,587
2002–03	2,221

Figures for 2002–03 are subject to end of year adjustment and external audit.

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