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7 Jun 2004 : Column 164W—continued

Ministerial Visits

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many journeys were made by helicopter by each Minister in his Department in each of the last 10 years; and what the journey length was in each case. [175732]

Ms Rosie Winterton: No Ministers in the Department have travelled by helicopter during the last 10 years.

MRI Scans

Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether there is a measurement scale used by health authorities in comparing areas in respect of people waiting for MRI scans. [175538]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The Government is committed to improving access to diagnostic services and the Department is working in partnership with strategic health authorities (SHAs) and other stakeholders to secure a more responsive service. Each SHA is responsible for developing and implementing local improvement programmes for diagnostic services and to monitor progress against any locally agreed objectives.

National Institute for Clinical Excellence

Andy King: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the effectiveness and purpose of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence's Interventional Procedure Advisory Committee and the guidance it produces. [174966]

Dr. Ladyman: The purpose of the interventional procedures programme is to determine whether procedures are safe enough and work well enough for use in the National Health Service. The guidance aims to protect the safety of patients and support clinicians, healthcare organisations and the NHS as a whole in the process of introducing new procedures.

The interventional procedures programme has been producing guidance for only the past 11 months. No formal assessment of the programme has yet been made.
 
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National Patients Safety Agency

Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff are employed by the National Patients Safety Agency. [175936]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 27 May 2004]: During 2003–04, the National Patient Safety Agency employed approximately 124 staff.

Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the annual budget of the National Patients Safety Agency (a) was in 2003–04 and (b) will be in 2004–05; and if he will provide a breakdown of the expenditure in 2003–04 by budget subhead. [175938]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 27 May 2004]: The annual budget of the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) in 2003–04 was £17.25 million.

The budget for 2004–05 is £14.666 million, plus an additional proportional contribution from the National Assembly for Wales.

A breakdown of expenditure in 2003–04 are shown in the tables.

NPSA 2003–04 expenditure breakdown	£ thousand
Non-executive members' remuneration	89
Other salaries and wages	8,211
Supplies and services—general	142
Supplies and services—clinical	11
Establishment expenses	2,471
Transport and moveable plant	33
Premises and fixed plant	1,969
External contractors	3,569
Non cash items (capital charges)	102
Auditor's remuneration: audit fees	34
Services from other NHS bodies	463
Other miscellaneous	77
Gross revenue expenditure	17,170
Income: operating income	(323)
Net revenue expenditure	16,847
Capital expenditure	396

NPSA 2003–04 budget	£ thousand
Revenue resource limit	16,850
Capital resource limit	400
Total budget (resource limit)	17,250

Note:
Budget includes a proportional contribution from the National Assembly for Wales.

NHS Consultants

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many specialist full-time equivalent NHS consultants are employed to practise in each NHS acute trust, broken down by (a) specialty and (b) the number of resident population per consultant in England. [174861]

Mr. Hutton: Information on the number of whole time equivalent (wte) national health service consultants employed to practice in each NHS acute trust, broken down by specialty has been placed in the Library.
 
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Population data by organisation is not available. Information on the number of wte consultants and population per consultant within each strategic health authority is shown in the table.
Hospital, Public Health medicine and Community Health Services (HCHS): medical and dental consultants within each strategic health authority and population per consultant 1 England at 30 September 2003    Whole time equivalents

	wte	Population per consultant 1
England	26,341	1,888.9
of which
Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire	1,220	1,796.0
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire	572	2,811.7
Essex	582	2,785.3
North West London	1,215	1,469.2
North Central London	1,214	1,001.3
North East London	829	1,854.8
South East London	1,181	1,281.7
South West London	763	1,708.5
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear	1,008	1,371.3
County Durham and Tees Valley	624	1,813.5
North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire	651	2,498.4
West Yorkshire	1,212	1,723.2
Cumbria and Lancashire	801	2,384.6
Greater Manchester	1,544	1,628.0
Cheshire and Merseyside	1,360	1,725.2
Thames Valley	1,028	2,041.7
Hampshire and Isle of Wight	830	2,157.2
Kent and Medway	640	2,484.4
Surrey and Sussex	1,145	2,236.5
Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire	1,119	1,940.3
South West Peninsula	784	2,029.8
Dorset and Somerset	510	2,354.1
South Yorkshire	855	1,481.5
Trent	1,128	2,344.3
Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland	672	2,339.3
Shropshire and Staffordshire	638	2,339.8
Birmingham and The Black Country	1,426	1,593.0
West Midlands South	691	2,229.8
Other	101	n/a

⁽⁴⁰⁾ Population per consultant for England calculated using population census 2001 Based Projections for 2003. Population per consultant by SHA calculated using population census 2001 Resident Estimates for 2002
n/a=not applicable.
Source:
Department of Health medical and dental workforce census

NHS Staff

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many non-medical staff in the NHS are employed at an annual salary in excess of £100,000 a year. [175358]

Mr. Hutton: The Department does not hold this information centrally, but national health service bodies have been asked to include the information for the most senior managers in their annual accounts due for publication locally by 30 September.

NHS Surplus Land

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what NHS surplus land in England is available for new housing, broken down by hospital. [174998]

Mr. Hutton: Information is not available in the format requested. An agreement in principle has recently been reached to transfer a portfolio of sites currently in the ownership of Secretary of State for
 
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Health, and surplus to the needs of the National Health Service, to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). Details of the use to which particular sites may be put, including for new housing, will be a matter for ODPM to establish via the normal planning process.

Orthopaedics

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the success rates of orthopaedic procedures undertaken in independent sector treatment centres compared to procedures undertaken in other settings. [174475]

Mr. Hutton: All independent sector treatment centres are subject to review of their outcomes during the life of the contracts. Activity in these new centres has only recently commenced and therefore no data is as yet available. As part of the procurement process all providers were required to demonstrate their clinical capacity and ability to obtain suitable clinicians.

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