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Rehabilitation (Visually Impaired People)

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what measures are in place to ensure that rehabilitation services for visually impaired people are made available to those who need them; [31390]

(2) what measures are in place to ensure that rehabilitation services for visually impaired people are made available to those who need them. [31919]

Mr. Byrne [holding answer 28 November 2005]: Rehabilitation services for blind and partially sighted people are provided by local health and social care bodies. It is for those organisations to commission appropriate services based on local need. This would include the number and training of teams available to provide rehabilitation for blind and partially sighted people.

Scanning Services

Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether private providers under the new contract to provide diagnostic scans will be able to use (a) NHS equipment and (b) NHS staff to provide the scans; and if she will make a statement. [18898]

Mr. Byrne: The diagnostic capacity being procured is intended to be additional to national health service capacity but independent sector providers may be able to lease unused or surplus NHS equipment to treat NHS patients. Under revised additionality rules, NHS staff in
 
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shortage specialisms may offer independent sector providers their non-contracted hours, subject to the permission of the employing trust and adherence to safe working practices.

Vaccinations

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what numbers of vaccinations for children triggered top rate vaccine payments to general practitioners in (a) 2004 and (b) 2005. [28289]

Caroline Flint: The information is not available in the form requested.

In 2004, 93 per cent. of practices achieved the higher target payment of 90 per cent.

Coverage levels at 12 months of age increased slightly compared to the previous quarter, October to December 2004, and are now around 91 per cent.. At 24 months, uptake for all vaccines were between 93 per cent. and 94 per cent. Coverage with measles, mumps and rubella at 24 months has increased by 2.2 per cent. to 83 per cent. for April to June 2005, compared with the previous quarter.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Ambulances

Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many ambulances are available to each hospital in Northern Ireland; and how many were available in (a) 1990, (b) 1995, (c) 2000 and (d) 2005. [33066]

Mr. Woodward: The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service provides a regional emergency and non-emergency ambulance service deployed from 32 stations throughout Northern Ireland. Ambulances are not allocated to individual hospitals, as these are not always the best points from which to deploy ambulances to reach patients in the shortest possible time.

However, the total number of ambulances available is as follows:

	Number
1995	220
2000	225
2005	243

Information on the number of ambulances in 1990 is not readily available.

Animal Feeds

Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the cost of animal feeds was to farmers in Northern Ireland in the 2004–05 financial year. [33796]

Angela E. Smith: The total cost of feedstuffs to Northern Ireland farmers in 2004–05 was £363 million. Of this, £318 million was compound feed.
 
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CAP

Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether the Government, at the time that modulation was introduced for direct common agricultural policy subsidies in 2001, gave a commitment to provide an equal amount of national match funding in the form of co-financing; and if he will make a statement. [33560]

Angela E. Smith: When the decision to apply modulation from 2001 was made at the end of 1999, Government indicated that it would provide an equal amount of additional national match funding. Since then, the additions to the Northern Ireland Block in respect of match funding have been made with that objective in mind.

Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much match funded money in relation to common agricultural policy subsidies has been raised within Northern Ireland since modulation was introduced in 2001. [33561]

Angela E. Smith: The amount of modulation match funding allocated to the Northern Ireland block since 2001–02 was as follows:

	£ million
2001–02	3.9
2002–03	5.2
2003–04	6.1
2004–05	6.1
2005–06	17.8

Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much national match funded money has been awarded by the Government in relation to common agricultural policy subsidies in each year since modulation was introduced in 2001. [33562]

Angela E. Smith: Expenditure of modulation match funding in Northern Ireland in each year since 2001–02 was as follows:

	£ million
2001–02	0.15
2002–03	0.62
2003–04	1.36
2004–05	1.97
2005–06 (to date)	0.96

Centenarians

Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many centenarians live in Northern Ireland. [31943]

Angela E. Smith: There were estimated ¹ to be about 170 centenarians (aged 100 and over) resident in Northern Ireland at 30 June 2004.

Source:

¹ Government Actuary's Department

 
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Community Relations

Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the timetable is for the re-launch and implementation of the shared future strategy for improving community relations in Northern Ireland; and what resources have been allocated to this strategy in 2006–07. [32899]

Angela E. Smith: The plan is to re-launch the Shared Future policy and strategic framework before March 2006. As part of the re-launch we will set out in a Triennial Action plan the key actions to meet the policy objectives.

At its core the policy is about promoting sharing over separation. Its aim is to establish over time a normal, civic society, in which all individuals are considered as equals, where differences are resolved through dialogue in the public sphere, and where all people are treated impartially.

The Triennial Action plan will aim to ensure, over time, that all expenditure is designed to promote sharing over separation. In the interim, and in the run up to the comprehensive spending review, the planned expenditure in 2006–07 on community relations/good relations" activities across departments, which is about £15 million, will be specifically used to support the objectives of a shared future.

Cyclists

Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State forNorthern Ireland how many cyclists have been (a) charged and (b) convicted in Northern Ireland ofneglect of traffic regulations in each of the last five years. [33068]

Mr. Woodward: The information requested is provided in the following tables.

Table 1 provides details of how many cyclists were reported for prosecution in Northern Ireland during the period 1 April 2004 to 31 October 2005 (1 April 2004 being the earliest date for which this data is available).

Table 2 provides figures for the number of cyclists convicted in Northern Ireland of neglect of traffic regulations from 1999–2003 (the most recent year for which statistics are available).
Table 1

	Number recorded
1 April 2004–31 March 2005	71
1 April 2005–31 October 2005	20

Table 2⁽⁴⁴⁾

	Number of convictions
1999	5
2000	2
2001	3
2002	5
2003	2
Total	17

⁽⁴⁴⁾ Convictions in table 2 were for the specific offences of 'cycling without due care and attention', 'cycling without reasonable consideration', 'cycling when unfit through drink or drugs', 'no lights on pedal cycle' and 'failing to wear protective headgear'.



 
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