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27 Jun 2007 : Column 816W—continued
Valuation Office
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on what date the Valuation Office Agency's electronic image management bespoke application went live for operational use. [111963]
Mr. Woolas: The VOA’s existing electronic image management system “Digital Photography” was implemented in 2004.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the total estimated expenditure has been by the Valuation Office Agency on its automated valuation model on (a) consultancy costs, (b) payments to CapGemini and CLT, (c) hardware costs, (d) staffing costs and (e) other costs. [111966]
Mr. Woolas: Prior to postponement of the council tax revaluation in England, announced in September 2005, expenditure on developing the Valuation Office Agency's (VOA’s) automated valuation model (AVM) amounted to some £10 million. Since that time approximately £3.2 million has been spent by the VOA on consultancy and IT development, hardware and support costs associated with securing the investment in the AVM. This will allow the AVM to be used as a support for the Agency's day-to-day work, including maintenance of council tax valuation lists. Staffing costs since postponement associated with developing and maintaining the AVM are not recorded separately.
Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council: Dismissal
Mr. Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will ensure that the District Auditor's report on the dismissal by Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council of Peter Francis and related matters is published by the end of June 2007; and if she will make a statement. [145187]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 25 June 2007]: Publication of this report is a matter for the District Auditor. The Government will carry out a full assessment of the report at the earliest opportunity.
Health
Cancer: Research
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what funding from the public purse was provided for cancer treatment research in each year since 1992. [145354]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department does not collect expenditure data at the level requested. The available information on total expenditure by the Department on cancer research is shown in the table. Details of individual projects supported in the national health services can be found on the national research register at www.dh.gov.uk/research.
| £ million | |
The Research Councils are also important funders of cancer research. The research councils are independent bodies funded by the Department of Trade and Industry via the Office of Science and Innovation.
Since 2001, the major funders of cancer research in the United Kingdom, including the Department and the Medical Research Council, have been working in partnership to streamline cancer research in the UK for the benefit of cancer patients. This partnership, the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI), has the role of maintaining strategic oversight of cancer research in the UK, identifying gaps and opportunities and co-ordinating the funding activities of the partner organisations.
The NCRI's most recent strategic analysis of the directly funded cancer research supported by Government and charities showed that, as at 1 April 2004, 19 per cent. of total funding was dedicated to supporting research on cancer treatment. The analysis forms part of the Institute's three-year progress report 2001-04 and is available at www.ncri.org.uk.
Cholesterol: Elderly
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations she has received on the effects of cholesterol on the health of older people; and if she will make a statement. [146316]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department has not received any representations regarding the effects of cholesterol on the health of older people.
However, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence is due to consult on draft recommendations on cardiovascular risk assessment and the modification of blood lipids (cholesterol) for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The consultation will be open until 22 August 2007.
The draft guideline is expected to address the issue of identifying those most likely to be at higher risk of developing CVD. Age is one of the risk factors involved.
Community Health Services: Coventry
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans her Department has for community health care services in Coventry. [145357]
Caroline Flint:
Decisions about community health care services in Coventry need to be taken locally with the involvement of local people. However, we know from the listening exercise that preceded the “Our
health, our care, our say” White Paper that the public want more local and convenient care closer to home even where that means changes to local hospital services.
Diabetes
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) adults and (b) children were diagnosed with diabetes, broken down by type, in each year since 1997. [146221]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Information on the number of children and adults with diabetes is not available in the exact form requested. The following information is available for diagnosed diabetes. The total number of patients aged 17 and over on practice registers in England who have an appropriate diabetes diagnosis in 2004-05 was 1.77 million people (Source: 2004-05 Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) data published by the Information Centre for health and social care.) This is the first year of data from this source.
The total number of patients aged 17 and over on practice registers in England who have an appropriate diabetes diagnosis in 2005-06 was 1.89 million people. (Source: 2005-06 QOF data published by the Information Centre for health and social care.)
It is estimated that over 90 per cent. of people with diabetes have type two diabetes.
Notes:
The difference between 1.77 million in 2004-05 and 1.89 million in 2005-06 does not mean that extra 0.12 million patients were diagnosed within those 12 months. The figures are a function of diagnosis recording on practice registers, and therefore were subject to data quality review in that period, as the QOF was being established.
Patients with diabetes aged under 17 are not included because they are regarded as receiving their diabetes management in the secondary care sector.
Health Professions: Employment
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of (a) midwives, (b) doctors, (c) nurses, (d) occupational therapists and (e) physiotherapists who have graduated or completed their training since May 2006 have (i) obtained and (ii) not obtained NHS jobs in the field in which they trained in each English region. [146011]
Ms Rosie Winterton: This information is not collected centrally.
Health Services: Essex
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the most recent figures are for the financial position of (a) the Mid Essex Hospital Trust and (b) the Mid Essex primary care trust; [145930]
(2) when she expects (a) the Mid Essex Hospital Trust and (b) the Mid Essex primary care trust to reach a break-even financial position. [145931]
Andy Burnham:
At quarter four 2006-07 Mid Essex National Health Service Hospital Trust had a provisional outturn deficit of £1.3 million and Mid
Essex primary care trust (PCT) had a provisional outturn deficit of £17.8 million.
Although the NHS overall delivered a net surplus of £510 million in 2006-07, we recognise that a small number of organisations continue to face significant financial challenges.
Financial recovery is only possible if clinicians and managers work together to deliver savings, increase efficiency and reduce deficits. Despite financial difficulties, all parts of the NHS are consistently delivering for patients against national priorities.
We have received financial plans for 2007-08 and these are now subject to final validation and sign-off with the NHS. At this stage, Mid Essex PCT is aiming to reach break-even position in this current financial year and Mid Essex NHS Hospital Trust aiming to recover its break-even duty by 2009.
Health Services: Prisons
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what funding she provided for prison healthcare in each of the last three years. [145355]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Over the last three years, the amount spent on medical and psychiatric care for prisoners in England has increased as follows:
| Expenditure on prison healthcare in England 2004-05 to 2006-07( 1) | |
| £ | |
| (1) The figures quoted include amount spend on mental health in-reach services in both publicly and privately managed prisons. (2) The figure for 2006-07 also includes an amount to cover the cost of implementing Agenda for Change, backdated to October 2004, for prison healthcare staff who have transferred to the NHS. Source: Department of Health Notes: | |
The 2007-08 allocation currently stands at £198,999,000. This figure will increase based on additional funding from the National Offender Management Service to reflect in-year changes in prison capacity.
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what level of access to (a) prescription medicines and (b) psychiatric care prisoners have. [145356]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Government are committed to providing a health service to prisoners that is equivalent in quality and range to that in the wider community. Prisoners are entitled to the same range and quality of services provided and commissioned by the national health service as is received by the general public.
Primary care trusts (PCTs) which host prisons became responsible for commissioning services to meet the healthcare needs of prisoners in April 2006.
In each prison, a patient focused, primary care based pharmacy service, based on identified need, should be provided to prisoners as recommended in the document ‘A Pharmacy Service for Prisoners’ (Department of Health 2003). Copies have been placed in the Library, and are available on the Department's website.
Similarly, for mental health services, all prisoners receive health screening on reception into prison. Prisoners who are identified as needing further psychiatric help can be referred to a mental health in-reach team, who will arrange further assessment and follow up referral.
Investment in prison mental health in-reach services has been steadily increasing, with nearly £20 million invested in these services each year since 2004-05, and 360 whole time equivalent staff employed, more than the initial commitment in the NHS Plan to create 300 posts.
People who are mentally too ill to remain in prison should be transferred to hospital. We have introduced tighter monitoring to identify prisoners waiting an unacceptably long period for transfer to hospital, and a protocol was issued to prisons and primary care trusts in October 2005 setting out what must be done when a prisoner has been waiting for a hospital place for more than three months following acceptance by the NHS.
These measures have helped bring about positive results. In 2006, 33 per cent. more prisoners, with mental illness too severe for prison, were transferred to hospital than in 2002—up to 961 from 723. There has been a significant decrease in the number of people waiting over 12 weeks for a transfer—in the quarter ending March 2007, 40 prisoners were waiting, down from 51 in the same quarter in 2005.
Heart Diseases: Health Education
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the trainers proposed in the 2004 White Paper, Choosing Health, Making Healthy Choices Easier, will be trained to give advice on lifestyle changes and minimising the risks of cardiovascular disease; and if she will make a statement. [146117]
Caroline Flint: Health trainers are trained to meet a mandatory set of core competences. Skills for Health has worked with representatives from the British Psychological Society and for the Department to take forward the development of national competences for the role of health trainer.
The competences have been quality assured and approved as national occupational standards.
Health trainers focus on enabling people to change their behaviour in relation to a number of lifestyle factors such as smoking, reducing alcohol intake, physical exercise, healthy eating, all of which would help minimise the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Hospital Beds: Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Hospitals Trust
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many beds are available within the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Hospital Trust; and if she will make a statement. [146206]
Andy Burnham: In 2005-06, the latest period for which data is available, there was an average daily number of 873 available beds provided by Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. These consisted of beds open overnight and day only beds.
Source:
Department of Health KH03 return.
Infant Mortality
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many births took place at (a) Sussex County hospital, Brighton, (b) Worthing hospital, (c) St Richards hospital, Chichester, (d) the Conquest hospital, Hastings, (e) Eastbourne hospital and (f) Princess Royal, Haywards Heath in 2006; and what the peri-natal mortality rate was for children born at each of the above hospitals in each of the last three years. [145844]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 25 June 2007:
As the National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your question about how many births took place in 2006 in (a) Sussex County hospital, Brighton; (b) Worthing hospital; (c) St Richards Hospital, Chichester; (d) The Conquest hospital, Hastings; (e) Eastbourne hospital; and (f) Princess Royal hospital, Haywards Heath; and what the peri-natal mortality rate was for children born at each of the above hospitals. (145844)
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