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7 Dec 2004 : Column 500W—continued
Departmental Costs
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the equipment leasing arrangements entered into by his Department in each of the last two years; and what the cost is to public funds in each case. [200781]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department does not routinely identify all leasing expenditure and cannot provide this confirmation without incurring disproportionate costs.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what creche facilities are provided by his Department; and at what cost. [200784]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department does not provide creche facilities for its staff.
There is an on site nursery for members of staff at the Department's Leeds office, which is provided at the rate of £24 per day and is shared with members of staff at the Department of Work and Pensions.
For other members of staff, the Department provides childcare allowances towards the cost of nursery and out of school care. It also provides an on-site holiday playscheme subsidised at the rate of £10 per day for
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children of staff members who are of school age, during the holidays. The budget for the allowances and for running the playscheme last year was £220,000.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost of refurbishing each Ministerial Private Office was in the last two years. [200789]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The cost of refurbishing Department's Ministerial Private Offices in the last two years was £15,000 in 2002–03 and £70,000 in 2003–04.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his estimate is of the cost of building refurbishment carried out by his Department in each of the last two years. [200790]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The cost of building refurbishment to the Department of Health's administrative estate was £1,978,000 in 2002–03 and £2,840,000 in 2003–04.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost has been of criminal damage to his Department's buildings in each of the last two years. [200793]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department has not incurred any costs in the last two years because of criminal damage.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total cost to his Department was for accountancy services in each of the last two years. [200795]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department's accounting system does not collect information in the form requested and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Mobile Phones
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many departmental mobile telephones were used by Ministers, special advisers and officials in his Department in each year since 1997; at what cost; how many such telephones were lost or stolen in each year since 1997; and what the replacement costs were in each case. [202157]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 6 December 2004]: Details of numbers and users of central Departmental mobile phones are not kept on an annual basis. Information is, therefore, available only on the current position. There are 1,102 mobile phones currently in use, of which nine are used by Ministers and special advisers and 1,093 by officials.
The costs of the equipment, call charges and line rental in each financial year since 2001–02 are shown in the table. Figures for the years 1997–98 to 2000–01 are not available.
| Financial year | Costs (£) |
|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 270,000 |
| 2002–03 | 280,000 |
| 2003–04 | 304,000 |
| 2004–05 | (18)218,000 |
(18) Figure to date.
Numbers of mobile phones lost and stolen and their cost are shown in the table. Departmental records do not differentiate between lost and stolen mobile phones.
| Financial year | Numbers lost/stolen | Replacement purchase cost (£) |
|---|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 19 | 769 |
| 1998–99 | 19 | 691 |
| 1999–2000 | 26 | 557 |
| 2000–01 | 43 | 1,332 |
| 2001–02 | 37 | 987 |
| 2002–03 | 37 | 2,693 |
| 2003–04 | 29 | 1,954 |
| 2004–05 | 9 | (19)937 |
(19) Figure to date.
7 Dec 2004 : Column 502W
Departmental Pay
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the gender pay gap among staff in his Department. [200782]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department undertook an audit of the pay of staff below senior civil service level in 2003. This revealed no significant areas of concern and concluded that there was no evidence of gender bias in respect of starting salaries. The Department's managers are required to consider equal pay issues when considering both starting salary and awarding any pay flexibilities.
The Department is currently reviewing its pay strategy and will ensure that any future strategy continues to avoid a gender bias.
Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospital
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospital has received in each year since the hospitals were merged. [201739]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Income for the Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Trust from 2001–02 to 2002–03 is shown in the table.
| Income (£) | |
|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 161,938,000 |
| 2002–03 | 178,597,000 |
| 2003–04 | 192,778,000 |
Note:
NHS trusts do not normally receive funding direct from the Department, but receive income for service provision largely from primary care trusts. Figures above show the total income of the trust, including all income from activities and all other operating income.
Sources:
Audited summarisation schedules of the Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals National Health Service Trust 2001–02 to 2003–04.
Energy Costs
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the impact of recent large wholesale gas prices on the energy costs of the NHS; and what effect this will have on frontline services. [200556]
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Ms Rosie Winterton: The price of gas has risen by approximately 57 per cent. between 1 November 2003 and 1 November 2004. This equates to a cost increase of about £41 million per annum, including Value Added Tax, on the national contracts.
Gene Therapy
Joan Ruddock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will commission research to investigate the results of the gene therapy research referred to in the Gene Therapy Advisory Committee's open letter of 5 November, concerning the development of liver tumours in mice when treated with a lentivial vector. [201136]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The Government have recently spent £1 million of funding to support academic research into the safety of gene therapy, which includes looking at the safety of retroviruses of which lentiviruses are a sub-type.
There are no plans to commission additional research to investigate the results of the gene therapy research referred to in the gene therapy advisory committee's open letter of 5 November.
Joan Ruddock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) which research group conducted the gene therapy research referred to in the Gene Therapy Advisory Committee's open letter of 5 November concerning liver tumours in mice treated with a lentivial vector; [201140]
(2) who funded the research referred to in the Gene Therapy Advisory Committee's open letter of 5 November concerning liver tumours in mice. [201141]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The research referred to in the Gene Therapy Advisory Committee's open letter of 5 November 2004 was conducted at Imperial College London at the division of biomedical sciences (cell and molecular biology section). The group is funded by contributions from a variety of sources, such as a Medical Research Council programme grant, the Katherine Dormandy Trust and the United Kingdom based biopharmacetical company Oxford BioMedica.
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