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19 Dec 2006 : Column 1840W—continued
| Part (b) advertising expenditure | ||||
| £ | ||||
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 (estimate) | |
Departmental Staff
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many value for money exercises on the use of (a) management consultants and (b) professional advisers were conducted by his Department in each of the last five years for which information is available; and if he will make a statement. [103007]
Mr. Hain: The Northern Ireland Office (NIO), excluding its Agencies and NDPBs, has not conducted any value for money exercises on the use of (a) management consultants and (b) professional advisers in the last five years.
The NIO has in place a policy on the Use of External Consultants. This policy provides for annual reporting and a review of actual prior year and planned current year expenditure by the Departmental Audit Committee.
In June 2004, the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) produced a report, “Use of Consultants”, which can be found:
http://www.niauditoffice.gov.uk/pubs/reports/2004/Consultants/FullReport.pdf.
It emphasised that, as with all public expenditure, ensuring maximum value for money should always be the principal consideration in any decision to engage external consultants.
In October 2006, the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) published “Delivering value from Consultancy: A guide for public sector clients and suppliers” on the use of consultants within Government. This can be found on OGC’s website www.ogc.gov.uk at the following link:
http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/DeliveringValue FromConsultancyCP0076.pdf
Also, the National Audit Office has been conducting a study on the public sector’s use of consultants which is due to be published in December 2006.
Disability Discrimination Act
Mr. Donaldson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the timescale is for public houses and clubs in Northern Ireland to comply with the requirement of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995; and what the penalty will be for non-compliance. [110172]
Mr. Hanson: Under Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 providers of services to the public (including public houses and clubs) are already under a duty not to discriminate against disabled people and to make reasonable adjustments to the way they provide their services. An individual person claiming discrimination under Part III of the DDA may bring civil proceedings in the county court.
Currently, private clubs which do not offer goods or services to the general public are not covered by the existing DDA duties on service providers. Under the provisions of the Disability Discrimination (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 the disability legislation will be extended in early 2007 to give disabled people new rights not to be discriminated against by private clubs of 25 or more persons.
Claims of discrimination against private clubs will also be dealt with by the county court. If successful, a disabled person could be awarded compensation for any financial loss, including injury to feelings. The disabled person may also seek an injunction to prevent the service provider repeating any discriminatory act in the future.
Epilepsy
Dr. McCrea:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people in Northern
Ireland were diagnosed with epilepsy in each of the last three years. [110278]
Paul Goggins: Official estimates of the number of people diagnosed with epilepsy in each year are not available. However, under the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) of the General Medical Services contract, the total number of GP-registered patients aged 16 and over with a diagnosis of epilepsy is recorded. There are two years of data available as follows.
| As at 14 February | Number of GP-registered patients aged 16 and over with epilepsy |
| Source: Payment Calculation and Analysis System. | |
Further Education Budget
Sammy Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the budget for further education was in Northern Ireland in each of the past five years. [109147]
Maria Eagle: The budget for further education in Northern Ireland for the past five years has been:
| £ million | |
Sammy Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the budget for further education in Northern Ireland is for 2007-08. [109148]
Maria Eagle: The current budget allocation for further education in Northern Ireland for 2007-08 is £197,060,000.
Health Statistics
Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people in Northern Ireland were diagnosed with (a) cancer, (b) heart disease and (c) Alzheimer's disease in each of the last three years. [110089]
Paul Goggins: The information is as follows:
(a) Information on all cancers diagnosed in Northern Ireland 2002 to 2004 is shown in Table 1. This information has been provided by the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry and is the most up to date currently available.
(b) Official estimates of the number of people diagnosed with coronary heart disease are not available. However, under the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) of the General Medical Services contract, the total number of GP-registered patients with coronary heart disease is recorded at a particular point in time. There are two years of data available as follows.
| Table 2: Prevalence of coronary heart disease | |
| As at 14 February | Number of patients on QOF coronary heart disease register |
| Source: Payment Calculation and Analysis System | |
(c) There are no official estimates of the number of people with Alzheimer's disease.
Hearing Aids
Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) what the average waiting time is for a (a) hearing test and (b) fitting for a digital hearing aid in Northern Ireland; [110273]
(2) how many people are on a waiting list for a digital hearing aid in each of the trust areas in Northern Ireland. [110274]
Paul Goggins: Information on the average waiting time for a hearing aid test in each trust in Northern Ireland is not collected centrally. Information is also not collected centrally on the number of patients on a waiting list for a digital hearing aid in each trust in Northern Ireland. However, information is collected on the number of people who were waiting for a hearing aid assessment/re-assessment to be completed in each of the health and social services boards according to specified time bands. Waiting time is counted from the date a referral is received by the Audiology Department until the hearing aid is fitted.
All new patients assessed as requiring a hearing aid are fitted with a digital hearing aid. Analogue hearing aids are normally only issued as replacements to current users of analogue aids for whom a digital hearing aid is unsuitable.
Waiting list information is collected by time band. It is therefore not possible to calculate the arithmetic mean (average) waiting time for a digital hearing aid. Information in the following table is for the quarter ending 31 March 2006, the first quarter for which information is available.
At 31 March 2006, 2,184 patients were waiting for a hearing assessment/re-assessment in Northern Ireland; 943 in the Southern Board, 837 in the Eastern Board, 340 in the Western Board, and 64 in the Northern Board.
| Patients waiting for a hearing aid assessment or re-assessment at 31 March | |||||
| HSS Board | Less than 3 months | 3 to 6 months | 6 to 12 months | 12 months or more | Patients |
| Source: Community Information Branch return AUDI. | |||||
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