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1 Apr 2004 : Column 1672W—continued
NHS Trust Boards
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether it is his policy that NHS trust board meetings should be open to the public; and what guidance he issues on circumstances under which meetings may be held in private. [164613]
Mr. Hutton: All national health service trust board meetings should normally be held in public, under the terms of the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960. Guidance on the circumstances in which boards may go into closed sessions is contained in Health Service Circular 1998/207, a copy of which is available in the Library.
NHS University
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made with the NHS University project; how much money has been allocated to the NHS University project in each of the last three financial years; and who the executive postholders of the NHS University project are. [163522]
Mr. Hutton: NHSU has moved through a number of stages of development. It has consulted widely across the national health service and social care on its development plan, "Learning for Everyone", the results
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of which fed into NHSU's first strategic plan, launched in December 2003. At this point NHSU was officially constituted as a special health authority.
NHSU has also been piloting and launching a range of programmes—including an induction programme. "Working for the NHS and First Contact", a programme that equips nurses and other healthcare professionals to act as the first point of contact for patients. NHSU has also launched its telephone helpline service for learning opportunities for staff (Ui).
NHSU received its first allocation of £10 million in 2002–03. A further allocation of £30 million was made in 2003–04.
The chief executive and vice chancellor designate of NHSU is Professor Bob Fryer CBE. NHSU has three group directors; Neil Johnson (director of learning programmes and services), Derek Grover (director of distributed learning) and Jeffrey Defries (director of corporate services). Sue Eggleton is director of resources and planning.
Out-of-Hours Services
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what new resources (a) were budgeted for and (b) will be made available to primary care trusts specifically to help them meet their obligations to provide out-of-hours services. [162261]
Mr. Hutton: Additional resources of £110 million over three years from 2003–04 have been announced to help fund primary care trust (PCT) re-provision of out-of-hours services. The £110 million is in addition to the average of about £6,000 that will be released for each general practitioner who opts out—or some £180 million if all GPs opt out.
A further £28 million (across 2004–05 and 2005–06) is being made available for those PCTs facing the biggest challenges in developing their out-of-hours services; plus up to an additional £30 million in incentive payments will be allocated in 2004–05 to reward them for the planning and delivery of a high quality, sustainable service.
Public Health
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department has spent on advertising of the dangers of (a) smoking, (b) poor diet and (c) alcohol in each year since 1997. [158219]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Prior to 1999–2000 the Health Education Authority ran the public education campaign on the dangers of smoking. The Department of Health took over this work in December 1999.
The figures in the table show advertising expenditure on the dangers of smoking from 1999–2000 to date.
| Expenditure (£ million) | |
|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 6.18 |
| 2000–01 | 8.97 |
| 2001–02 | 7.79 |
| 2002–03 | 7.88 |
| 2003–04 | 17.76 |
There has been no expenditure by the Department on advertising the dangers of poor diet or alcohol during this period.
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However, the Department is taking action to ensure that people have access to healthy diets. In 2002–03, funding for the Department of Health-led programmes aimed at improving children's diet totalled £140.98 million and the Food Standards Agency has provided £0.58 million. An additional £9.83 million has been provided to support a range of projects, including community based programmes.
In addition to the above, local nutrition initiatives are funded through health action zones, sure start, healthy living centres and through general funding allocations to health authorities and primary care trusts, on which information is not collected centrally. The Department has also funded health promotion work in these areas from centrally held budgets, including campaign literature, helpline and website advice. Local national health service agencies are responsible for local health promotion work. The funds they spend on this work form part of their general budgets and no breakdown of these funds is centrally available.
The Government's alcohol harm reduction strategy for England was published on 15 March 2004. It contains recommendations for action to improve Government communications on alcohol misuse, including the ways in which the Government inform the public of the dangers of alcohol misuse. The Department will be leading the work on taking these recommendations forward.
Semiconductor Industry (Cancer)
Norman Baker To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the incidence of cancer among workers within the semiconductor industry. [163971]
Mr. Browne: I have been asked to reply.
In December 2001, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published a report that set out the findings of a study into the cancer incidence and mortality of current and former workers at the National Semiconductor plant in Greenock. As a result of that investigation, HSE has developed a specification for further investigation of the findings at Greenock which it is discussing with the company and its workforce. The HSE has also established a feasibility study to investigate whether an industry-wide study can be undertaken.
Skin Disease
Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans his Department has to add inflammatory skin diseases to the quality and outcomes framework of the General Medical Services contract. [164905]
Mr. Hutton: Changes to the quality and outcomes framework (QOF) of the new general medical services contract will be negotiated between the NHS Confederation and the British Medical Association, following recommendations from an independent,
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United Kingdom-wide review group. The independent review group will decide what disease areas to consider for addition to the QOF.
Smoking
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the evaluation being carried out by the NHS to verify whether those who stop smoking through the NHS stop smoking services have managed to remain non-smokers will be (a) completed and (b) published. [164231]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The Department has funded an evaluation of the national health service stop smoking services programme, which is being carried out by a team led by Glasgow University.
The pilot study fieldwork is now complete and the research team which undertook the evaluation is currently writing up its findings. These will be published later this year.
Speech Therapy
Angela Watkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many school-age children were receiving speech therapy in each of the primary care trust areas in Greater London in each year since 1997 in the (a) primary and (b) secondary sector; [164175]
- (2) how many pre-school children were receiving speech therapy in each of the primary care trust areas in Greater London in each year since 1997. [164176]
Mr. Hutton: Information is not available in the form requested. Information about children receiving speech therapy is available by service provider and not by primary care trust area, and does not distinguish primary from secondary sector provision. The available data for 2002–03 are shown in the table. Information for earlier years could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Notes:
1. All trusts that provide speech therapy services are shown; some may provide services principally for adults.
2. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10; 0 means fewer than 5 cases in the year.
Source:
DH Statistics Division; return KT29.
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Angela Watkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many pre-school children were diagnosed as needing speech therapy in each of the primary care trust areas in Greater London in each year since 1997; [164177]
- (2) how many school-age children were diagnosed as needing speech therapy in each of the primary care trust areas in Greater London in each year since 1997 in the (a) primary and (b) secondary sector. [164178]
Mr. Hutton: No data are held centrally about the number of school-age children diagnosed as needing speech therapy.
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