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Departmental Expenditure

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been spent by his Department on (a) indoor bought plants, (b) indoor hired plants, (c) outdoor bought plants and (d) outdoor hired plants in each year since 1997. [205594]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The provision of planting to the Department is undertaken as part of the Departments cleaning contract. The cost of this service since 1998 is shown in the following table.

	Amount (£)
1997–98	No figures available
1998–99	13,668.00
1999–2000	14,385.75
2000–01	14,430.08
2001–02	12,383.10
2002–03	12,692.68
2003–04	13,073.45

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been spent by his Department on (a) new furniture and (b) hired furniture in each year since 1997. [205612]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The cost of furniture, including seating, incurred by the Department is shown in the table.
 
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Financial year	Amount (£)
2001–02	2,690,495.16
2002–03	1,918,122.11
2003–04	437,597.07

No information is available for previous years.

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost of refurbishments in his Department was in each year since 1997; and what the planned expenditure is for 2005–06. [205674]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Departmental expenditure on refurbishments in the period since 1997 is shown in the table.

	Amount (£)
1997–98	1,980,802
1998–99	1,271,733
1999–2000	1,453,483
2000–01	652,456
2001–02	559,009
2002–03	2,087,270
2003–04	2,882,993
2004–05	(5507180016)2,012,974
2005–06	(5507180017)2,000,000

^(5507180016) Anticipated outturn.
^(5507180017) Planned expenditure.

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the Department spent on first-class travel in each year since 1997. [206578]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Departmental expenditure on first class travel (rail and air) is shown in the table:

	Amount (£)
2000	3,671,300
2001	3,738,629
2002	5,052,611
2003	5,557,417
2004	5,399,355

A great proportion of this cost relates to travel between the Department's offices in London and Leeds. Expenditure for previous years is not available.

Departmental Files

Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) whether it is the policy of the Department to retain for the benefit of future (a) historians and (b) applicants under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 the same (i) complete categories of files, (ii) numbers of files and (iii) representative examples of files from categories of files destroyed as had been preserved prior to the passage of that Act; [203294]

(2) how many departmental files have been destroyed in each of the past five years; [203295]

(3) what changes have been promulgated in each of the past five years to the guidelines or other criteria for the retention or destruction of departmental files. [203296]

Ms Rosie Winterton: In accordance with the Public Records Act 1958 S.3, the selection of records of enduring historical value for permanent preservation at the national archives (TNA) will continue to take place
 
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in the Department under the guidance and supervision of TNA staff. The Department will also comply with the Code of Practice on Records Management, issued by the Lord Chancellor under S.46 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which underlines the importance of having clear selection policies and disposal schedules in place.

In accordance with its selection policies and disposal schedules, the Department has destroyed the following numbers of files in each of the last five years:

Period	Number destroyed
1 January–31 December 2000	89,511
1 January–31 December 2001	37,421
1 January–31 December 2002	42,231
1 January–31 December 2003	52,824
1 January–30 November 2004	39,404

Since 1999, the Department has produced one schedule for the disposal of records which are specific to its administrative activities. It also disposes of its records in accordance with over twenty guidance notes produced by TNA over the last five years, covering disposal schedules, managing records in the electronic environment, as well as overarching records management guidance.

Departmental Properties

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many properties are held by the Department; what total floor space these properties provide; how many properties are vacant; and how much floor space vacant properties comprise. [206488]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department and its Executive Agencies occupy 41 properties comprising 105,836.66 square metres of floor space. None of the properties are vacant.

E-mails

Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what his Department's policy is in relation to the storage and deletion of e-mails; and whether this policy has been reviewed in the past 12 months; [206764]

(2) what his Department's policy is in relation to the storage of documents and the use of shredders; and whether this policy has been reviewed in the past 12 months. [206765]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department continues to implement well established policies and procedures for the review and disposal of files and documents in accordance with its administrative needs and the Public Records Act.

E-mail messages that form part of the official record are saved for as long as business needs require and stored corporately in accordance with departmental record management procedures.

Ethnic Minorities

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the extent to which his Department's policies meet the needs of ethnic minorities. [205706]

 
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Miss Melanie Johnson: The Department committed to transforming the health and social care system so that it produces faster, fairer services that deliver better health and social care and tackle inequalities. Achieving sustainable improvements in health and services for black and minority ethnic people is part of the overall drive to promote equity of access to national health service services.

The Department's strategy for meeting the needs of minority ethnic people is to set action on race equality within the overall framework for planning and delivering the Department's priorities. The Department has a detailed programme of work under way to develop policies and promote good practice to improve the delivery of health and social care services among black and minority ethnic groups. Some of the areas in which the Department has initiated progress are around mental health, coronary heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

The Department is also committed to the collection of ethnic origin monitoring information using the 2001 Census categories as part of the process of monitoring and improving access to services within the health and social care sector.

In 2002, the Department published its race equality scheme, which sets out how the Department planned to meet the general and specific duties placed on it by the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. Work is currently underway to review the scheme.

Freedom of Information

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff in his Department were employed to deal with Freedom of Information Act 2000 issues in (a) 2001, (b) 2002, (c) 2003 and (d) 2004; and how many staff are budgeted to deal with Freedom of Information Act 2000 issues in (i) 2005 and (ii) 2006. [205039]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The numbers of staff directly employed by the Department to take forward the implementation and application of Freedom of Information Act within the Department, including those budgeted for future years, are shown in the following table.

	Staff (full-time equivalent)
2001	1.45
2002	2.15
2003	2.35
2004	2.65
2005	3.15
2006	2.55

Other staff are involved in the implementation and application of the Freedom of Information Act, but it is difficult to identify precisely the number and it is potentially part of every civil servant's role to respond to freedom of information requests.
 
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