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10 Oct 2005 : Column 269W—continued

PSNI

Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many (a) Protestants and (b) Roman Catholics have applied to join the Police
 
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Service of Northern Ireland in each of the past four years; and how many were successful in each case. [15258]

Mr. Woodward: I am advised of the following statistics for PSNI trainee constable recruitment competitions over the last four years:

Date (competition)	Catholic applicants	Non-Catholic applicants	Catholic appointments	Non-Catholic appointments	Comments
March 2001 (1)	2,582	4,936	153	152	Campaign closed
September 2001 (2)	1,892	3,018	98	98	Campaign closed
March 2002 (3)	1,640	3,034	83	83	Campaign closed
September 2002 (4)	1,485	2,894	201	201	Campaign closed
March 2003 (5)	2,196	3,836	149	150	One further appointment to be made
September 2003 (6)	1,908	3,497	148	147	One further appointment to be made
March 2004 (7)	1,712	3,265	110	115	Appointments ongoing
September 2004 (8)	1,986	3,709	—	—	First intake August 2005
March 2005 (9)	2,065	4,045	—	—	Campaign ongoing
Total	17,466	32,234	942	946

Radiographers

Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many radiographers have been employed in the NHS in Northern Ireland in each year since 1997. [15371]

Mr. Woodward: Information requested is provided in the following table.
Number of radiographers employed in HPSS

As at 31 March	Headcount	WTE(82)
1997	458	394.7
1998	454	386.1
1999	480	405.6
2000	484	413.6
2001	496	432.9
2002	519	451.2
2003	558	488.5
2004	590	510.8
2005	617	543.1

⁽⁸²⁾Whole-time equivalent
Source:
Human Resource Management System

Rail Services

Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps he is taking to improve rail services in Northern Ireland. [15310]

Mr. Woodward: Some £124 million is been provided for rail investment in Northern Ireland over the period 2005–06 to 2007–08. This includes funding for the lesser used lines, where £17 million will be spent over the next five years. Significant funding has already been provided to purchase 23 new train sets (£80 million), 20 of which are now in service, already providing improved frequency of services in the central corridor between Bangor and Portadown. Other major investment projects include the relay of track between Bleach Green and Whitehead (£25 million) and the provision of a train cleaning and stabling facility at Fortwilliam (£11.4 million).

Road Fund Tax

Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what estimate he has made of current levels of evasion of the road fund tax in Northern Ireland. [15311]

Angela E. Smith: A survey undertaken in mid 2004 estimated that 10 per cent. of revenue was lost due to vehicle excise duty evasion. This equates to £13 million.

The 2005 UK wide survey is currently under way and results will be available later this year.

Royal Victoria Hospital

Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the bed capacity is of the Royal Victoria Hospital. [14527]

Mr. Woodward: The current bed capacity of the Royal Victoria Hospital is 750.

Urology

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the (a) average and (b) longest current waiting time for an initial urology outpatient assessment is at each trust in the Province which offers this specialty. [11080]

 
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Mr. Woodward: Earlier this month I announced a radical reform programme that will reduce waiting lists to more acceptable levels and eradicate long waiters. Changes to the way in which outpatient services are organised will be introduced which will significantly reduce the length of time patients have to wait for an initial appointment.

Information is not readily available on average waiting times, but the following table provides details of the longest time in days a patient has been waiting for initial outpatient assessment in the urology specialty. The latest information available is representative of the position at 30 June 2005.
Longest waiting time (in days) that an individual is waiting for an initial outpatient assessment in the urology specialty at 30 June 2005 Number of days

Provider Trust	Longest Waiting
Altnagelvin Group HSS Trust	770
Belfast City Hospital HSS Trust	806
Causeway HSS Trust	(83)871
Craigavon Area Hospital Group HSS Trust	2,542
Down Lisburn HSS Trust	(83)126
Mater Infirmorum Hospital HSS Trust	345
Royal Group of Hospitals HSS Trust	90

⁽⁸³⁾Causeway HSS Trust and Down Lisburn HSS Trust figures refer to patients waiting at 31 May 2005.

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the (a) average and (b) longest current waiting time is for in-patient surgery in the urology specialty within each trust in the Province which offers this service. [11082]

Mr. Woodward: Earlier this month I announced a radical reform programme that will reduce waiting lists to more acceptable levels and eradicate long waiters. By March 2006, no patient should be waiting more than 12 months for in-patient or day case treatment. Maximum waiting time targets have also been set for major joint replacement (nine months), cataract surgery (nine months) and cardiac surgery (nine months).

Information is not readily available on average waiting times, but the following table provides details of the longest time in days a patient has been waiting for in-patient admission to the urology specialty. The latest information available is representative of the position at 31 May 2005.
Longest waiting time (in days) that an individual is waiting for in-patient admission in the urology specialty at 31 May 2005

Provider trust	Longest waiting (in days)
Altnagelvin Group HSS Trust	(84)658
Belfast City Hospital HSS Trust	2,191
Causeway HSS Trust	297
Craigavon Area Hospital Group HSS Trust	(84)3,409
Mater Infirmorum Hospital HSS Trust	406

⁽⁸⁴⁾Altnagelvin Group HSS Trust and Craigavon Area Hospital Group HSS Trust figures refer to patients waiting at 30 June 2005.

Victims of Violence

Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many (a) paramedics, (b) ambulance staff, (c) nurses, (d) prison officers and
 
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(e) fire officers have been victims of offences of violence in the course of their employment in each of the last seven years. [15305]

Mr. Woodward: The Northern Ireland Ambulance Services advises that it does not record attacks on paramedics and ambulance staff separately. Also, records of attacks were not kept prior to 2000. The numbers of recorded attacks against ambulance service personnel for the calendar years 2000 to 2004 are as follows:

	Attacks on ambulance staff
2000	38
2001	95
2002	122
2003	188
2004	125
Total	568

Attacks on HPSS staff were not monitored prior to April 2004. In the period 1 April 2004 to 31 March 2005 there were 1,032 recorded verbal attacks and 2,305 physical attacks on nursing and midwifery staff.

Recorded attacks on prison officers were as follows:

	Attacks on prison officers
1998	32
1999	70
2000	44
2001	39
2002	33
2003	32
2004	20
Totals	270

The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service advises that recording of attacks on firefighters commenced in September 2001. Figures for each calendar year are as follows:

	Attacks on fire officers
2001(85)	124
2002	410
2003	327
2004	327
Totals	1,188

⁽⁸⁵⁾From September

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