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17 Mar 2006 : Column 2564W—continued

Section 64 Funding

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many voluntary organisations were waiting for a decision on the continuation of Section 64 funding on the last date for which figures are available; and if she will make a statement. [55955]

Mr. Byrne: The number of voluntary organisations waiting for confirmation of continuing grants from the Section 64 General Scheme of Grants for 2006–07 is 308.

Surgical Procedures

Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients in the NHS have received oesophageal Doppler probe haemodynamic optimisation during and post surgery in each of the last five years. [53425]


 
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Ms Rosie Winterton: This information is not collected centrally.

Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans she has to encourage the adoption of haemodynamic optimisation for surgical procedures. [53835]

Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 27 February 2006]: All hospitals will have a variety of haemodynamic monitoring equipment available (invasive/non-invasive) to monitor haemodynamic status of the patients. This will in turn provide the information clinicians require to optimize medical treatment for a variety of medical conditions.

West Lancashire Primary Care Trust

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS patients were registered with NHS general dental practitioners in the West Lancashire Primary Care Trust area in each year since 1997. [58490]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested is shown in the table.
General dental services (GDS) and personal dental services (PDS): Number of patients registered with a national health service dentist in West Lancashire Primary Care Trust as at 30 September in each specified year

Number of patients registered
199755,526
199848,306
199949,393
200051,708
200150,313
200252,575
200353,608
200455,231
200560,640




Notes:
1.PDS schemes have varying registration periods. To ensure comparability with corresponding GDS data, PDS registrations for established PDS practices are estimated using proxy registrations, namely the number of patients seen by PDS practices in the past 15 months.
2.Data for 2003 and earlier do not include those PDS schemes that do not have any registrations, for example dental access centres, and is therefore not directly comparable with 2004 and 2005 data.
Source:
Dental Practice Board




INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Afghanistan

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the impact of Taliban attacks upon the education system in Afghanistan. [58808]

Hilary Benn: Statistics on Taliban attacks upon the education system are being gathered by the British Embassy in Kabul for security purposes. Attacks on schools from anti-Government elements are increasing, but it is not possible attribute all of these to the Taliban. In 2006 to date, at least 114 schools have been destroyed, and 18 teachers, 24 students, and six school officials killed. This is a large increase compared to previous
 
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years. In 2002 the total number of incidents recorded targeting schools was 9, in 2003 and 2004 it was around 45 per year, and in 2005 it was 99.

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps are being taken by his Department to improve the education system in Afghanistan. [58822]

Hilary Benn: DFID has not provided direct assistance to the education sector in Afghanistan, with the exception of very limited support (£47,000) for primary education of refugees in 2001–02. However, through ourfunding to the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF), DFID supports the Government of Afghanistan's budget, which finances significant expenditure in the education sector. Since 2002–03 the operating budget for education as a whole has risen by 250 per cent.. Overall civil service numbers have remained stable, but there has been a major increase in the number of teachers, who constitute one of the largest portions of the civil service. DFID's contribution to the ARTF, to which we are the biggest donor, has thus played a big part in increasing the number of children in school since 2002.

Support to development projects in the education sector was budgeted to rise by 60 per cent. in 2005–06. Other donors have taken the lead in providing direct support to the education sector, including the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development, Denmark, and United Nations Agencies. The UK is therefore also supporting the education sector in Afghanistan through its contributions to multilateral agencies. Through donor support to the education sector, over a thousand schools have been built or rehabilitated since 2001, which has enabled the enrolment of 5.6 million children, 37 per cent. of them girls.

Asian Tsunami

John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will make a statement on the progress of reconstruction in the regions affected by the tsunami. [55326]

Mr. Thomas: It is important that post tsunami reconstruction is properly co-ordinated and meets the requirements of the Governments and those in most need. We have been working closely with the affected country Governments and other donors and agencies to ensure that necessary needs are met.

DFID allocated £65 million to meet longer-term reconstruction needs, the bulk of which has been committed to Indonesia.

Reconstruction in Indonesia is gathering momentum and the detailed preparation and community planning processes carried out throughout last year have laid a good foundation for further progress this year, particularly in the area of reconstruction of infrastructure, including housing. DFID is working through the Multi Donor Fund to support the rebuilding of infrastructure, which continues to remain the top priority of donors amongst fears of escalating cost of building materials, which mean that earlier estimates on numbers of houses to be built by donors and non-governmental organisations (NGO)s are being revised down. DFID will work with the Government
 
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of Indonesia and other donors through the fund to ensure that the continuing needs of Acehnese are met despite these challenges. The restoration of livelihoods, including cash for work, training and micro-finance schemes is also a high priority for this year. DFID is supporting this area through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which is working with a number of local and international NGOs.

There were no shortages of resources for reconstruction in Sri Lanka. Following its substantial support for the relief effort, DFID's focus in the reconstruction phase for Sri Lanka has been to build capacity in country to manage the longer term recovery effort and £2.8 million has been committed towards this, in addition to the £45 million debt relief which is being provided by the UK over the next 10 years.

By the end of 2005 in Sri Lanka, over 53,000 transitional homes had been built and fewer than 150 families remained in tented accommodation. In addition to houses built by NGOs, a 'home owner' driven approach allows people to take ownership of rebuilding their homes and rebuilding their lives—in effect helping them to help themselves.

Progress is being made with the fishing industry, which is of key importance to the livelihoods of many affected families. 70 per cent. of people whose main source of income is from fishing have now regained some source of income and the Sri Lankan Government expect the fishing industry to have recovered by the end of 2006.

Recovery in India is proceeding and our support to long-term reconstruction, through the UN Country Team, followed a multi agency (the UN, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank) assessment of reconstruction needs in affected areas. DFID has contributed £3 million for technical assistance to help ensure effective, transparent and equitable programming of tsunami reconstruction funds.

The Government of the Maldives have set up a Tsunami Relief and Rehabilitation Fund (TRRF) to receive resources from local and international sources and to channel these for relief and reconstruction. The international community has provided significant financial and technical support through the World Bank and EU, to the Maldives to help the reconstruction effort.

The Government are using their tsunami reconstruction program to implement their long-term development strategy of resettling and concentrating thepopulation in a few 'focus' islands. This includes improving services in heath and education and protecting them from rising sea levels.


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