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3 Dec 2007 : Column 995W—continued
Departmental Alcoholic Drinks
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will take steps to ensure that English wine is served exclusively or at the request of guests at meals, parties and receptions hosted by his Department; and if he will make a statement. [164291]
Mr. Bradshaw: All public procurement procedures must comply with the EC Treaty. The key principles of the Treaty, from a public procurement point of view, are the free movement of goods and services, and non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality. This legislation is designed to ensure that all public procurement across the European Union is fair, transparent and non-discriminatory.
Regulation 30 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 lists the criteria that can be used to evaluate a tender where the main evaluation criterion is Most Economically Advantageous Tender (as opposed to price alone).
This means that the Department of Health cannot specify that it will only buy goods (e.g. wine) from a particular country or locality, as that would discriminate against producers from other EU member states.
However, the Government are committed to increase opportunities for small and local suppliers to tender for contracts, thus increasing competition and securing better value for money.
Departmental Correspondence
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of inquiries received by his Department from the public were responded to within (a) one week, (b) 14 days, (c) 28 days, (d) two months and (e) three months in the last period for which figures are available; and in what percentage of cases it took (i) over three months and (ii) over one year to respond. [167385]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Cabinet Office, on an annual basis, publishes a report to Parliament on the performance of Departments in replying to Members and Peers correspondence. The report for 2005 was published on 28 March 2007, Official Report, column 101WS. Information relating to 2007 will be published as soon as it is ready at the end of the calendar year.
Performance of the Department in replying to correspondence from members of the public can be found in its 2006 annual report.
Departmental Cost-effectiveness
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of the value for money of his Department’s turnaround programme in 2006-07. [167832]
Mr. Bradshaw: The National Programme Office for Turnaround was established in February 2006 to provide expert and independent assistance in the development of robust and credible financial recovery plans for those organisations in particular financial difficulties.
The programme also provided specific methodologies to support the delivery of the plans, and to assist in the delivery and monitoring of progress against the plans.
In total, there were 104 organisations in the Turnaround Programme, who in 2005-06 posted a total aggregated deficit of £1,121 million.
By the end of the 2006-07 financial year when the Turnaround Programme came to a formal end, this aggregate deficit within the 104 organisations had reduced to £637 million.
This aggregate position is continuing to show improvements, with the quarter 1 forecast outturn for the 104 organisations improving by a further £635 million to an aggregated £1.7 million deficit.
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the titles are of all internal guidance documents produced within his Department on procedures relating to the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review. [162245]
Mr. Bradshaw: As usual during a spending review, the finance Directorate provided written and oral guidance to colleagues in the Department throughout the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review. The process for CSR07 was also outlined to the Department's senior leadership team in a note entitled “Financial Planning and CSR2007”.
Departmental Foreign Workers
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) EU foreign nationals and (b) non EU foreign nationals are employed by his Department. [168107]
Mr. Bradshaw: A full identity and nationality check is carried out using documentary evidence prior to all appointments to the Department. A record of nationality is kept on individuals’ hard-copy personnel files. The level of detail recorded on our Central Human Resources information system is not sufficient to answer this question and it would involve disproportionate costs to examine all relevant individual files.
Departmental ICT
Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which manufacturers' software is used in his Department. [167228]
Mr. Bradshaw: The manufacturers whose software is in use across the Department are:
Adobe;
Computer Associates;
IBM;
Microsoft;
Oracle;
Pointsec Mobile Technologies;
Winzip.
Other manufacturers whose software is used by subsections of the Department in support of key operation and business functions are:
Bluecoat;
BMC Software;
Citrix;
Compuware;
Designer Appliances;
Intergralis;
ISI;
MASS Information Systems;
Mercury UK;
Mindjet;
MSRA;
Nessoft LLC;
Nuance;
Quark;
Quest Software (UK);
Real Asset Management;
RIM;
SAS Sostware;
Sirsi;
Software Spectrum UK;
SPSS (UK);
Sun Microsystems;
Symantec;
Team Studio Europe;
VeriSign UK;
Veritas;
Vmware;
Webabacus;
Webtrends.
Departmental Ministerial Policy Advisers
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health who the special advisers in his Department are; what expertise each has; and what the cost of employing them was in the latest year for which figures are available. [163407]
Mr. Bradshaw: I refer the hon. Member to the written ministerial statement, given on 22 November 2007, Official Report, column 147 WS.
Departmental Procurement
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list all private finance initiative deals under which his Department or the NHS has incurred additional costs as a result of the need to make changes to the service specifications in the contract after the contract had been signed; and what the (a) date of the change, (b) nature of the change and (c) additional costs incurred were in each case. [162234]
Mr. Bradshaw: I refer the hon. Member to the reports of the House of Commons Health Select Committee “Public Expenditure on Health and Personal Social Services”, HC26-i, where detailed information on increases in payments for private finance initiative schemes after contract signature is reported. These reports are available in the Library.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will provide a breakdown of his Department’s plans for the allocation of the resources granted in the 2007 comprehensive spending review according to the categories in Figures A2 and A3 of his Department’s 2007 departmental annual report for each financial year covered by the settlement. [165714]
Mr. Bradshaw: Although high level figures for the 2007 spending review settlement have been agreed with HM Treasury, detailed allocations are still under discussion.
The information requested is due to be published in the spring of 2008.
Departmental Publicity
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many full-time equivalent staff are responsible for brand management and marketing in his Department and its agencies; [165239]
(2) how much his Department and its agencies spent on staff working on (a) marketing and (b) branding in the last 12 month period for which figures are available. [167305]
Mr. Bradshaw: In November 2007, there were 13.3 marketing staff and 2.25 branding staff in the Department’s Communications Directorate.
Between November 2006 and October 2007 the total expenditure on Departmental staff working on marketing was £778.4 thousand and on branding £144.1 thousand.
Agencies receive their funding from the Department, however the specifics of how they discharge those funds within general public sector parameters is an operational matter for the agencies concerned. We therefore do not hold detail of agencies’ spend of staff on these issues or numbers of full-time equivalents.
Departmental Secondment
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many secondments of staff were made (a) to and (b) from his Department in each year since 1997; which organisations staff were seconded (i) to and (ii) from; how many staff were seconded in each year; for how long each secondment lasted; and what the cost was of each secondment in each year. [167273]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department's Human Resources (HR) system has only recently begun to record people on secondment into the Department. Also the system only records the number of people on secondment at a particular time rather than the total number of different people over the course of a year.
As of 30 September 2007 there were 57.7 full-time equivalent staff seconded into the Department.
As of 30 September 2007 there were 93.9 full-time equivalent staff seconded out of the Department to other organisations.
Anecdotally, most secondments out of the Department are to national health service trusts, other health-related organisations or other Government Departments.
Work carried out to answer a previous Freedom of Information request suggested that virtually all secondees into the Department are from public sector organisations. Anecdotally, most of these are from NHS trusts or other health-related organisations.
The Departments HR System does not hold information on the length of secondments but these are typically for a period of up to two years.
Given the Department does not hold information on the duration of secondments it cannot provide information on their costs.
Diseases: Eastern Region
Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of (a) HIV, (b) tuberculosis, (c) malaria and (d) hepatitis B were diagnosed in (i) the east of England and (ii) Suffolk in each of the last five years; and how many of these were in people not born in the UK. [167905]
Dawn Primarolo: The information requested is shown in the following tables.
| Individuals newly diagnosed with HIV in East of England Strategic Health Authority (SHA) and Suffolk Primary Care Trust (PCT), by place of birth 2002-06 | ||||||
| Place of birth | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | |
| Notes: 1. Cumulative data to the end of June 2007. 2. Table will include some records of the same individuals, which are unmatchable because of differences in information supplied. 3. Numbers will rise as further reports are received, particularly for recent years. 4. Where fewer than five cases were reported for an area, the table indicates the number of cases is reported as <5 rather than the actual number in order to reduce the risk of deductive disclosure—this is standard HPA policy. Source: Health Protection Agency (HPA) | ||||||
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