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Police Funding

David Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will meet inflationary costs in employment costs, pensions, and supplies and services as part of the 2004–05 funding settlement for police authorities. [151874]

Ms Blears: All police authorities in England and Wales will receive a 3.25 per cent. increase in general grants, above the police pay award increase of 3 per cent. and general inflation projections of 2.6 per cent.

Prospective police pensions' costs are taken into account when overall grant provision is determined.

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for how long (a) community support officers and (b) rural policy officers will be funded centrally; and who will pay for the officers when central funding lapses. [156872]

Ms Blears: All Home Office Community Support Officer (CSO) funding continues until March 2006. The potential for central funding of CSOs after March 2006 is being considered as part of the Spending Review 2004, although 21 police forces are currently employing 964 CSOs whose costs have not been funded by the Home Office.

The Rural Policing Fund is reviewed annually and there are no plans to abolish it. I am satisfied that the fund meets a genuine need to improve the policing of the most sparsely populated areas in England and Wales.

Mr Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much of the cost of policing Havering is paid for by (a) central Government and (b) the local council; and what the total cost is in 2003–04. [157041]

Ms Blears: The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) set a final budget of £2.2 billion in 2003–04. £443 million was raised through the police precept on council tax and £1764 million from general grants. The internal distribution of resources is a matter for the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis and the MPA.

I understand that Havering's police budget for 2003–04 is £17.3 million. In addition to this, Havering benefits from services provided by specialist crime and operations directorates as well as support from other pan-London operational units.

Police/Prison Officers

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what surveys his Department has conducted into the views of (a) police officers and (b) prison officers in the last two years. [155063]

Ms Blears: The information is as follows:

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(a) Police Officers

The Home Office has conducted the following formal surveys of police officers views over the last two years:

1. Qualitative research to inform police service communications—June 2003

2. Survey on reasons for leaving the Police Service—2002

3. Two surveys on police leadership issues—late 2002/early 2003

4. Attitudes and perceptions relating to the impact of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry on the police—commenced 2002 and work ongoing

5. Views and experiences of recording police stops—commenced 2003 and work ongoing

6. Police effectiveness in handling racist incidents—commenced in 2002 and work ongoing

7. A monitoring and evaluation project into community and race relations training—commenced late 2002 and work ongoing

8. Quality assurance research into community and race relations training—commenced late 2002 and work ongoing

9. Review of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984–2002

10. Evaluation of the new Police Misconduct Procedures—published 2003.

The Home Office is, of course, continually in dialogue with police officers at all levels, seeking their views and options on a wide range of policing issues in a less formal context.

(b) Prison Officers

A National Staff Attitude Survey has been administered in-house to Prison Service staff annually between 2000–2003.

1. June 2002—Survey of Prison Service staff attitudes representing 36 per cent. of staff in post.

2. November 2003—Full-census staff attitude survey of all Prison Service staff.

Copies of reports between 2000–2002 are available in the Library. The final report for 2003 will be available in the late spring/early summer 2004.

Police Vehicles (Accidents)

Jim Dowd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been (a) killed and (b) injured in road traffic accidents involving police vehicles in each of the past five years. [157779]

Caroline Flint: The number of police and civilian fatalities and injuries arising from police responses to immediate/emergency calls and pursuits will be placed in the Library.

Northern Ireland (On-the-run Terrorists)

Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many on the run terrorists have been apprehended and released back into the community in the last five years. [155647]

Mr. Paul Murphy: I have been asked to reply.

25 people, who had left Northern Ireland without completing their sentences, have been informed that they can return to Northern Ireland without serving more time in custody. The Government's proposals for dealing with on-the-run terrorists were set out in the

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paper published on 1 May 2003 alongside the Joint Declaration. These proposals would only be taken forward within the context of acts of completion.

Vandalism (Buses)

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been prosecuted for vandalism on buses in London in the last two years; in how many cases on board CCTV footage was used in the prosecution; and how many convictions resulted. [156570]

Ms Blears: It is not possible to distinguish offences of vandalism on London buses from other types of criminal damage in the Home Office figures for court proceedings, as the circumstances of individual offences are not collected centrally.

HEALTH

Health Service Reforms

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what funding has been allocated to support the national roll-out of "Agenda for Change"; and how this funding has been allocated. [156279]

Mr. Hutton: Additional funding worth 0.8 per cent. of main allocations has been allocated to primary care trusts (PCTs) in 2004–05 and a further 0.8 per cent. in 2005–06 to cover the costs of implementing "Agenda for Change" in acute and specialist hospital trusts, mental health trusts, ambulance trusts and PCTs themselves. Funding for implementation costs in strategic health authorities is currently being assessed but has not yet been allocated.

Additional funding equivalent to 0.1 per cent. of total PCT allocations in 2004–05 and a further 0.1 per cent. in 2005–06 has been allocated to PCTs in areas in and around London to meet the cost of the new high cost area supplements.

Foundation Hospitals

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the cost of administration of the foundation hospital governance system. [157593]

Mr. Hutton: The cost of administration of the governance system for each National Health Service foundation trust will depend on a number of factors, including the size of the membership. Experience of other membership organisations suggests that the cost of establishing and maintaining a membership base of 5,000 people is likely to be around £2.25 per member per annum. For NHS foundation trusts, these costs will not be entirely additional as they will replicate some current activity that trusts are already doing around informing the public, patients and staff about issues affecting each trust.

Consultant Contract

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects that the consultant's contract will be implemented. [157139]

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Mr. Hutton: Following the agreement reached last year with the British Medical Association and the NHS Confederation, National Health Service trusts and other employing organisations were asked to use the new NHS consultants' contract for all new appointments advertised after 31 October 2003 and give all existing consultants the opportunity to indicate by 31 October 2003 whether they wished to give a commitment to the new contract.

We expect that the great majority of consultants who have given a commitment to the new contract will have agreed job plans by 31 March 2004. Where, exceptionally, there are any consultants whose job plans have taken longer to complete than other consultants, NHS trusts and other employing organisations have been asked to agree arrangements with their strategic health authority to complete the process as early as possible in the new financial year.

Dentistry

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of people used the internet to access information on NHS dentists in their area in (a) England and (b) Adur, Arun and Worthing in the last year for which figures are available. [156049]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department does not collect information about the number of people who use the internet to access information on national health service dentists.

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS patient treatments were undertaken by dentists (a) in England, (b) in each NHS region and (c) in each strategic health authority area in each year since 1997. [156062]

Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 27 February 2004]: The information available for the number of courses of treatment carried out by the General Dental Service (CDS) by national health service region and strategic health authority in england for the years ending March 1998 to 2003, has been placed in the Library.

A course of treatment may involve one or more visits to the dentist. A patient may have several courses in a single year.

Courses of treatment for children exclude courses where a payment claim is not required, which are mainly courses where only an examination takes place.

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