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24 Jan 2005 : Column 164W—continued

World Bank/IMF

Mr. Alan Duncan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has held discussions with (a) the World Bank (b) the IMF and (c) other interested parties to encourage (i) the World Bank and (ii) the IMF (A) to publish the minutes of its meetings, (B) to publish the record of its voting and decisions on lending and policy and (C) to adopt a practice of transparency and openness in its decision making. [210295]

Mr. Timms: The UK is a leading supporter of greater transparency at the IMF and World Bank, and has held extensive discussions with the IMF and World Bank to encourage publication of minutes, lending and policy decisions, and more transparent decision making. These discussions have taken place at ministerial level through the Chancellor and Secretary of State for International Development, and at official level through the UK's Executive Director at the IMF and the World Bank.

There has been significant progress in recent years, with the agreement in 2003 of new IMF guidelines which presume publication of all surveillance, programme and policy documents. Programmes which involve exceptional access to fund resources will not normally be approved unless authorities agree to publish programme documents. In addition, the IMF board's agenda is made public in advance, and decisions are published through Public Information Notices. Discussions are ongoing at the World Bank on the extension of their transparency policy. The Treasury's Annual Report to Parliament on the UK and the IMF, and DFID's Report on the UK and the World Bank, will set out in greater detail the UK's position on transparency in these two institutions.

HEALTH

Alzheimer's

Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of (a) men and (b) women suffering from Alzheimer's disease within the Greater London area. [209924]

Dr. Ladyman: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Care Homes (Cleanliness)

Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what obligation is placed on the Health Protection Agency to carry out an investigation when a care home resident dies of MRSA; and what such an inquiry involves. [204585]

Miss Melanie Johnson: Care home providers are required to notify the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) of the circumstances of a care home resident's death. The CSCI may decide to investigate those circumstances. Ministers may also cause an inquiry to be held. Where a resident dies of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) is under no obligation to carry out an
 
24 Jan 2005 : Column 165W
 
investigation. However, if invited, the HPA could provide expert advice and support to any investigation instigated by CSCI or by a coroner.

Clinical Critical Mass

Mr. Neil Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effects on clinical critical mass in hospital trusts of the independent sector treating a high percentage of simpler cases of elective admissions. [209609]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 20 January 2005]: Separating out routine elective procedures allows hospitals to focus on emergencies and more complicated cases. Treatment centres, of which more than half are actually directly in the national health service, allow for faster treatment of NHS patients at up to eight times faster than traditional NHS services.

Independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs) provide extra capacity over and above expanding NHS capacity and have been negotiated to ensure that the ISTC programme meets the needs of the NHS locally.

Dentistry

Dr. Richard Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will lay before Parliament the General Dental Council and the Dentists Act (Amendment) Order 2005. [209507]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Dentists Act 1984 (Amendment Order) 2005 will be laid in the spring.

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dentists there are in each county in England per 10,000 of the population; how many accept NHS patients; and what the figures were in (a) 1997 and (b) 2001. [202691]

Ms Rosie Winterton [pursuant to her reply, 16 December 2004, Official Report, c. 1312W]: I regret my previous reply was incorrect. It should read as follows:

The number of general and personal dentists at September in the years 1997, 2001 and 2004 in each county in England per 100,000 of the population, is shown in the table. All of these dentists are doing national health service work.
Number of general and personal dental service dentists per 100,000 of the population in each county in England at 30 September 1997, 2001 and 2004

County	Dentists per 100,000 of population 1997	Dentists per 100,000 of population 2001	Dentists per 100,000 of population 2004
Bedfordshire	33	49	50
Buckinghamshire	46	51	54
Cambridgeshire	34	40	46
Cheshire	46	49	53
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly	36	44	46
Cumbria	38	40	44
Derbyshire	35	40	45
Devon	40	49	48
Dorset	36	41	41
Durham	34	33	37
East Sussex	43	45	48
Essex	38	41	41
Gloucestershire	45	51	54
Hampshire	36	43	47
Hertfordshire	51	58	62
Kent	42	42	45
Lancashire	37	39	42
Leicestershire	30	32	34
Lincolnshire	24	29	31
Norfolk	39	45	47
Northamptonshire	29	29	37
Northumberland	37	37	40
North Yorkshire	38	41	48
Nottinghamshire	36	42	40
Oxfordshire	39	49	54
Shropshire	35	43	52
Somerset	38	43	48
Staffordshire	30	34	36
Suffolk	38	41	44
Surrey	51	61	63
Warwickshire	32	39	51
West Sussex	44	54	66
Wiltshire	34	39	36
Worcestershire	39	49	58

Source:
Dental Practice Board and resident population figures 1997, 2001 and 2004




 
24 Jan 2005 : Column 166W
 

Some areas do not have county status even though they may lie within county boundaries. For these areas, the number of general and personal dental service dentists is given by local authority area. This information is given in the following table.
Number of general and personal dental service dentists per100,000 of the population in local authorities not defined by county at 30 September 1997, 2001 and 2004

Local authority	Dentists per 100,000 of population 1997	Dentists per 100,000 of population 2001	Dentists per 100,000 of population 2004
Barking and Dagenham	30	36	35
Barnet	59	64	62
Barnsley	37	40	37
Bath and North East Somerset	50	57	62
Bexley	41	41	44
Birmingham	37	40	44
Blackburn with Darwen	41	43	44
Blackpool	36	39	41
Bolton	42	41	38
Bournemouth	47	55	54
Bracknell Forest	41	44	55
Bradford	36	37	39
Brent	61	63	65
Brighton and Hove	49	54	59
Bristol, City of	48	54	54
Bromley	48	52	57
Bury	44	40	46
Calderdale	37	38	38
Camden	81	82	76
City of London	212	82	144
Coventry	31	37	41
Croydon	53	56	58
Darlington	33	43	49
Derby	36	42	47
Doncaster	35	38	39
Dudley	31	35	38
Ealing	71	63	64
East Riding of Yorkshire	25	28	31
Enfield	42	47	56
Gateshead	44	48	45
Greenwich	45	46	50
Hackney	45	41	38
Halton	32	36	39
Hammersmith and Fulham	81	89	86
Haringey	60	56	60
Harrow	50	58	63
Hartlepool	30	30	28
Havering	38	47	52
Herefordshire, County of	42	49	51
Hillingdon	43	49	51
Hounslow	68	72	69
Isle of Wight	31	32	32
Islington	51	75	65
Kensington and Chelsea	58	51	49
Kingston upon Hull, City of	30	38	37
Kingston upon Thames	48	52	53
Kirklees	38	43	41
Knowsley	35	39	43
Lambeth	50	52	58
Leeds	41	44	43
Leicester	45	44	45
Lewisham	47	54	50
Liverpool	44	43	45
Luton	36	48	48
Manchester	53	51	51
Medway	38	39	45
Merton	43	46	49
Middlesbrough	48	56	57
Milton Keynes	39	47	49
Newcastle upon Tyne	47	51	62
Newham	37	38	39
North East Lincolnshire	29	32	31
North Lincolnshire	23	29	28
North Somerset	46	52	57
North Tyneside	34	34	38
Nottingham	43	45	64
Oldham	39	37	34
Peterborough	33	42	57
Plymouth	39	49	50
Poole	35	40	63
Portsmouth	32	39	41
Reading	51	52	75
Redbridge	48	60	60
Redcar and Cleveland	41	41	40
Richmond upon Thames	57	61	61
Rochdale	35	33	33
Rotherham	36	39	33
Rutland	55	46	42
Salford	42	44	52
Sandwell	40	43	47
Sefton	42	43	42
Sheffield	40	43	48
Slough	39	45	67
Solihull	34	44	51
South Gloucestershire	41	37	42
South Tyneside	40	39	44
Southampton	34	40	43
Southend-on-Sea	35	41	38
Southwark	46	39	41
St. Helens	36	45	49
Stockport	42	44	48
Stockton-on-Tees	47	54	54
Stoke-on-Trent	30	39	39
Sunderland	31	37	40
Sutton	51	57	60
Swindon	36	42	43
Tameside	35	37	37
Telford and Wrekin	33	35	48
Thurrock	24	28	31
Torbay	46	56	51
Tower Hamlets	36	37	46
Trafford	47	53	52
Wakefield	32	37	34
Walsall	26	28	31
Waltham Forest	37	42	47
Wandsworth	59	65	57
Warrington	39	50	56
West Berkshire	32	40	45
Westminster	113	103	84
Wigan	38	39	40
Windsor and Maidenhead	38	50	63
Wirral	46	52	50
Wokingham	31	38	45
Wolverhampton	31	37	43
York	46	56	60

Source:
Dental Practice Board and resident population figures for 1997, 2001 and 2004




 
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Population figures for 1997 and 2001 are resident estimates 2001 based. Population figures for 2004 are resident population projections 2003 based.

Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS dentists have left the NHS for wholly private practice within the Greater London area in each of the last three years. [209926]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Information on the number of dentists leaving the general dental service (GDS) or personal dental service (PDS) in the five London strategic health authority (SHA) areas are shown in the table. Dentists are counted as leavers if they are not practising in the general or personal dental service on 30 September, but were working on 30 September in the previous year.
Dentists leaving the general or personal dental service in the five London SHA areas in the 12 month period ending September

	Number of dentists who have left the GDS or PDS
2002	323
2003	231
2004	253

Source:
Dental Practice Board

Dentists will stop practising GDS or PDS dentistry for any one of a number of reasons, including retirement and short-term breaks. Very few dentists stop national health service work altogether in order to do private work.

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