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23 Apr 2007 : Column 967W—continued
Male Health
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what mechanisms are in place to ensure the accuracy of self-reporting of health conditions of (a) UK Irish men and (b) white British men living in England. [117517]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department is committed to tackling gender inequalities within the health and social care sector by recognising the specific health needs of men and women. The Department commissioned the Men's Health Forum to work with five primary care trusts (PCTs) to develop a tool to assist PCTs in providing gender sensitive services, which was launched in November 2006.
The Department is also seeking to raise the quality of ethnicity data in healthcare. In July 2005, we published guidance on ethnicity monitoring of national health service patients and social care users, confirming the use of Office for National Statistics codes for ethnic group, which include white British and white Irish. The guidance states that trusts should not, for data collection purposes, group white British and white Irish codes into one, as this will prevent trusts from monitoring the particular health inequalities experienced by Irish men and women.
Maternity Services: Gravesham
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the future provision of ante-natal services available to patients in Gravesham. [130996]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: This a matter for the local national health service. However in Gravesham, as elsewhere in the country, we would expect NHS organisations to follow the maternity standard of the children's national service framework and the guidelines on antenatal care published in 2003 by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). In terms of antenatal education, the guidelines confirm that there are many different ways of providing classes and antenatal education. Variations can occur in the number of classes offered, their content, whether they are offered individually or in groups, and when during the course of the pregnancy they are offered.
NHS Direct
Dr. Stoate: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what factors her Department took into account when deciding to withdraw funding from BestTreatments, the health information resource for patients which has been available online on the NHS Direct website; and if she will make a statement. [111917]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department of Health is committed to providing patients and the public with the information they need to make informed decisions about their health, but needs to target resources where they will be most effective. The reasons for the decision were that the contract for "Best Treatments" had expired and the service no longer represented value for money.
The Department will ensure that patients have access to the information that they need by developing new on-line and telephone based resources, through partnerships with libraries, through our new information prescriptions and by accrediting third party producers of information. In this way, the Department will help people to find the excellent information that is already available rather than duplicate production and assure people that the information they access is reliable and relevant to them.
NHS: Intimidation
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many complaints of harassment or bullying have been made by employees of the NHS; and what steps have been taken (a) to deal with and (b) to eradicate it. [119840]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Healthcare Commission's National Health Service Staff Survey was published on 30 March. The survey records staff experiences of violence and bullying. The results can be found on the Healthcare Commission's website:
www.healthcarecommission.org.uk/newsandevents/press releases.cfm/cit_id/5334/FAArea1/customWidgets.content _view_l/usecache/false
The NHS Security Management Service (NHS SMS) is part of the Counter Fraud and Security Management Service (CFSMS), a division of the NHS Business Service Authority (a Special Health Authority), and has overall responsibility for all policy and operational matters related to the management of security in the NHS including bullying and violence against staff.
Guidance on reporting and dealing with non-physical assaults against NHS staff and professionals was issued to health bodies in November 2004. From 1 April 2004, a national syllabus for conflict resolution training (CRT) has been made available for all frontline staff and professionals working in the NHS. The aim is to equip staff with the necessary skills to be able to identify and de-escalate potentially violent situations from occurring in the first place. Returns from health bodies for the financial year 2005-06 indicate that around 250,000 frontline staff have been trained in conflict resolution skills, to date.
Research on the conflict resolution training programme delivered to NHS frontline staff produced extremely encouraging results which have been published in February 2007. The results from the two-year study indicated that CRT had a positive impact on respondents' perceptions of safety, their experiences of abuse and their perceived abilities to deal with abuse at work. The full report on the findings is available at www.cfsms.nhs.uk.
On Wednesday 1 November, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health, announced an increase of 12 per cent. in the number of people prosecuted for assaults against NHS staff, from 759 in 2004-05 to 850 in 2005-06. This shows a marked increase on the reported 51 criminal sanctions for the 2002-03 period.
Figures for the number of reported assaults against NHS staff were also released on 1 November 2006. The statistics show there were 58,695 physical assaults against NHS staff reported in England, 1,690 fewer than 2004-05—and one for every 23 staff members, down from 22 in 2004-05.
NHS: Public Appointments
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether residency in the catchment area is a criterion used in the appointment of members of NHS trust boards; and what guidelines she has issued to strategic health authorities on appointments to NHS trust boards. [120933]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The appointment of chairs and non-executive directors of national health service trusts has been delegated by the Secretary of State for Health to the Appointments Commission. She has directed the Commission to appoint people, where possible, who live in the area served by the NHS trust.
Nurses: Pay
Mr. Morley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the percentage increase in nurses' pay was in each year since 1997. [125276]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 6 March 2007 ]: The following table shows pay recommendations of the review body for nursing and other health professions for qualified nurses, the pay uplift awarded in year and the change in average qualified nurses' earnings per head. Average earnings growth differs from the basic pay uplift as a result of net pay drift and investment in pay reform.
| Percentage | |||
| Main nursing and other health professional review body recommendation | Pay uplift awarded | Change in average qualified nurses earnings per head | |
| (1) 1997-98, 1998-99 and 2007-08 were years where the awards were staged. (2) 2006-07 and 2007-08 earnings growth figures are projections and are subject to change. Note: For 1997-98 the information was not collected. | |||
Physiotherapy: Training
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many trainee physiotherapists she expects to qualify in each of the next three years. [128332]
Ms Rosie Winterton: This information is not collected centrally.
Prostate Cancer
Mr. Clelland: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many clinical nurse specialists are working with prostate cancer patients in the NHS. [128513]
Ms Rosie Winterton: This information is not collected centrally.
Specialist cancer nurses are not separately identified in the census from the rest of the nursing workforce.
Sickle Cell Diseases
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many people were diagnosed with sickle cell disease and related disorders in each London borough in each of the last 10 years; [133527]
(2) how many people have been diagnosed with sickle cell disease and related disorders in each region in England; and how much was spent on their care per capita in each of the last five years. [133530]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Department does not collect this information.
Special Advisers
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 20 March 2007, Official Report, column 872W, on special advisers, whether (a) she and (b) officials in her Department have received notices of external employment from her special advisers in the last 12 months. [130412]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: I have nothing further to add to the answer given on 20 March 2007, Official Report, column 872W.
Treatment Notices
Mr. Letwin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether any patient surveys have been undertaken on the usefulness to NHS patients of notices sent to them on forthcoming treatments. [109477]
Ms Rosie Winterton: We are not aware of any recent national surveys. The national patient survey programme, which asks patients about their experience of national health service care, does not request this information.
Home Department
Antisocial Behaviour Orders
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many intervention orders have been applied as part of an antisocial behaviour order in (a) Bristol local authority and (b) each Respect Action area since this power came into effect on 1 October 2006. [132154]
Mr. McNulty: Data on the number of antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs) issued at all courts are currently available covering the period up to 31 December 2005. Data for subsequent periods will be published in due course. However, as I made clear in a written ministerial statement on 7 December 2006, Official Report, column 30WS, this data do not cover intervention orders. A new national system for collecting data on ASBOs centrally is scheduled for implementation from 1 July, and will incorporate new reporting requirements, including data on intervention orders which will be available at Criminal Justice System area level.
Departments: Advertising
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department spent on (a) sponsoring newspaper or publication supplements and (b) funding advertorials in newspapers or publications in the last year for which figures are available; and what the topic was of each. [130007]
Mr. Byrne: The Department does not hold the information, at the requested level of detail, in a readily accessible form. An answer could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Neither does the Department retain records of how much its contractors spend with particular media outlets, for example the Central Office of Information, who manage most of the Department's publicity campaigns.
Departments: Counselling
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of counselling, assessment, referral, advice and throughcare services are delivered by (a) external drug agencies, (b) prison officers and (c) health care staff. [132416]
Mr. Sutcliffe: External drug agencies deliver 77 per cent. worth of the total value of counselling, assessment, referral, advice and throughcare services (CARATs) and 23 per cent. is delivered by prison staff. Health care staff do not deliver CARATs services.
Domestic Violence
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 27 February 2007, Official Report, column 1222W, on domestic violence, if he will provide Table 2 referred to in the answer. [133239]
Mr. Sutcliffe: I apologise for the omission of the table concerned. This was due to an administrative oversight. The following table shows the number of convictions for domestic violence cases.
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