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6 Mar 2006 : Column 1200W—continued
Correspondence
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green of 9 November 2005 on the Whittington Hospital. [55016]
Mr. Byrne
[holding answer 1 March 2006]:A response was sent to the hon. Member on Tuesday 28 February.
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Debt
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how much interest the NHS paid on pre-existing debts in the latest year for which figures are available; [54575]
(2) what (a) targets she has set and (b) guidance her Department has given to primary care trusts on repayment of pre-existing debt. [54576]
Jane Kennedy: Interest paid on pre-existing debts cannot be separately identified from interest paid on debts incurred in the year, therefore, the information requested is not collected centrally.
All National Health Service trusts and primary care trusts should breakeven every year. NHS trusts have a financial breakeven duty to balance their income and expenditure over a three or, in exceptional circumstances, five-year period. Strategic health authorities (SHAs) have the discretion to agree a recovery plan that will return them to balance over this period. However, as SHAs have the responsibility for ensuring the NHS organisations across their areas are in financial balance every year, if they agree to one organisation overspending, they require another NHS organisation within the health economy to underspend over the same period. Any such arrangements would have to be subject to the agreement of local providers.
Dentistry
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children are registered as NHS patients in dental practices where adults have to pay for treatment. [50286]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 9 February 2006]: The information requested is not held centrally.
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answer to the hon. Member for Buckingham of 6 February 2006, Official Report, column 970W, on dentistry, what assessment she has made of whether the reasons for children not being registered with an NHS dentist include lack of availability of NHS dentists in their area. [51307]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 13 February 2006]: There are a number of factors that affect levels of children's registrations. The published registration figures reflect those children who attend a national health service dentist at least once within the most recent 15-month period and therefore exclude some children who attend less regularly than every 15 months. The level of registrations will also be affected by parents' perception of whether their children need to have dental treatment, by the availability of NHS dentistry in some areas and by the decision of some parents to choose private treatment for their children. The registration rate for children has been broadly stable since 1998.
The dental reforms being implemented from this April are designed to promote new ways of working that typically enable dentists to see a wide range of patients and improve access.
Mr. Hoban:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answer of 15 February 2006, Official Report, column 2303W, on dentistry, whether these
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arrangements will continue under the new contract where a practice is currently treating children under the NHS and their parents privately. [54755]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 1 March 2006]:After 1 April 2006, dentists can continue to have children-only lists by agreement with their primary care trust.
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what out-of-hours dental cover her Department envisages for dental patients after 1 April 2006, in addition to reference to dental access centres. [55892]
Ms Rosie Winterton: From 1 April 2006, primary care trusts (PCTs) will be responsible for ensuring that appropriate out-of-hours arrangements are provided in their area to meet local needs.
A factsheet providing guidance to PCTs on how to commission out-of-hours services was issued by the Department in December 2005 and is available on the Department's website at www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/12/56/62/04125662,pdf.
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which categories of dentists were involved in her calculation of the average income of dentists under the new dental contract; and how many such dentists were included in her calculation. [56318]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The historical estimates of average earnings and expenses for dentists are calculated by the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre, based on data on gross fees and payments from the Dental Practice Board (DPB) and data from HM Revenue and Customs on expenses.
DPB payment data show that, on average, a dentist with a reasonable National Health Service commitment in 2004–05 in the general dental services (CDS) received gross CDS income of about £154,350. At 2005–06 remuneration levels, this would be a gross CDS income of around £159,600. Dentists with a reasonable commitment are defined as those with gross fee earnings of £59,100 or more. These averages covered some 7,640 CDS principal dentists who worked throughout the year 2004–05.
HM Revenue and Customs information from dentists1 tax returns show that the average ratio of expenses to gross earnings for a highly committed NHS dentist is around 52 per cent. (2003–04 tax year). The same source gives average net income of a highly committed NHS dentist from all sources as £78,600 in the tax year 2003–04, which would equate to an average of about £83,500 in 2005–06. This information is taken from the tax returns of 392 GDS principal dentists who were in non-associate business arrangements for whom the tax year ended between January and March 2004. Based on the data available from these sources, the Department estimates that a highly committed NHS dentist has an average income of around £80,000 in 2005–06.
Departmental Assets
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the items of departmental property worth over £100 that have been reported as (a) lost and (b) broken in the last 12 months. [47681]
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Mr. Byrne: The Department does not differentiate between stolen, missing or lost equipment. Departmental property losses or broken reported for the period 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2005, with a value of over £100 are shown in the table.
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans she has to provide further funding for the MDEX consortium gene therapy clinical trials to develop a treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. [53697]
Jane Kennedy:
In 2004, the Department awarded £1.6 million to the muscular dystrophy campaign, headed by Professor Francesco Muntoni at Imperial College London for research on Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). If successful, this research should lead to the first United Kingdom gene therapy clinical trial aimed at treating DMD. The Government will carefully monitor developments in this area in considering future funding needs.
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