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6 Jul 2005 : Column 432W—continued
Council Tax
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which (a) external advisers, (b) academics and (c) consultants (i) his Department and (ii) the Valuation Office Agency have consulted on council tax revaluation. [9548]
Dawn Primarolo: The independent inquiry into local Government funding, led by Sir Michael Lyons, is considering the case for reforms to council tax, taking into account the forthcoming revaluation of domestic property. The inquiry has undertaken a wide programme of consultation.
Further to this, the Valuation Office Agency have consulted with relevant experts to develop their appraisal methodology. They have taken advice from Cole Layer Trumble (CLT) in respect of computer modelling and mass appraisal techniques; the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO), the International Property Tax Institute (IPTI), the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation (IRRV) and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RIGS) in respect of academic advice and input to international valuation standards and KPMG as business advisers.
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Departmental Advertising
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much the (a) Department and (b) non-departmental bodies for which the Department is responsible has spent on advertising, in the last three years broken down by media type. [9502]
Advertising
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much the Department spent on advertising in each of the last five years. [10238]
John Healey: I refer to the answers given to the hon. Member for North-West Norfolk (Mr. Bellingham) on 21 February 2005, Official Report, column 810W, and to the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) on 7 May 2002, Official Report, column 36W. The only type of advertising undertaken by the Treasury in the last five years has been advertising for the purpose of staff recruitment. The amounts spent on recruitment advertising, separate from other recruitment costs, are not available for years prior to 2002–03. The Treasury's estimated spending on staff recruitment advertising in 2004–05 was £151,000.
Expenditure on advertising by the Statistics Commission, the Treasury's only non-departmental public body, was £13,000 in 2002–03, £22,000 in 2003–04, and £12,000 in 2004–05.
Media used included both print and the internet.
Hospital-acquired Infections
Mr. Swire: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many reported deaths in hospital there were from clostridium difficile O27 in each of the past five years. [9458]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl to Mr. Hugo Swire, dated 6 July 2005:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many reported deaths in hospital there were from Clostridium difficile O27 in each of the last five years. I am replying in his absence. (9458)
It is not possible to distinguish between deaths associated with Clostridium difficile O27 and other strains of C. difficile. The vast majority of cases are diagnosed by the detection of specific toxins, and not the growth of C. difficile. However, typing, which is required to distinguish cases associated with C- difficile O27 from cases associated with other strains of C. difficile, requires growth of C. difficile. It is unlikely that the strain of C. difficile a patient had would be reported on their death certificate.
In the Tenth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), deaths involving enterocolitis due to Clostridium difficile can all be identified from the code A04.7. Enterocolitis is the commonest illness caused by C. difficile infection. For causes other than enterocolitis that are also known to be associated with C. difficile, it is not possible to identify from ICD codes alone the number of deaths where C, difficile actually contributed to the death. For this reason, the only routinely available mortality statistics on C. difficile are those where it was associated with enterocolitis. These figures were provided in answer to a question from Mr. David Lidington MP, Hansard Written Answer 3764, page 49W.
Hypothermia
Mr. Amess: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the excess winter mortality rates were in terms of (a) numbers and (b) percentages in (i) the United Kingdom, (ii) England, (iii) Scotland, (iv) Wales, (v)Greater London and (vi) the Southend area for (A)those aged (1) 60 to 64 years, (2) 65 to 79 years and (3) over 80 years and (B) all ages in each of the last five years. [9911]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl to Mr. David Amess, dated 6 July 2005:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question asking what the excess winter mortality rates were in terms of (a) numbers, and (b) percentages in (i) the United Kingdom, (ii) England , (iii) Scotland, (iv) Wales, (v) Greater London, and (vi) the Southend area of those aged (A) 60 to 64 years, (B) 65 to 79 years, (C) over 80 years, and (D) all ages in each of the last five years. I am replying in his absence. (9911)
Estimates of excess winter mortality are not routinely calculated for the United Kingdom. However, figures for England and Wales and Government Office Regions in England are published. Estimates for winters to 2002/03 (with provisional figures for 2003/2004) can be found in the report, Excess Winter Mortality—By Age Group and Region" on the National Statistics website at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/ssdataset.asp?vlnk=7089
The most recent available excess winter mortality estimates for local authorities are for the winter 2002/03. Figures requested for Southend-on-Sea local authority are given in the table below for the years 1998/99 to 2002/03. An age-breakdown has not been provided because of the small numbers involved.
(15)Excess winter deaths are defined by the Office for National Statistics as the difference between the number of deaths during the four winter months (December to March) and the average number of deaths during the preceding four months (August to November) and the following four months (April to July).
(16)Rounded to the nearest 10.
(17)The percentage of excess winter mortality is calculated as the excess number of winter deaths divided by the average number of non-winter deaths, expressed as a percentage.
Private Finance Initiative
Alan Simpson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much the Government have so far committed to private finance initiative schemes; and what the future financial projections for PFI initiatives are for each of the next five years. [9613]
John Healey:
The most recent published estimate of payments to be made under signed PFI contracts in future years can be found in table C19 of Budget 2005
6 Jul 2005 : Column 435W
available online at www.hm-treasury.gov.uk. Estimates for previous years can be found in previous Budget publications.
Rural Banking Services
Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what measures the Government is taking to encourage banks to maintain banking services in small rural communities. [6943]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: All of the main high street banks and building societies are signed up to the Banking Codes, which has been recently independently reviewed. Out of the five recommendations made by the independent reviewer on bank closures, four were accepted outright. Through the Banking Codes there is now an obligation for subscribers to:
give customers extended notice of branch closure if the road distance of the nearest alternative branch is more than one mile in urban areas or more than four miles in rural areas;
explain how they continue to provide services after the branch has been closed in a way that is specific to local provision;
explain to small businesses how they continue to provide banking services, including any inter-bank agency arrangement, if they exist.
Our approach to improving services in rural areas is to work with communities to help them understand and articulate their needs to those who deliver services.
This sort of collaborative working, based on the principles in our strategy for rural areas, will ensure that communities benefit from our programmes to modernise, improve and support services and will enable communities to help themselves to meet the needs of local people.
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