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22 Jun 2004 : Column 1347W—continued

Organ Donation

Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures he is taking to ensure that people who wish to donate their hearts for transplant are able to do so; and if he will make a statement. [178092]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department's plans for ensuring that all those who wish to donate organs and tissues, if suitable, for transplantation after their death, are set out in "Saving Lives, Valuing donors— A Transplant Framework for England". Examples include encouraging units to confirm whether a potential donor had registered on the organ donor register before approaching relatives and providing funding through UK transplant for national health service trusts to employ donor liaison nurses to raise awareness of the benefits of organ donation provide the link between critical care teams and donor transplant co-ordinators.

Overseas Dentists

Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what incentives overseas dentists are being offered to relocate to the UK. [178275]

Ms Rosie Winterton: It is for the national health service locally to decide whether to offer financial support to overseas recruits to relocate to the United Kingdom. Initiatives are under way to recruit dentists from the European Union (Denmark, Poland and Spain) and more widely.

Pregnant Mothers (Smoking)

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many mothers smoked during pregnancy in (a) 1997 and (b) 2004. [178348]

Miss Melanie Johnson: Data are not available in the form requested.

In England, the proportion of women who smoked during pregnancy was 23 per cent. in 1995 and 19 per cent. in 2000.
 
22 Jun 2004 : Column 1348W
 

Private Finance Initiative

Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the private finance initiative and public private partnership schemes his Department has entered into where there has been an onward sale of the private sector stakeholding into a secondary market; what the (a) book value of the stakeholding and (b) onward sale price were in each case; and how any windfall gains from subsequent refinancing arrangements are shared. [179004]

Mr. Hutton: Records are not held centrally for private finance and public private partnerships schemes where there has been an onward sale of the private sector equity stakeholding.

Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the private finance initiative and public private partnership schemes his Department has entered into that have been subject to refinancing deals; and how much of the windfall gain has been repaid to the Government in each case. [179005]

Mr. Hutton: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the right hon. Member for Brent, South (Mr. Boateng), on 31 March 2004, Official Report, column 1412W. This answer contains details of all refinanced private finance initiative projects up to 31 March 2004. Since then there has been one further NHS scheme as follows:

The gains are not repaid to the Government but directly to the trust.

	Bromley hospital NHS trust
Original funding value (£ million)	118
Date refinanced	23 February 2004
Total refinancing gain (£ million)	42.3
Net refinancing share (percentage)	32
Refinancing share to Trust (£ million)	13.4

Programme Budgeting Project

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress he has made with the Programme Budgeting Project; and if he will make a statement. [175315]

Mr. Hutton: During 2003, three pilot site primary care trusts (PCTs) tested the programme budgeting methodology agreed with the National Audit Office, Her Majesty's Treasury, the Audit Commission and the national health service. This has led to the development of detailed guidance issued to the NHS in December 2003.

From financial year 2003–04 onwards, PCTs and strategic health authorities will report within their annual accounts the totality of their expenditure on a programme basis each year.

Radiotherapy (Waiting Times)

Sir Sydney Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what representations he has received from the Royal College of Radiologists about waiting times for radiotherapy; [179211]
 
22 Jun 2004 : Column 1349W
 

(2) what proportion of patients needing (a) radical radiotherapy, (b) palliative radiotherapy for cancer and (c) radiotherapy after surgery have waited for treatment for longer than the recommended maximum. [179212]

Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answers 21 June 2004]: We have not received any direct representations from the Royal College of Radiologists recently about radiotherapy waiting times. The national cancer director is working closely with officers of the college to ensure that the times patients wait for radiotherapy are minimised.

Data on waiting times for radiotherapy are not collected centrally. The NHS Cancer Plan set out maximum waiting time targets for cancer treatment, which may include radiotherapy where this is given as a first definitive treatment. From December 2001, there is a one month maximum wait from diagnosis to first treatment for breast cancer and a one month wait from urgent general practitioner referral to first treatment for children's cancers, testicular cancer and acute leukaemia. From 2002, there is a maximum two month wait from urgent referral to treatment for breast cancer. By 2005, there will be a maximum two month wait from urgent referral to treatment and a maximum one month wait from diagnosis to first treatment for all cancers.

To tackle radiotherapy waiting times we are increasing the numbers of therapy radiographers in post and in training, making better use of existing staff, making unprecedented investment in new radiotherapy equipment, and streamlining the patient journey.

Screening Programmes

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when electronic patient records will have the functionality to enable general practitioner surgeries to call up patients for screening tests. [178882]

Mr. Hutton: The national health service care records service will include the basic patient information capable of identifying patients for the purposes of existing prevention and screening processes. The NHS care records service is being implemented incrementally by adding functionality in three phases and by rolling out the information technology systems geographically to meet local needs. The functionality to support screening is currently expected to be implemented in Phase 2, starting in 2006.

Smoking

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of the population smoke, broken down by (a) sex, (b) age, (c) region and (d) social class; and if he will make a statement. [178932]

Miss Melanie Johnson: Our comprehensive tobacco control programme is aimed at all smokers, to discourage people from starting to smoke and encourage and help those who do smoke to stop.

The information requested is shown in the following tables.
 
22 Jun 2004 : Column 1350W
 

Table 1: Prevalence of smoking cigarettes among adults aged 16 and over, by age and sex—England, 2002 Percentage

	Men	Women	All persons
16–19	22	28	25
20–24	38	38	38
25–34	36	33	34
35–49	29	27	28
50–59	26	24	25
60 and over	16	14	15
Total	27	25	26

Source:
Office National Statistics (ONS) Living in Britain: Results from the 2002 General Household Survey.




Table 2: Prevalence of smoking cigarettes among adults aged 16 and over, by Government Office Region—England, 2002

	Percentage
North East	27
North West	28
Yorkshire and the Humber	27
East Midlands	24
West Midlands	23
East of England	25
London	24
South East	26
South West	25
Total	26

Source:
ONS Living in Britain: Results from the 2002 General Household Survey.




Table 3: Prevalence of smoking cigarettes among adults aged 16 and over, by socio-economic-classification (NS-SEC)—England, 2002

	Percentages
Managerial and professional	19
Intermediate	26
Routine and manual	31
Total	26

Note:
Persons whose head of household/household reference person was a full time student, in the armed forces, had an inadequately described occupation or had never worked are not shown as separate categories but are included in the total. The total also includes some missing cases.
Source:
ONS Living in Britain: Results from the 2002 General Household Survey.

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