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8 Jan 2007 : Column 334W—continued
The average period for which a consultant had been employed each year was:
| Months | |
The longest period for which a consultant was employed was 12 months for each year except 2001-02, when it was four months.
Gershon Review
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much efficiency savings have been made in his Department and its associated public bodies as a result of the Gershon review; and if he will make a statement. [108349]
Mr. Hain: At 30 September 2006, the NIO, including its agencies and NDPBs, had delivered efficiency savings totalling £58.9 million.
Golden Jubilee Medal
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what percentage of those eligible in Northern Ireland to receive HM the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal have not received their medal in each eligible group. [108001]
Mr. Hain: As far as we are aware, all the armed and emergency services personnel, in Northern Ireland who were eligible for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal (and who wished to accept it) have received their medal.
Private Finance Initiative
Mr. Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the total capital value is of each private finance initiative scheme overseen by his Department which has reached financial close; over what period repayments will take place; and what the total cost of repayment will be. [103522]
Mr. Hain: The Northern Ireland Office only has one commitment under PFI contract—the Causeway Programme.
Causeway is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) between Fujitsu Services and the Northern Ireland Office to provide managed services related to the electronic sharing of information across the criminal justice organisations in Northern Ireland. The programme is implementing a number of services in a number of phases.
The total capital value of the Causeway scheme (as per NIO Resource Accounts 2005-06) is approximately £9.3 million. This capital value is estimated by independent consultants.
Repayments will take place over the length of the contract, i.e. 10 years with effect from 28 August 2003. The cost of these repayments, known as unitary charge payments, is approximately £23.9 million. Unitary charge payments are made for services provided and the annual payment increases as services are made available. The figure quoted is a projection; payments will be affected by the supplier performance and annual indexation (from March 2006). The contract also includes a small number of milestone payments with a total value of £3.4 million.
A list of all signed private finance initiative deals, with capital values, can be found on the HM Treasury website, available at:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/documents/public_ private_partnership/ppp_pfi_stats.cfm
Mr. Hayes:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what (a) public-private partnerships and (b) private finance initiative contracts have been
entered into by his Department; what assets were transferred to the private sector as part of each deal; what the value of these assets was; what the total cost is of each contract; and what estimate was made of the cost to his Department of traditional procurement over the life of each contract. [109343]
Mr. Hain: The Northern Ireland Office only has one commitment under PPP/PFI contract—the Causeway Programme.
Causeway is a public-private partnership (PPP) between Fujitsu Services and the Northern Ireland Office to provide managed services related to the electronic sharing of information across the criminal justice organisations in Northern Ireland. The programme is implementing a number of services in a number of phases.
No assets were transferred to the private sector as part of the deal.
Total cost of the contract is £27 million.
Traditional procurement cost is £38 million.
Special Advisers
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what guidance he has issued to his special advisers concerning alterations to their duties during the campaign for the deputy leadership of the Labour party. [108495]
Mr. Hain: Special advisers act in accordance with the requirements of the code of conduct for special advisers. This makes clear that special advisers may assist with a leadership or deputy leadership campaign, but it must be in their own time. In addition, the Cabinet Secretary has issued guidance to Departments on conduct in the run-up to such elections. A copy has been placed in the Library for the reference of Members.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans he has to alter the (a) salaries of, (b) number of support staff available to and (c) office space provided to his special advisers in the next 12 months. [108496]
Mr. Hain: There are no plans to alter the accommodation or support structure for special advisers. Salaries of support staff are not a matter for Ministers.
Water Supplies
Mr. McGrady: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what estimate he has made of the number of dwellings in Northern Ireland which are without mains water supply. [113073]
David Cairns: The Chief Executive of Water Service (Katharine Bryan) has written to the hon. Gentleman in response to this question.
Letter from Katharine Bryan, dated 8 January 2007:
You recently asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland a Parliamentary Question about what estimate he has made of
the number of dwellings in Northern Ireland which are without mains water supply (113073). I have been asked to reply as this issue falls within my responsibility as Chief Executive of Water Service.
It is estimated that fewer than 1% of dwellings in Northern Ireland are not connected to the mains water supply. Water
Service does not, at present, have a database of all domestic properties connected to mains water. However, a comprehensive customer database is currently being developed in preparation for the proposed introduction of domestic charging from April 2007 and this will identify any domestic properties not connected to the mains water supply.
Written Answers to Questions
Monday 8 January 2007
Health
Alcohol-related Conditions
Mr. Roger Williams:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many adults were admitted into accident
and emergency departments in Greater London because of alcohol-related problems in each year since 2003. [102080]
Caroline Flint: The following table shows counts of finished admission episodes, in the years 2003-04 to 2004-05, for selected alcohol related diseases and for selected methods of emergency admissions for patients treated in London. Data are shown by strategic health authority (SHA) areas which existed at the time. These SHAs merged on 1 July 2006 to create one London SHA.
| Counts of finished admission episodes for ( 1) selected methods of admission where there was a primary diagnosis code for ( 2) selected alcohol related diseases | ||||||||
| Aged under 18 | Aged 18 and over | Age not known | All ages | |||||
| Strategic health authority of treatment( 3) | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 |
| (1 ) Selected Methods of Admission: Emergency (via A & E services including the casualty department of the provider) Emergency (other means, including patients who arrive via A & E department of another healthcare provider) (2 ) Alcohol related diseases defined as following ICD-10 codes recorded in primary diagnosis: F10: Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol K70: Alcoholic liver disease T51: Toxic effect of alcohol (3 )Strategic Health Authority of Treatment=London Strategic Health Authorities NHS hospitals, England 2003-04 to 2004-05 Notes: 1. Finished admission episodes A finished admission episode is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Please note that admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. 2 . Diagnosis (Primary Diagnosis) The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 14 (7 prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data set and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital. 3. Ungrossed Data Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (i.e. the data are ungrossed). 4. Primary Care Trust (PCT) and Strategic Health Authority (SHA) Data Quality PCT and SHA data was added to historic data-years in the HES database using 2002-03 boundaries, as a one-off exercise in 2004. The quality of the data on PCT of Treatment and SHA of Treatment is poor in 1996-97,1997-98 and 1998-99, with over a third of all finished episodes having missing values in these years. Data quality of PCT of GP practice and SHA of GP practice in 1997-98 and 1998-99 is also poor, with a high proportion missing values where practices changed or ceased to exist. There is less change in completeness of the residence-based fields over time, where the majority of unknown values are due to missing postcodes on birth episodes. Users of time series analysis including these years need to be aware of these issues in their interpretation of the data. 5. Data Quality Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) are compiled from data sent by over 300 NHS Trusts and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England. The “Health and Social Care Information Centre” liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data via HES processes. Whilst this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre. | ||||||||
Branded Generic Medicines
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment her Department has made of the potential for savings to the NHS from the purchase of branded generic goods; and if she will make a statement; [112809]
(2) why the publication of her Department’s consultation on branded generic medicines has been delayed until after the Office of Fair Trading’s report on the pharmaceutical price regulation scheme in 2007; and if she will make a statement; [112810]
(3) whether the Department’s consultation on branded generic medicines will be made public; and if she will make a statement; [112811]
(4) what meetings she has held with interested parties on the delay in the publication of the Department’s consultation on generic medicines; and if she will make a statement. [112812]
Andy Burnham:
The Department will not be able to determine what savings may be made by the national health service until such time as a number of complex issues raised by the consultation process have been resolved. It will also be necessary to consider these
issues in the context of any conclusions reported in the Office of Fair Trading study into the pharmaceutical price regulation scheme (PPRS).
A decision has therefore been taken to defer any final conclusion until the Department receives the report on the PPRS which is expected in the first quarter of 2007.
A summary will be reported when the consultation is formally concluded.
No ministerial meeting has been held to inform interested parties, but these organisations have been advised of the delay.
Capital Resource Funds Allocation
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether any of the capital resource fund allocated in the 2006-07 financial year for investment in health has since been designated to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for sport-related projects; and whether there are any plans to transfer such funds in the future. [113578]
Andy Burnham: The Department has not reallocated any of its 2006-07 capital resources to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport or sport-related projects and has no plans to do so in the future.
Cholesterol Levels
Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what evidence her Department has assessed on the level of risk posed by elevated levels of low density lipopropein cholesterol in coronary heart disease relative to other factors; and if she will make a statement. [113057]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Effectiveness (NICE) published a health technology appraisal on statins in January 2006. This took account of all available evidence and concluded that it was effective to intervene with statin therapy in patients who scored a 20 per cent. or greater 10-year risk of developing cardiovascular disease, regardless of the starting cholesterol.
NICE is currently working on a guideline on lipid control, due for publication next year, which is also looking at the issue of risk assessment.
There are a number of different risk assessment tools for coronary heart disease (CHD) in use in England. Most of them derive from the Framingham prediction equations, which estimate CHD risk based on patients' age, gender, blood pressure, total cholesterol, high-density cholesterol, presence of diabetes and smoking habit. Relative risk reductions in CHD events in the statin trials appear similar regardless of baseline risk and baseline cholesterol except where baseline cholesterol is less than 5.0 mmol/l when the relative risk reduction is less. This implies that the best way to target patients for cholesterol control and statin therapy to reduce CHD risk is to calculate absolute risk.
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