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30 Jan 2004 : Column 551W—continued

Disabled Persons

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what means are used to assist disabled persons in gaining employment in Northern Ireland. [151181]

Jane Kennedy: The Department for Employment and Learning through the Disablement Advisory Service provides advice, guidance, training and a job-placing service for people with disabilities and health issues. The service assists disabled people who wish to obtain or retain employment and is delivered by a team of Disablement Employment Advisers based in JobCentres/Jobs and Benefits Offices across Northern Ireland.

The Department provides a range of programmes which have been designed to assist people with a range of disabilities enter and keep employment. These include the Job Introduction Scheme, Access to Work, Employment Support and New Deal for Disabled People. The Department also administers European funding under the Programme for Building Sustainable Prosperity and the EQUAL Community Initiative which support people with health problems and disabilities return to employment.

The Special Needs Careers Service provides a service to young people with disabilities in full-time education and training and after completion of these.

30 Jan 2004 : Column 552W

E-Government

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps he has taken to promote e-government services within his Department. [150666]

Mr. Spellar: The electronic delivery of services is central to our commitment to providing modern, efficient services and to making government more open and accessible to the public.

The publication of the OnlineNI Strategy in April 2003 provides a framework for the future development of e-government and electronic service delivery in Northern Ireland. Both Northern Ireland Departments and the Northern Ireland Office have a target to have 100 per cent. key services capable of being delivered electronically by the end of 2005.

Maternity Statistics

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many women from outside the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland gave birth at each maternity unit in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement. [150753]

Angela Smith: One woman from outside the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland gave birth at a maternity unit in Northern Ireland during the last 12 months.

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many women from outside Northern Ireland gave birth in the province in each of the last 12 months who were from (a) Great Britain, (b) the Republic of Ireland, (c) other EU countries and (d) outside the European Union; and if he will make a statement. [150754]

Angela Smith: The table shows the number of women from (a) Great Britain, (b) the Republic of Ireland, (c) other EU countries and (d) outside the European Union who gave birth in Northern Ireland in each of the last 12 months.

Month	GB	RO1	EU	Non-EU
January 2003	9	21	0	0
February 2003	1	27	0	0
March 2003	4	26	0	0
April 2003	8	22	0	0
May 2003	11	17	0	0
June 2003	11	25	0	0
July 2003	6	35	0	0
August 2003	8	24	0	0
September 2003	8	24	0	1
October 2003	9	24	0	0
November 2003	7	30	0	0
December 2003	7	22	0	0
Total 2003	89	297	0	1

Source:

Child Health System

MOT Tests

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many (a) successful and (b) failed MOT tests were performed at each test centre in Northern Ireland in the last 12 months. [151208]

30 Jan 2004 : Column 553W

Angela Smith: Information on successful and unsuccessful MOT tests could be provided from the manual test records of the Department of the Environment's Driver and Vehicle Testing Agency (DVTA) only at disproportionate cost. However, new information technology recently installed in all DVTA test centres will allow this information to be extracted in the future.

In the meantime, the table shows, by test centre, the number of all tests and re-tests (previous test failures) for all vehicle categories for which roadworthiness certificates are required, including those generally referred to as MOT tests. It should be noted that the re-test figures can include multiple re-tests on a single vehicle, that the re-test may not take place at the same centre as the original test and that re-test numbers may be affected by the proportion of tests on different categories of vehicles at individual test centres. The re-test figures do not include vehicles which fail the full test but are not subsequently presented for re-test.

Number of vehicle tests carried out—January to December 2003 (inclusive)

	Number of full tests	Number of retests
Armagh	23,859	6,391
Ballymena	40,706	8,121
Belfast	56,825	13,547
Coleraine	38,892	7,814
Cookstown	34,867	7,976
Craigavon	33,482	9,009
Downpatrick	28,642	6,280
Enniskillen	24,842	5,216
Larne	22,166	4,197
Lisburn	34,837	9,558
Londonderry	27,673	7,056
Mallusk	37,137	8,632
Newry	29,097	6,520
Newtownards	51,263	12,206
Omagh	20,871	5,114
Total	50,5159	11,7637

Moylinn GP Co-operative

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the relocation of the Moylinn General Practitioner Co-operative. [150732]

Angela Smith: I can advise that the out-of-hours facility at Moylinn will be moved to new purpose built premises on the Craigavon Area Hospital site. Building work is set to begin in the spring with the transfer of the out-of-hours services from Moylinn due to be completed early autumn this year.

Muckamore Abbey Site

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what input he has sought from service users into plans for redevelopment of the Muckamore Abbey Site. [151186]

Angela Smith: The redevelopment of Muckamore Abbey Hospital was first identified in strategies for services for people with learning disabilities produced by the Eastern and Northern Health and Social Services Boards in the mid-1990s. These strategies were the

30 Jan 2004 : Column 554W

subject of extensive consultation, including public meetings held in number of venues throughout the Boards' areas.

In July 2000, North and West Belfast Health and Social Services Trust distributed 800 copies of a consultation document on Muckamore Abbey Hospital. A number of public meetings were held, including a briefing meeting held by the Chief Executive for MLAs. A team of social workers visited the families of every inpatient in the hospital to hear their views on the proposed changes to the hospital.

A service users' focus group has been set up which has been independently facilitated from outside the hospital. The focus group is made up of people who are currently hospital patients and people who are ex-patients. This is informing the modernisation process.

NHS

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what charges are in place for people using NHS services in Northern Ireland who do not reside in the United Kingdom; and whether these charges extend to citizens from (a) the Republic of Ireland and (b) other EU member states. [150669]

Angela Smith: The responsibility for calculating charges for private patients, or for patients who are not ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, lies with Health and Social Services Trusts, each of which maintains its own list of charges. Residents of countries within the European Economic Area (EEA) are entitled to free treatment if they are taken ill while visiting Northern Ireland. Patients may also be referred to Northern Ireland for treatment of a specific condition under formal contractual arrangements between individual hospitals or health boards. With the exception of cross-border workers, visitors from the Republic of Ireland have the same entitlement to treatment as those from any other EEA country.

Racist Incidents

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment the Community Relations Council has made of the level of race hate crime in Northern Ireland; what remedies they recommend; and what action he has taken as a result. [149245]

Mr. Spellar: I have asked the Chief Executive of the Community Relations Council to write to my hon. Friend and I shall arrange for a copy of the letter to be placed in the Library of the House.

Orthopaedic Services

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the average waiting times are for (a) inpatient admission and (b) outpatient assessment in each of the Province's orthopaedic centres. [151212]

Angela Smith: The information is as follows:

(a) The average waiting time for inpatient admission to the Trauma and Orthopaedic Specialty by Provider Trust in 2002–03 is shown in the following table.

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Provider Trust	Average waitin days
Royal Group of Hospitals HSS Trust	16
Green Park Healthcare HSS Trust	174
Ulster Community and Hospitals Trust	21
Altnagelvin Group HSS Trust	188
Northern Ireland Average	162

Note:

The data are calculated based on those people who were electively admitted to hospital during 2002–03.

Data for the Royal Group of Hospital HSS Trust include patients admitted to the Trauma and Orthopaedic specialty in the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.

The casemix at the Royal Group of Hospitals HSS Trust and the Ulster Community and Hospitals Trust is different to the casemix at Green Park Healthcare HSS Trust and Altnagelvin Group HSS Trust. This accounts for the large variation in average waiting time between these Trusts.

Source:

Hospital Inpatients System

(b) The information requested is not available

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