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3 Mar 2008 : Column 2108W—continued
| Number of confirmed positive chlamydia diagnoses and rates per 100,000 population aged 13-24 in England: April 2005-March 2007 | ||
| April 2005-March 2006 | April 2006-March 2007 | |
| (1) Population estimates refers to 2005 Office for National Statistics population estimates for those aged 13-24 years. Notes: 1. The data are from NCSP registered screening venues and includes the Boots pathfinder project. Data as of 29 January 2008 2. The NCSP screens those aged under 25 years. 3. The NCSP began screening on 1 April 2003 and so data are only available from that date onwards. 4. The NCSP collects number of tests and not number of people tested. We assume that number of tests is a close proxy for number of people tested as re-testing is rare. 5. The data available from the NCSP are the number of diagnoses made and not the number of patients diagnosed. Source: NCSP. | ||
Strokes
Mark Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the incidence of stroke was in each (a) strategic health authority area, (b) primary care trust area, (c) Westminster constituency, (d) English region and (e) socio-demographic group in each year since 2002. [185822]
Ann Keen: Hospital episode statistics (HES) from 2005-06 suggest there were around 100,000 emergency admissions with a primary or secondary diagnosis of stroke. However, this figure under-represents the true incidence of stroke for two reasons. Firstly, HES data only includes those who were admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of stroke but not all stroke patients currently attend hospital. Secondly, the count of admissions does not represent the total number of patients as a person may be admitted more than once in the year. HES data cannot answer the question in the form requested. Academic estimates suggest there are around 110,000 strokes in England per annum.
Such information as is available has been placed in the Library.
Suicide
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will review the evidence on the effects of media reporting on the incidence of suicide. [189150]
Mr. Ivan Lewis:
There is already compelling evidence, from research conducted in the United Kingdom and abroad, that the reporting and portrayal of suicide in the media can lead to copycat suicides, especially amongst young people or those already at risk. For this reason,
the “National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England” made a commitment to improve the reporting of suicide in the media as one of its key aims.
As part of this commitment, on 18 February the Department published a handbook for journalists, “What's the Story? Reporting Mental Health and Suicide” to help the media improve public understanding of mental illness. This handbook highlights international evidence that careless reporting of suicide may trigger copycat suicides and it provides advice to journalists to encourage more sensitive and responsible coverage.
In addition, in June 2006 the Press Complaints Commission added a sub-clause in the “Editor’s Code of Practice” to discourage the reporting in the media of excessive detail of suicide methods.
Surgery
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on how many occasions surgeons have operated on the incorrect person in the National Health Service in each of the last 10 years. [189309]
Ann Keen: National health service staff can report wrong site or wrong patient surgery incidents to the National Patient Safety Agency’s (NPSA) reporting system (the national reporting and learning system). However, the NPSA has not, to date, received any reports of surgeons operating on the wrong patient.
Prime Minister
Official Residences
Grant Shapps: To ask the Prime Minister which official ministerial residence is unoccupied. [189522]
The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker) and the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr. Pickles) on 17 October 2007, Official Report, column 1135W.
Solicitor-General
Assets
David Howarth: To ask the Solicitor-General what extra receipts are expected to accrue as a result of the increase in funding for activity in asset recovery contained in the Spring Supplementary Estimate 2007-08. [188191]
The Solicitor-General [holding answer 22 February 2008]: The Crown Prosecution Service, Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office and Serious Fraud Office all receive a share of funding to incentivise the confiscation element of asset recovery. It is not possible to identify a specific return on specific investment, as asked. Confiscation is a co-operative activity involving investigators and court enforcement as well as prosecutors and the results from individual cases can take some time to feed through. But the funding supports the significant and increasing role which prosecutors play in meeting the Government’s target of doubling the amount of money it recovers from criminals from £125 million in 2006-07 to £250 million in 2009-10.
The increases will fund all aspects of confiscation activity, including protecting assets from dissipation during the lifetime of a case, securing confiscation orders once offenders have been convicted and in a number of instances enforcing orders.
Capita
Mr. Amess: To ask the Solicitor-General how much was paid by her Department to Capita Group plc and its subsidiaries in each financial year since 2000; which contracts were awarded by her Department to Capita Group plc in each year from 2000-01 to the most recent available date; what the cost was of each contract; what penalties for default were imposed in contract provisions; what the length was of each contract; whether the contract was advertised; how many companies applied for the contract; how many were short-listed; what criteria were used for choosing a company; what provision was made for renewal without re-tender in each case; and if she will make a statement. [180698]
The Solicitor-General: The amounts paid by the Law Officers’ Departments to Capita Group plc and its subsidiaries are shown in the following table.
| AGO | CPS | HMCPSI | RCPO | SFO | T Sol | Total | |
With regard to the remaining questions, the services of Capita Group plc are used for a variety of purposes, including: storage facilities, conference fees, temporary staff, recruitment activity, training, consultancy and occupational health services by the Law Officers’ Departments, but there is no central record held that allows the relevant information to be obtained, save at a disproportionate cost.
Departmental Advertising
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Solicitor-General what percentage of her Department’s expenditure was on advertising in each of the last 10 years. [183002]
The Solicitor-General: Details of expenditure which can be given without incurring disproportionate costs are given in the following table:
| CPS | RCPO | SFO | T Sol( 1) | |
| (1) Includes Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate and the Attorney General’s Office. Note: Expenditure on advertising has been mainly in relation to recruitment. | ||||
The specialist Bona Vacantia division of the Treasury Solicitor’s Department regularly places advertisements in the press seeking kin in cases where individuals have died intestate with no apparent claimants to the estate under administration. The costs for this activity are treated as an expense on the Crown Nominee’s Account that is presented separately to Parliament.
Departmental Information Officers
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Solicitor-General how much the Law Officers’ Departments paid in bonuses to press and communication officers in each of the last 10 years; and what the (a) highest and (b) lowest such bonus was in each of those years. [182726]
The Solicitor-General: The available information is as follows:
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) runs a special bonus scheme, which aims to reward exceptional individual or team performance. The following data were extracted from the CPS payroll system, which was introduced in October 2004. The CPS cannot provide information prior to 2004 without incurring disproportionate cost.
Between October 2004 and December 2007, a total of £2,650 was paid to press and communication officers, grades A to E:
In 2004—no bonuses were paid;
In 2005—one bonus of £500 was paid;
In 2006—three bonuses were paid of which the lowest was £200 and the highest was £250; and
In 2007—three bonuses were paid of which the lowest was £200 and the highest £1,000.
The Serious Fraud Office rewarded individual press and communication officers as follows:
| £ | |||
| Total | Lowest | Highest | |
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