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7 Mar 2006 : Column 1246W—continued

Hospital Food

David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average (a) daily, (b) monthly and (c) annual expenditure on patient food was for NHS hospitals serving (i) the East Midlands, (ii) Leicestershire and (iii) North West Leicestershire in the last year for which figures are available. [55975]

Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 6 March 2006]: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Hospital Services

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will include Edgware Community Hospital in the directory of services for patient choice; and if she will make a statement. [45233]

Jane Kennedy: Services provided at Edgware Community Hospital are already included within the choose and book directory of services (DoS). Responsibility for loading the services delivered at Edgware Community Hospital onto the DoS lies with provider organisations rather than the Department. Once services are loaded onto the DoS, for example by a local national health service trust, they can be commissioned by primary care trusts and chosen by local patients.
 
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Human Papillomavirus Vaccine

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if she has requested the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation to make a recommendation for the use of the human papillomavirus vaccine as a matter of priority; [54050]

(2) when the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation will make a recommendation for the use of a human papillomavirus vaccine. [54051]

Caroline Flint: The human papillomavirus vaccine is not a licensed vaccine in the United Kingdom. The joint committee on vaccination and immunisation is looking at the safety and implications of this vaccine and will be making its decision at some future point.

Institutional Care (Disabled People)

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she will consult on the proposal for a right for people with disabilities to request not to be placed in institutional care; and if she will make a statement. [54498]

Mr. Byrne: We have already consulted on the proposal for a right for people with disabilities not to be placed in institutional care in Independence, Well-Being and Choice: Our vision for the future of social care for adults in England".

The consultation ran between 21 March and 28 July 2005. An analysis of the consultation was published on 19 October 2005. Copies are available in the Library. Responses to the consultation were mixed and no clear view emerged.

Learning Disability Services

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the projected out-turn against budgeted expenditure by social services departments for learning disability services is in 2005–06; [51362]
 
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(2) what the average expenditure per head of population by social services departments on learning disability services was in each year since 1997; [51441]

(3) what the total out-turn against budgeted expenditure by social services departments in England for learning disability services was in each year since 1997. [51443]

Mr. Byrne: Data on projected out-turn and budgeted expenditure by social services departments is not collected centrally.

While the Department is responsible for establishing overall social care policy, councils have a significant degree of flexibility to manage and direct their own resources according to local priorities and the needs of the communities they represent, including people with learning disabilities. For this reason, we cannot provide a national figure for the funding provided in respect of learning disability services.

The information available is shown in the table.
£

	Gross expenditure on learning disabilities (LD)	Gross expenditure on LD per head of population aged 18–64
1997–98	1,324,047,000	44.55
1998–99	1,494,930,000	50.06
1999–2000	1,633,064,000	54.32
2000–01	1,751,908,000	57.87
2001–02	1,903,991,000	62.49
2002–03	2,253,481,000	73.55
2003–04(2)	2,609,441,000	84.65
2004–05(2)	2,850,224,000	91.87

⁽²⁾ Includes expenditure from the supporting people grant.

Mental Health

Ed Balls: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many trained mental health professionals are available to treat children living in (a) West Yorkshire, (b) Wakefield district and (c) Normanton constituency. [51603]

Mr. Byrne: The information requested is shown in the table.
Hospital, Public Health Medicine and Community Health Services: Medical staff working within the psychiatry group of specialties by specialty and organisation within West Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority—England as at 30 September 2004

Numbers (headcount)
	All staff	Child and adolescent psychiatry	Forensic psychiatry	General psychiatry	Learning disabilities	Old age psychiatry	Psychotherapy
West Yorkshire	368	23	15	232	20	71	7
of which:
Bradford District Care Trust	76	12	1	52	5	5	1
Calderdale and Huddersfield National Health Service Trust	3	3	0	0	0	0	0
East Leeds Primary Care Trust (PCT)	5	5	0	0	0	0	0
Eastern Wakefield PCT	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Leeds Mental Health Teaching NHS Trust	179	2	0	132	6	34	5
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust	2	0	0	2	0	0	0
South Huddersfield PCT	2	1	0	1	0	0	0
South West Yorkshire Mental Health NHS Trust	101	0	14	45	9	32	1
Wakefield West PCT	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Source:
NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre Medical and Dental Workforce Census





 
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MHRA

Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the costs of implementing the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency's Sentinel IT system are; and what impact it has had on time spent by assessors on simple applications for marketing authorisations. [55301]

Jane Kennedy [holding answer 2 March 2006]: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency's (MHRA) Sentinel programme, began in 2002 following formal Government procurement processes. The expected life of the programme is 10 years and to date has cost around £19 million, which incorporates enhancements to the scope of the original programme. The MHRA is currently using Sentinel to handle all applications for marketing authorisations and variations, for clinical trial certificates and for import and export licences, as well as a range of internal corporate functions, and will soon extend Sentinel to pharmacovigilence, including new capabilities for signal generation.

Recently assessment approval times have lengthened, mainly due to delays in validating applications, and assessment targets are not being met in a proportion of cases although urgent cases are being processed promptly. Some technical problems were encountered when parts of the Sentinel programme were implemented, which is not unusual for a project of this complexity, but those have been or are being resolved. Positive improvements have already been achieved and more are forecast. Sentinel's development is founded in its ability to handle electronic submissions and as industry increases its use of the external portal for this purpose, the workflow will be further streamlined.

Sentinel completely revolutionises the MHRA's approach to information management and processing and will put the them in a leading position in its ability to handle electronic submissions, attract revenues from within and outside the United Kingdom and to remain a centre of excellence for medicines regulation. It will enable improved access to information to assist in the protection of public health and provide a better service to all its stakeholders.

NHS Optometry

Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether it is her policy that eye examinations will continue to be provided under the NHS under general ophthalmic services. [56883]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The national health service fund sight tests for eligible people which are carried out in accordance with the Sight Testing (Examination and Prescription) (No. 2) Regulations 1989. This includes external and intra-ocular examinations of the eye, and such additional examinations as appear to be necessary. We plan to continue providing NHS funded sight tests to all currently eligible people.

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