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10 Mar 2006 : Column 1809W—continued

Iraq

Mr. MacDougall: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his latest estimate is of the cost to public funds of the Iraq war. [57734]

Mr. Des Browne: The net additional costs of operations in Iraq to 31 March 2005, as recorded in the Ministry of Defence's Annual Reports and Accounts, total £3,068 million as follows:
£ million

Financial year	Amount
2002–03	847
2003–04	1,311
2004–05	910

Estimated annual costs for operations in Iraq of £1,098 million in 2005–06 were included in the MoD's Spring Supplementary Estimate. Final figures will be published by the MoD in their Annual Report and Accounts for 2005–06 following audit by the NAO.
 
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Pensions

Vera Baird: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the likely impact on private pension savings of the taxation changes which will come into force in April 2006. [57879]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Finance Act 2004 introduces, from 6 April 2006, a radical simplification of the pension tax rules that will sweep away the complexity in the current rules and introduce greater choice, flexibility, transparency, clarity and cost-efficiency. This should benefit the vast majority of those who save for a private pension.

The Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) of April 2004 "Simplifying the Taxation of Pensions" (ww.hmrc.gov.uk/ria/simplifying-pensions.pdf) and the annex to that RIA of March 2005 (www.hmrc.gov.uk/ria/simplifying-pensions-appendix.pdf) set out the Government's assessment of the impact of the new rules including the plans to evaluate their effects on changes on private pension saving.
 
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Population Statistics

Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment his Department has made of the assumptions underlying the Office for National Statistics' population projections. [57392]

John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 10 March 2006:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question concerning what assessment has been made of the assumptions underlying the Office for National Statistics' population projections. I am replying in her absence. (57392).

An analysis of the accuracy of the national population projections made between 1971 and 1989 was published in the autumn 1994 edition of Population Trends (issue 77, Accuracy and uncertainty of the national population projections for the United Kingdom). This analysis was carried out following the rebasing of population estimates after the 1991 Census. An updated analysis following the 2001 Census rebasing is planned for later in 2006. It has been delayed because of the need to take account of the revisions made to population estimates in 2003 and 2004.

The last published assessment of subnational population projections was in the summer 1994 edition of Population Trends (issue 76, How good are subnational projections as forecasts?).

As part of the internal quality assurance of the subnational population projections, the ONS compares the subnational projected population with mid year estimates to provide a broad overview of how accurate the early years of the projections can be expected to be at a local level. The latest work on this compares the 2003-based projection for 2004 (the first year of projection) with the 2004 mid year estimates published on 25 August 2005. This comparison showed that 92 per cent. of the 354 local authority areas showed a difference of less than one per cent of the population between the population projection and the mid year estimate, with a mean absolute difference over all areas of 0.5 per cent.

HEALTH

Audiology

Mr. Truswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many vacancies there are for NHS audiology posts. [46362]

Mr. Byrne: The latest vacancy survey recorded 70 vacancies for audiology in the national health service in England in March 2005. The vacancy survey collects the number of vacancies which trusts have been actively trying to fill for three months or more.

Carers

Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate she has made of the number of people in Luton South who are (a) paid and (b) unpaid carers for relatives. [56549]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested is not held centrally.

Choose and Book System

Angela Watkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the choose and book referral system will be available to all general practitioners. [53236]

 
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Mr. Byrne: Roll out of choose and book is being managed on a local level, and general practitioners (GPs) have been advised to work with primary care trusts to achieve implementation. As at 26 February 2006, over 84 per cent. of GPs had been technically enabled to access choose and book. Utilisation continues to increase nationally and it is anticipated that this will continue throughout 2006.

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what definition she uses of the term indirectly bookable service; how it differs from an integrated patient administration systems solution; and how many referrals were made through the choose and book system in (a) December 2005 and (b) January 2006 through (i) integrated patient administration systems and (ii) the indirectly bookable service. [48845]

Mr. Byrne: A directly bookable service is one where the patient, or someone on behalf of the patient, can view and then book an appointment while in their general practitioner's (GPs) surgery, or later either on the internet or on the telephone through the choose and book appointments line. In order for services to be directly bookable, service providers, for example acute trusts, must have a patient administration system (PAS) which is compliant with the choose and book application. This means that the PAS is able to publish available slots to choose and book for the referrer, for example a GP, and patient to review.

Where a provider has not yet made their PAS compliant, the trust can use choose and book indirectly bookable services. This allows referrers and patients to identify and view the services commissioned by their primary care trust. However, because the PAS is not compliant, available dates and times cannot be shown. In these instances the appointment is booked by the patient telephoning their chosen provider from a clinically appropriate shortlist.

The number of referrals made through the choose and book system in December 2005 and January 2006 through integrated patient administration systems and the indirectly bookable service, are shown in the table.

	December 2005	January 2006
Directly bookable	4,732	8,094
Indirectly bookable	15,212	24,200
Total bookings	19,944	32,294

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what her Department's estimate is of the costs to date of the choose and book computer system; what range of estimates she has received on the total final costs of its implementation; and if she will make a statement. [54273]

Mr. Byrne: The cost to date of the choose and book computer system, as at the end of February 2006, was at £25.7 million for core system development and related services charges under a contract with Atos Origin worth £64.5 million over five years.

A further £19.4 million has to date been paid for the additional services and functionality that the original choose and book business case were likely to be required
 
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as the system is rolled out in the national health service. The cost of these is expected to total some £79.5 million over the same period.

Cognitive and Behavioural Therapists

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will estimate the cost of (a) training and (b) funding 10,000 cognitive and behavioural therapists to work in the NHS. [51406]

Mr. Byrne: The number of variables involved means that it is not possible yet to produce an accurate assessment of the cost of providing this number of cognitive behavioural therapists.

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