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14 Jun 2006 : Column 1254W—continued
No ambulance crews have been redeployed from the Strabane or Castlederg ambulance stations to stations in Derry. Cover at the new Northland Road deployment point is provided by Altnagelvin Ambulance Station crews. As NIAS deploys ambulance resources dynamically to match predicted and actual demand, Strabane or Castlederg ambulances may respond to incidents in Derry. However, control staff ensure that time spent by crews away from their base station is kept to a minimum.
Benefit Payments
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what proportion of Social Security Agency customers have their benefits paid (a) directly into a bank or building society account, (b) via a Post Office card account, (c) by cheque and (d) in cash. [76679]
Mr. Hanson: The information requested (at March 2006) is shown in the following table:
| Method of payment | Percentage of social security agency customers |
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the levels were of (a) fraud and (b) overall incorrect payment by the Northern Ireland Social Security Agency (i) income support, (ii) jobseeker’s allowance, (iii) disability living allowance, (iv) incapacity benefit, (v) carer’s allowance and (vi) retirement pension in 2005-06 (A) in monetary terms and (B) as a percentage of the total expenditure in each benefit programme. [76680]
Mr. Hanson: The Social Security Agency now reports its findings based on calendar years. The following tables set out the information requested for the 2005 reporting year (January 2005 to December 2005).
| Customer fraud | ||
| 2005( 1) (£ million) | Percentage of expenditure | |
| Overall incorrectness (including fraud) | ||
| 2005( 1) (£ million) | Percentage of expenditure | |
| (1 )January to December 2005 (2 )This includes bereavement benefit | ||
Child Abuse
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many children were admitted to hospital in Northern Ireland with injuries that gave rise to subsequent investigations for abuse in the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [77342]
Paul Goggins: Information is not collected centrally in the format requested. However, information is collected on the number of child protection referrals to social services where the source of referral is categorised as “hospital”. The number of such referrals is shown in the following table for the financial years 2002-03 to 2004-05. The number of referrals does not equate to the number of children referred, as a child may be referred more than once during the financial year.
| Child protection referrals from hospital source | |
| Number | |
All children and young people who are seen by hospital staff will be managed in accordance with the regional Child Protection Policy and Procedures guidance issued by the Health and Social Services Board Area Child Protection Committees.
All hospital staff have access to the child protection register and there would be an expectation that appropriate checks would be made where there are concerns about any child.
Child Support Agency
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much money was classed by the Northern Ireland Child Support Agency as probably uncollectable during the financial year 2005-06. [76678]
Mr. Hanson: The figure of probably uncollectable debt as at 31 March 2006 is £36,845,910, a reduction in the financial year 2005-06 of £2,084,496.
It is to be noted that the agency’s annual accounts are still subject to audit and will not be laid before both the House of Commons and the Northern Ireland Assembly until July. Following this, the report will be available in the public domain.
Children in Care
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the change was in the average number of children in care in Northern Ireland between 1995 and 2005. [76327]
Paul Goggins: Information is not collected centrally on the average number of children in care; however, the number of children in care at 31 March 2006 each year is collected and this is detailed in Table 1 below annually from 1995 to 2005, the latest year for which information is available.
Column 1 of table 1 details the year to which the information relates, column 2 the numbers of children in care on 31 March for that year, column 3 shows the numbers of children in care per 10,000 of the population aged under 18, and column 4 details the year to year percentage change in the numbers of children in care at 31 March 2006.
| Table 1: Number of children in care in Northern Ireland, 1995 to 2005 | |||
| Number of children in care at 31 March 2006 | Rate per 10,000 population | Percentage from previous year | |
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the change was in the average number of children in care in reported missing for periods of more than 24 hours between 1995 and 2005. [76328]
Paul Goggins: Information on the number of children in care reported missing for periods of more than 24 hours is not collected centrally. However a consultative document produced in 1998 entitled “Children Matter: A regional view of residential child care services in Northern Ireland” details the number of untoward incidents recorded in Northern Ireland during the period 31 March and 30 September 1997. It reports a total of 488 incidents of absconding recorded during that period, of which 227 related to periods of 24 hours or more.
An extract from table 4 of “Children Matter: A regional view of residential child care services in Northern Ireland” is shown as follows.
| Untoward incidents recorded between 31 March and 30 September 1997 | |||
| Nature of untoward incident | Vol and stat homes | Regional centres | Total |
Classroom Assistants
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many classroom assistants are employed in each (a) controlled, (b) maintained, (c) integrated and (d) Irish medium secondary school in the Western education and library board area. [76404]
Maria Eagle: The total number of classroom assistants employed in each type of secondary school in the Western education and library board area is as follows:
Clinical Trials
Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list the hospitals in Northern Ireland in which clinical trials take place; and if he will make a statement. [77382]
Paul Goggins: All hospitals in Northern Ireland can potentially carry out clinical trials of medicinal products as long as the chief investigator has successfully completed the Research Governance Process including having a favourable ethical opinion from a recognised NHS/HPSS Research Ethics Committee (Ref: UK Clinical Trials Regulation (2004)).
Since February 2004 and the establishment of the HPSS Research Ethics Committees (RECs), 21 Northern Ireland-based clinical trials of investigational medicinal products have been given a favourable ethical opinion. The trials are occurring in the following hospital trusts:
| Number of trials | |
|
Greenpark Healthcare HSS Trust (primarily Musgrave Park Hospital) | |
I fully support the work of the HPSS RECs and the Office for Research Ethics Committees in Northern Ireland (ORECNI) in their mission to maintain a Research Ethics Service to protect the rights, dignity and welfare of research participants within the HPSS/NHS, and to protect the rights of researchers to perform ethical research and legitimate investigation.
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