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4 Sep 2006 : Column 2150W—continued
NHS Treatment (Eligibility)
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate she has made of the number of people who are not eligible for free treatment who have received free NHS services in (a) Guildford and Waverley primary care trust, (b) Surrey and (c) England in each year since 1997; and what estimate she has made of the costs in each area in each year [87909]
(2) what mechanisms are in place to reclaim the cost of using the NHS from those who are ineligible to use it. [87910]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Entitlement to access free national health service hospital treatment is based on whether someone is ordinarily resident in this country, not on British nationality or the past or present payment of national insurance contributions or UK taxes. Anyone who is not ordinarily resident is subject to the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 1989, as amended. These regulations place a legal duty on NHS hospitals to establish whether a person is ordinarily resident, or exempt from charges under one of a number of exemption categories, or liable for charges, and to make and recover a charge for the full cost of treatment to those found liable to pay. The onus is on the patient to provide satisfactory evidence to support a claim for exemption from charges.
Where it is established that charges apply they cannot be waived for any reason. NHS trusts are instructed to take all reasonable measures, based on the circumstances of each individual case, to pursue overseas visitors' debt. Nevertheless, we have also made very clear to NHS trusts that immediately necessary treatment, needed to save life or prevent a condition from becoming life-threatening, should always be provided without delay, with charging issues dealt with as soon as reasonably practicable.
Successive Governments have not required the NHS to provide statistics on the number of overseas visitors seen or treated under the provisions of these regulations or on the costs of treatment. It is therefore not possible to provide the information requested on how many chargeable overseas visitors have received free NHS treatment, nor on the costs involved.
NHS Trusts (Final Accounts)
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 2 November 2005, Official Report, columns 1151-2W, on NHS trusts (final accounts), what the equivalent figures are for 2005-06. [88523]
Andy Burnham: National health service trusts final accounts for 2005-06 will not be available until autumn 2006. The provisional 2005-06 outturn position for all NHS organisations (strategic health authorities, primary care trusts and NHS trusts) has been placed in the Library.
Non-NHS Staff
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent on non-NHS staff by each London (a) primary care trust and (b) strategic health authority in each year since 1997. [87496]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The following tables show data on non-national health service staff costs by primary care trusts from 2003-04 to 2004-05, and strategic health authorities for 2003-04 to 2004-05 within London. These are the only full years for which this information is available for PCTs in London.
| Non-NHS staff costs for PCTs and SHAs in London | ||
| PCT spend on non-NHS staff (£) | ||
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | |
| SHA spend on non-NHS staff (£) | ||
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | |
| Sources: PCT annual financial returns from 2000-01 to 2004-05 SHA annual financial returns from 2002-03 to 2004-05 | ||
Non-urgent Procedures
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many primary care trusts do not pay for non-urgent procedures for patients which are undertaken by hospitals within 20 weeks of referral. [88342]
Andy Burnham: Increasingly the care that primary care trusts commission from hospitals on behalf of their local populations is subject to payment by results. Payment by results is a national policy, and there is a mandatory tariff, which applies across the whole of the national health service. “The NHS in England: The operating framework for 2006/07”, published in January 2006, set out the ability for strategic health authorities to agree specific local additional rules for a fixed period of time under special circumstances.
Obesity
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much her Department spent on public health campaigns to tackle obesity in children and young people in each year from 1997 to 2005; and if she will make a statement. [89078]
Caroline Flint:
Aggregated expenditure data for public health campaigns to tackle obesity in children and young people is not held centrally. However,
current public health campaigns aim to tackle obesity through the promotion of healthy eating practices and increased physical activity. Examples of centrally funded schemes which contribute include the 5 A DAY programme, school fruit and vegetable scheme (SFVS), healthy schools initiative, and the local exercise action pilot (LEAP). The total cost of the SFVS is estimated at £34 million during the period specified, and the Department makes a yearly contribution of £9.6 million to the local healthy schools programme. The LEAP scheme has received £1.3 million in funding from the Department to date. In addition primary care trusts allocate funding on the basis of local needs and priorities.
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) children and (b) adults were diagnosed as being obese in Brent in each year since 1997, broken down by (a) sex and (b) age. [87718]
Caroline Flint: The main source of data on the prevalence of obesity is the Health Survey for England (HSE). The data are not available in the form requested as the sample size of the HSE does not allow estimates to be produced at below strategic health authority (SHA) level. All data in the tables are the most recent available.
Tables one and two show the prevalence of obesity among adults and children respectively, by sex and age, in England in each year from 1997 to 2004. Table three shows the prevalence of obesity among adults in North West London SHA (the SHA which contains Brent) as a three-year moving average for the period 1995 to 2002. Table four shows the prevalence of obesity among children aged two to 10 in London Government Office Region (GOR) based on combined 2001 and 2002 HSE data.
| Table 1. Prevalence of obesity among adults aged 16 and over by sex and age, England 1997-2004 | ||||||||
| Percentages | ||||||||
| 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | |
| Source: Health Survey for England 2004—updating of trend tables to include 2004 data, The Information Centre For Health and Social Care. | ||||||||
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