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Waiting Times

Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of patients waited up to (a) four weeks, (b) 13 weeks and (c) 26 weeks for their first outpatient appointment for cardiology following GP referral; and how many patients were waiting for over 13 weeks at quarter end in (i) England and (ii) each NHS region in each quarter since Q1 1997. [121747]

Mr. Hutton: Information on waiting times for first consultant outpatient appointment for cardiology following a general practitioner written referral for each quarter since Q1, 1997 has been placed in the Library. Over this period the number of people waiting over

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26 weeks for their first outpatient appointment in cardiology fell from 571 at end June 1997 to none at end March 2003.

Walking

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the studies conducted by him into the health benefits of walking in the last six years. [126547]

Miss Melanie Johnson: Regular walking can help in the maintenance of a healthy weight as well as helping to prevent and manage heart disease.

Many studies have been carried out on the health benefits of walking. The Department is presently undertaking a review of the evidence for the relationship between physical activity and health, which will be concerned with the full range of human activity from competitive sport and exercise to walking, cycling, dancing or activity as part of work. We hope to publish the results of the review at the end of the year to support enhanced public health efforts to promote regular physical activity.

Further evidence of the benefits of regular physical activity, including walking, will emerge from the forthcoming local exercise action pilots (LEAP) that are being developed with Sport England and the Countryside Agency. The LEAP programme will test different evidence based community approaches to increasing access to, and the levels of physical activity, with a particular focus on hard to reach and at risk groups. Walking will be a feature of several of the LEAP pilots and will be included in the evaluation of the whole programme.

Working Time Directive

Mr. Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the hospital trusts whose (a) maternity units and (b) accident and emergency departments are expected to be (i) merged and (ii) unable to provide continuous 24 hour cover following the implementation of the European Working Time Directive in August 2004. [126694]

Mr. Hutton: The Department does not accept that achieving Working Time Directive compliance by itself will lead to the closure of services. On 17 July strategic health authorities were asked to ensure that every hospital prepares a local action plan by the end of this year to achieve compliance and maintain local services. Those trusts facing the greatest challenges will have priority when postgraduate deans allocate 1,500 additional specialist registrar training places available this year. Maternity and accident and emergency services will be included in this process.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Criminal Records Bureau

Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the impact of the increase in cost of Criminal Record Bureau checks on small and medium-sized care homes. [124842]

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Paul Goggins: Responsibility for paying the fee for a criminal record Disclosure rests with the individual applicant, although it is open to the employer to reimburse the cost. I have placed in the Library a Regulatory Impact Assessment which assesses the impact of the fee increase across all sectors.

Mr. Hawkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what consultation took place with the Criminal Records Bureau's customers about the increase in fees for obtaining disclosure certificates; [122482]

(2) what assessment he has made of whether sufficient notice was given to registered bodies to assess the budgetary impact of the increase in fees for obtaining disclosure certificates from the Criminal Records Bureau; [122483]

(3) whether an impact assessment for registered bodies was carried out prior to the announcement of increased fee levels for obtaining disclosure certificates from the Criminal Records Bureau; and whether such an assessment will be carried out in future. [122484]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 30 June 2003]: The Government made it clear when the original £12 fee was announced that it was our intention that the Criminal Records Bureau would be self-financing in the medium term. That remains our objective. However, in the short term, the costs of the CRB will continue to be met by a combination of fee receipts and contributions from the Home Office, the Department of Health and Department for Education and Skills. The CRB is expected to achieve full cost recovery from 2005–06.

In view of the need to maintain an even as possible demand for the Disclosure service it was not possible to consult on the fee increase in advance of the announcement on 5 June.

Responsibility for paying the fee rests primarily with the individual applicant, although it is open to the employer to reimburse the cost. Disclosures will continue to be issued to volunteers free of charge.

A Regulatory Impact Assessment which assesses the impact of the fee increase for the voluntary and business sectors has been placed in the Library. In line with normal practice, a further assessment would be undertaken to accompany any future increase in fees that was above inflation.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) paper based, (b) phone based and (c) e-based applications for (i) standard and (ii) enhanced Criminal Records Bureau checks were received in each month up until 1 July 2003. [123763]

Paul Goggins: The figures requested are summarised in the following table.

The gross applications refer to the number received by the CRB and the net receipts refer to the number that are being processed on the system. The difference between these figures is the number of applications returned to customers for amendment.

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Month	Phone based applications (Gross)	Paper based applications (Gross)	Total applications received (Gross)	Total net receipts
March 2002	1,384	1,381	2,765	2,306
April 2002	10,337	29,376	39,713	34,301
May 2002	17,505	70,360	87,865	82,821
June 2002	17,312	72,892	90,204	88,442
July 2002	39,600	119,793	159,393	134,206
August 2002	31,220	112,810	144,030	129,049
September 2002	37,729	167,139	204,868	185,153
October 2002	40,345	186,995	227,340	208,784
November 2002	36,795	150,668	187,463	171,893
December 2002	31,778	120,006	151,784	138,454
January 2003	32,372	128,496	160,868	144,538
February 2003	35,509	142,715	178,224	161,286
March 2003	39,064	156,435	195,499	174,832
April 2003	32,616	137,662	170,278	151,676
May 2003	34,353	146,565	180,918	162,208
June 2003	41,532	211,127	252,659	227,092
Total	479,451	1,954,420	2,433,871	2,197,041

At present the CRB has no e-based route for applications. Also, the CRB are unable to give a breakdown of Standard and Enhanced Disclosures for Telephone Disclosure Application Forms and Blank Disclosure Application Forms (paper based).

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what consultation was held with the voluntary sector in relation to the increase in fees for Criminal Records Bureau checks; what factors underlay the decision to make the increases; and if he will make a statement. [124790]

Paul Goggins: With regard to consultation with the voluntary sector I refer the hon. Member to the reply which I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Hull, North (Mr. McNamara) on 8 July 2003, Official Report, column 721W. In respect of the factors underlying the fee increase, I refer the hon. Member to the written statement made by my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary on 5 June 2003, Official Report, columns 27–29WS.

Mr. Denis Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many disclosure applications were dealt with by the Criminal Records Bureau in the last 12 months; and what the average time taken was to process an application. [126723]

Paul Goggins: During the last 12 months the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) has issued a total of 1,946,465 Disclosures broken down as follows:

Standard Disclosures: 243,382


Enhanced Disclosures: 1,703,083

The average time taken to process a Disclosure during this period was between five and six weeks.

The CRB current targets, published in our Corporate and Business Plan 2003 are to process 90 per cent. of Standard Disclosures within two weeks and 90 per cent. Enhanced Disclosures within four weeks. The CRB has been consistently achieving these service standards in recent weeks.

Mr. Denis Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many representations he has received from individuals and organisations about fees charged by the Criminal Records Bureau. [126920]

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Paul Goggins: Since announcing the increase in Disclosure application fees charged by the Criminal Records Bureau on 5 June, we have received approximately 350 written representations primarily concerning the scale of the increase and the lack of consultation prior to the introduction of the new fees. The majority of these representations have been from organisations.

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