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12 Jan 2004 : Column 617W—continued
Paddington Site
Mr. Portillo: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the estimated cost of the Paddington site development was on 1 January 2002; what his latest estimate of the cost of the development is; and if he will investigate alternative options for meeting tertiary health demand in West London. [145097]
Mr. Hutton: The estimated capital cost of the preferred option in the outline business case (OBC) which was approved in October 2000—the Paddington Basin scheme—was £360 million. The estimated cost of this option is currently £800 million.
This initial OBC is currently being reviewed. This review will determine if the financial assumptions underpinning the OBC are still robust.
Prisoners
Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what responsibility the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection has for (a) prisoners' and (b) ex-offenders' mental health care. [144522]
Ms Rosie Winterton: From April 2004, the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection will be responsible for conducting reviews and investigations of healthcare, including mental health services, provided by and for national health service bodies.
This responsibility will include the review or investigation of health services for prisoners where these are commissioned or provided by primary care trusts.
Private Finance Initiative
Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the equipment procured under the Private Finance Initiative in each year since 1998, broken down by (a) type, (b) hospital, (c) initial capital cost, (d) term of payment and (e) overall cost. [145586]
Mr. Hutton: Information is not held centrally for equipment procured under private finance initiative (PFI) contracts. To gain this information would mean contacting all national health service trusts with PFI schemes, thus incurring disproportionate costs.
Public Services
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to introduce independent scrutiny of all performance monitoring procedures, with particular reference to the star ratings system. [146337]
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Mr. Hutton: The Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) is the independent regulator of national health service performance and is responsible for developing indicators and publishing NHS performance ratings. Ministers will continue to agree key targets and the priority areas to be covered in the ratings, but are not responsible for their calculation and publication.
The Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection, which will take over responsibility for the ratings process from April 2004 and will publish the 2003–04 ratings this summer and develop future indicator sets, including the 2004–05 set.
Under the Health and Social Care Act 2003, the Secretary of State for Health has responsibility for setting national standards. Future published standards will impact on performance monitoring arrangements.
Radiotherapy
Mr. Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of patients started radiotherapy within four weeks of diagnosis of (a) lung, (b) gynaecological, (c) breast, (d) colorectal and (e) urological cancers in each of the last three years. [145760]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Information on waiting times for radiotherapy is not collected centrally. The NHS Cancer Plan set out maximum waiting time targets for a patient's first definitive cancer treatment, which could include radiotherapy. From December 2001, there has been a one month maximum wait from diagnosis to first treatment for breast cancer. From 2002, there has been a maximum two month wait from urgent referral by a general practitioner for suspected cancer, to first treatment for breast cancer. By 2005, there will be a maximum two months from urgent referral by a GP to treatment commencing, and a maximum one-month wait from diagnosis to first treatment for all cancers.
Read the Signs Programme
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library a copy of the evaluation of the Read the Signs anti-stigma programme. [144937]
Ms Rosie Winterton: A copy of the management summary of the research for the Read the Signs anti-stigma programme has been placed in the Library.
Recruitment Advertising
Miss Kirkbride: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been spent on recruitment advertisements in the press, broken down by publication, by (a) his Department, (b) quangos under the Department and (c) non-departmental Government bodies under the Department (i) in the last year and (ii) since 1997. [145802]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Figures prior to the year 2002–03 are not available. The Department's non- departmental public bodies and quangos have devolved responsibility for their own recruitment. Figures and the publications used for recruitment advertisements can only be provided at disproportionate cost. A list of the Departments non-departmental public bodies can be found in the publication "Public Bodies 2003", copies of which are available in the Library.
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Details of where advertisements are placed are not centrally recorded, and can be provided only at disproportionate cost. Where advertisements are placed will depend on the nature of the vacancies. The Department has a robust external recruitment policy, which complies with the rules and requirements of "Minister's Rules for Selection, The Civil Service Order in Council", Treasury and equal opportunity and employment protection legislation.
The information requested for the Department is shown in the table.
| 1 April-31 March | Recruitment budget spend |
|---|---|
| 2003-to date | 146,331.25 |
| 2002–03 | 345,229.15 |
Research and Development
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will set out for each year since 1996 the amount (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on research and development; what proportion of the departmental, including NHS, budget this represents; how much of the research and development budget has been (i) allocated and (ii) spent on public health; and what proportion of the research and development budget this represents. [145082]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The amounts initially allocated for each of the past six years and spent in each year from the combined budgets for the departmental policy research programme (PRP) and for national health service research and development are shown in the table.
| Initial allocation | Expenditure | |
|---|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 450 | 452 |
| 1998–99 | 453 | 446 |
| 1999–2000 | 464 | 466 |
| 2000–01 | 480 | 483 |
| 2001–02 | 510 | 510 |
| 2002–03 | 540 | 547 |
Note:
Policy research programme and NHS R&D combined budgets.
Research is also carried out by some of the Department's arm's length bodies. Total Departmental expenditure on research and development, and what proportion of the Department's total net expenditure this represents, is shown in the following table.
| Total R&D spend (£ million) | R&D as proportion of total net Departmental spend (Percentage) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 486 | 1.38 |
| 1998–99 | 481 | 1.05 |
| 1999–2000 | 501 | 1.02 |
| 2000–01 | 510 | 1.01 |
| 2001–02 | 538 | 0.80 |
| 2002–03 | 574 | 0.86 |
Expenditure before 1998–99 is on a cash basis. Spend figures from 1999–2000 are on a resource budgeting
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basis, and total net spend for these years includes NHS pensions. Figures are not therefore directly comparable across the period.
No amount is allocated separately for research and development relating to public health. Research in this field is funded from the PRP and NHS research and development budgets and comprises most of the research carried out by the Department's arm's length bodies, including the Health Protection Agency. Management of much of the research on public health supported by NHS research and development funding is devolved and expenditure at project level is not held centrally by the Department. Details of on-going and recently completed research projects funded by, or of interest to, the NHS are available on the national research register at www.doh.gov.uk/research/nrr.htm.
Security Passes
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many security passes have been reported (a) lost and (b) stolen by staff in his Department in the last 12 months. [144593]
Ms Rosie Winterton [pursuant to her reply on 5 January 2004, Official Report, column 208W]: I regret my previous response was incorrect. The response should read as follows:
"From the records available, we estimate that about 110 Department of Health headquarters building photo passes have been lost or stolen in the period 17 December 2002 to 16 December 2003."
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