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Regional Assemblies

Mr. Heathcoat-Amory: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what powers existing regional assemblies have in relation to (a) the hiring of permanent staff and (b) the expenditure of public money. [129025]

Mr. Raynsford: Regional chambers (which style themselves assemblies) are voluntary. Some are companies while others are unincorporated bodies. Their arrangements for the hiring of permanent staff, are a matter for them and will vary between chambers, operating within the constraints ordinarily imposed by the law.

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Each regional chamber, or its accountable body, receives an annual grant from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and grant conditions in the funding agreement letters determine permitted expenditure.

Regional Assemblies may derive other income through subscriptions from local authorities and other organisations (such as social and economic partners). Conditions that relate to the expenditure of this money is a matter for those funding bodies to decide.

Social Exclusion

John Robertson: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what action he is taking to tackle social exclusion among pensioners. [128134]

Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is working across Government to tackle pensioner poverty and social exclusion. Since 1997, our strategy for tackling poverty has been to target our help on the poorest pensioners through the minimum income guarantee, the new pension credit and winter fuel payments. The poorest third of pensioners households will have gained over £1,600 a year in real terms.

The Social Exclusion Unit is taking forward a programme of work looking at impacts and trends in social exclusion. This will develop a clearer understanding of how Government policies work together to tackle social exclusion for particular groups, including older people. The programme of work includes a review of the evidence about the impact of policies on social exclusion among older people

The Neighbourhood Renewal Unit aims to ensure that older people benefit from regeneration initiatives. The work of Local Strategic Partnerships should be informed by the views of all local groups, including older people. We are making £36 million available through the Community Empowerment Fund to make sure that under-represented groups are better able to have their voices heard at the local level.

Fear of crime can itself be a cause of social exclusion, particularly among some older people. Neighbourhood Warden Schemes are showing early signs of reducing crime and the fear of crime across some of the most deprived neighbourhoods.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister recognises that it needs to know more about those older people who live within the most deprived areas. Following the recent consultation on updating the Indices of Multiple Deprivation, we will be creating an index of income deprivation among older people.

The "Supporting People" programme offers vulnerable members of the community, including older people, the opportunity to improve their quality of life through greater independence, which can help to combat social exclusion. Through this programme we are promoting high quality, strategically planned housing-related support services that will enable older people to remain in their own homes for as long as possible.

Voter Turnouts

Mr. Denis Murphy: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the average voter turnout in the May 2003 local

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government elections was (a) where only traditional voting methods were used and (b) where postal ballots were piloted. [126451]

Phil Hope: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not hold the information requested centrally and it could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The Electoral Commission published their evaluation of the 2003 local electoral pilots on 31 July. According to their report, the average voter turnout across all local elections in 2003, including results from elections held on a pilot basis, was 34.9 per cent. The average turnout at elections where all-postal voting pilots were held was 49.4 per cent.

HEALTH

National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse plans to locate staff within the Government Office for the north-west during 2003. [128567]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) was originally structured with a regional manager in nine areas across the country. In 2002, a review of the NTA found regional managers had been over stretched and were not always fully engaged, with Government offices.

The board of the NTA, with the agreement of the Department of Health and the Home Office, decided that further resources and staff should be deployed in each of the regions, commensurate with the area and the number of drug action teams covered. Within the north-west, the regional manager has been joined by two deputy regional managers and one other additional member of staff. A third deputy regional manager is also being recruited.

The Board also decided that collocating the NTA teams in the Government Office for the north-west would enable closer working with Government Office colleagues. Collocation of the north-west NTA team took place on 7 July 2003.

Anti-TNF Therapy

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he plans to take to ensure that health care trusts abide by National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidance on anti TNF therapy. [128678]

Dr. Ladyman: Clinicians have to make an independent clinical judgment, taking due account of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence's (NICE) advice and the strength of evidence which lies behind it. They may therefore depart from the advice if, in their view, the circumstances of the individual patient justify doing so. But they will be held accountable, through clinical governance arrangements, for their clinical decisions.

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The Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) and NICE have agreed a methodology for CHI to incorporate the monitoring of NICE guidance in its clinical governance reviews. Specifically, CHI now looks to see if national health service trusts have mechanisms in place to implement and comply with NICE guidance. CHI will also support and facilitate clinicians to discuss when NICE guidance is and is not followed on an individual patient basis.

The Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection will be the main inspector of NHS services in the future. It will carry out inspection against clear national standards and we expect NICE guidance to be included in those standards.

Mrs. Helen Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to collect centrally information regarding the level of availability of anti-TNF therapy to qualifying patients for each primary care trust. [129135]

Dr. Ladyman: The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommended the use of anti-TNF therapy in March 2002. We have issued directions obliging strategic health authorities and primary care trusts to provide appropriate funding for treatments recommended by NICE. This is in line with our manifesto commitment to ensure that patients receive drugs and treatments recommended by NICE on the national health service if considered appropriate by their clinicians. The Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) and NICE have agreed a methodology for CHI to incorporate the monitoring of NICE guidance in its clinical governance reviews. Specifically, CHI now looks to see if NHS trusts have mechanisms in place to implement and comply with NICE guidance. CHI will also support and facilitate clinicians to discuss when NICE guidance is and is not followed on an individual patient basis.

The Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection will be the main inspector of NHS services in the future. It will carry out inspection against clear national standards and we expect NICE guidance to be included in those standards.

Broomfield Hospital (Waiting Times)

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time is at the accident and emergency department at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford; and what the equivalent figure was 12 months ago. [127438]

Dr. Ladyman: Information on average waiting times in accident and emergency departments is not collected centrally. Information on the proportion of patients who spend four or fewer hours in a major A and E department from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge has been available each quarter since July 2002.

Information for Mid Essex Hospital Services National Health Service Trust, which runs Broomfield Hospital, is shown in the table.

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	Quarter	Percentage of patients who spent less than four hoursin A and E
2002–03	2	71
2002–03	3	71
2002–03	4	83

Source:

Department of Health form QMAE

Information from Essex Strategic Health Authority indicates that the average waiting time in A and E at the trust for June 2003 was two hours and 22 minutes. The figure for June 2002 was three hours and 20 minutes.

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