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13 Jan 2004 : Column 712W—continued

NHS Land

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much NHS land his Department is planning to sell at the latest date for which figures are available. [144944]

Mr. Hutton: The planned receipts from land sales are £185 million for 2004–05 and £140 million for 2005–06, as set out in the Department's Capital Investment Strategy.

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Learning Disabilities

Mr. Blizzard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to provide earmarked funding to local authorities to (a) increase capacity and (b) modernise services for adults with learning disability. [146735]

Dr. Ladyman: We have no such plans.

Our proposals for improving services for people with learning disabilities, their families and carers are set out in the White Paper, "Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century" (Cm 5086), published in March 2001. The White Paper announced the creation of two new funds to support its priorities, the Implementation Support Fund from April 2001 and the Learning Disability Development Fund from April 2002. Our annual report on learning disability, "Making Change Happen" (HC 514), published in April 2003, announced that the Support Fund would continue until March 2006; the Development Fund will also continue until March 2006. A copy of the report was sent to all English hon. and right hon. Members.

In addition, over £3 billion a year is spent on health and social care provision for people with learning disabilities. People with learning disabilities also use mainstream health and social services and benefit from increased expenditure on those services.

National Service Framework for Older People

Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what arrangements are in place to monitor the implementation of the national service framework for older people; what proportion of primary care trusts (PCTs) have implemented it; by what date PCTs should have implemented it; and what sanctions will be applied to PCTs that fail to do so. [146576]

Dr. Ladyman: The main service development milestones in the national service framework (NSF) for older people: specialist stroke services, joined-up mental health services for older people and more intermediate care services by April 2004, and the development of integratedfalls services by April 2005, are being monitored centrally as these are specific targets in "Improvement, Expansion and Reform": the priorities and planning framework for 2003 to 2006. The Commission for Health Audit and Inspection, with the Audit Commission and the Commission for Social Care Inspection will be conducting a study in 2005 to determine how well the NSF is being implemented.

Overall responsibility for ensuring that the NSF is implemented rests with individual strategic health authorities.

Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the implementation of the national service framework for older people. [146577]

Dr. Ladyman: Good progress is being made with the implementation of the national service framework (NSF). The majority of organisations met the early milestones putting in place the structures and people needed for implementation.

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The three key NSF milestones regarding the development of specialist stroke services, joined-up mental health services for older people and integrated falls services, and capacity assumptions for intermediate care services are included in the priorities and planning framework for 2003 to 2006 as "must do" targets. Most strategic health authorities are planning to meet these milestones. An on-going dialogue is taking place with the few who are not.

NHS Beds

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of NHS beds are single room beds, broken down by hospital trust. [145045]

Mr. Hutton: The data requested has been placed in the Library. The proportion of single rooms will vary from trust to trust depending on the services provided. Where primary care trusts have beds it is usually in a single hospital and where this provides mental health services, treatment patterns are likely to dictate a high proportion of single rooms.

NHS Finance

Mr. Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the per capita expenditure was in each health authority in England and Wales in each year since 2000. [144630]

Mr. Hutton: Information relating to the per capita expenditure by English health authorities for 2000–01 and 2001–02 has been placed in the Library. Information relating to the strategic health authorities for 2002–03 (the latest year available) has also been placed in the Library. Information for Wales is a matter for the National Assembly for Wales.

NHS Professionals

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff have been recruited through NHS Professionals since its inception. [145668]

Mr. Hutton: A total of 63,363 temporary staff members have been recruited through NHS Professionals to date, of whom 60,463 were nurses, midwives or health visitors and 2,900 were doctors.

NHS Staff

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many applications to train as (a) general practitioners, (b) social workers and (c) physiotherapists have been received in each of the last six years. [144290]

Mr. Hutton: The national recruitment office for general practitioner training collects data on the number of applications and applicants to train as a GP. It has been in existence for 12 months and holds data for recruitment to GP training posts to commence August 2003 and February 2004. These are shown in table 1.

Prior to March 2003, information on the number of applications and applicants to train as a GP was not collected centrally. Information on the number of applicants for February 2004 is not yet available.

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1. Applications and applicants to train as a GP August 2003 and February 2004

August 2003 postsFebruary 2004 posts
Number of applications4,3394,602
Number of applicants2,373

Notes:

1. August 2003 figures include English deaneries only. Northwestern deanery does not recruit to February posts.

2. For February 2004, some deaneries re-advertised unfilled posts. This data is not available yet.


Information on the total number of applications and applicants to train as social workers in England is not available centrally. However, the General Social Care Council collects information on applications made via the social work admissions system (SWAS) and this is shown in table 2. Only about 50 per cent. of all applications were made through SWAS, with the remainder made through the Universities and Colleges Admissions System (UCAS), or directly to colleges and universities. Comparable UCAS data is not available. Until 1998, data on applications was only collected on a United Kingdom-wide basis.

2. Applications through the Social Work Admissions System in England 1997–2002 for the Diploma in Social Work (DipSW)

Number of applications
1997n/a
19984,800
19994,049
20003,667
20013,678
20023,880

The number of applications and applicants to physiotherapy courses through UCAS by year of entry is shown in table 3.

3. Applications and applicants through UCAS in England 1997–2002 to train in physiotherapy

Main scheme applicationsMain scheme applicants
199728,4287,057
199827,8296,589
199926,1626,184
200024,8496,077
200121,5355,383
200222,6295,683

Note:

Each applicant can make up to six choices on the UCAS form for physiotherapy courses at different higher education institutions.


Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many members of staff have left NHS Estates (Inventures) in each of the last three years. [145021]

Mr. Hutton: The number of Inventures permanent civil servants leaving central Government for 2001–02, 2002–03 and 2003–04 was 28, 53 and 34 respectively.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many non-clinical staff are employed in each primary care trust in England, broken down by grade. [145937]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 5 January 2003]: The information requested has been placed in the Library.

13 Jan 2004 : Column 716W

Midwives

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many United Kingdom trained nurses were not registered to practise in the UK in each year since 1996; [147245]

Mr. Hutton: The Department of Health does not collect the information requested.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council collects information on the number of midwives intending to practise in the United Kingdom as a proportion of effective midwives. This information can be found at www.nmc-uk.org.


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