| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
5 Mar 2008 : Column 2519W—continued
Leader of the House
Departmental Visits Abroad
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Leader of the House pursuant to the answer of 28 January 2008, Official Report, column 11W, on departmental visits abroad, how many visits overseas by officials in her Office there were in the financial year 2006-07. [191396]
Helen Goodman:
Details of overseas ministerial visits by the Leader of the House of( )Commons in the financial year 2006-07 are included in the annual( )table published by the Cabinet Office which can be found at:(
)
Officials accompanied the Leader or Deputy Leader of the House on( )the following visits;
| Dates | Destination |
All travel is undertaken in accordance with the “Civil Service( )Management Code” and the “Ministerial Code”.
Health
Aphasia: Health Services
Mark Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which primary care trusts commission aphasia support services. [191828]
Ann Keen: This information is not held centrally.
Bone Diseases: Medical Treatments
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to issue guidance on the administering of enbrel and humira to people diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis. [191179]
Ann Keen: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has received two appeals against its final appraisal determination on adalimumab (brand name Humira), etanercept (brand name Enbrel) and infliximab for the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis. Final guidance will not be published until the appeals have been heard.
Funding for licensed treatments should not be withheld because guidance from NICE is unavailable. In December 2006, we issued refreshed good practice guidance which asks national health service bodies to continue with local arrangements for the managed introduction of new technologies where guidance from NICE is not available at the time the treatment or technology first becomes available.
Departmental Homeworking
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in his Department have been able to work from home in the last 12 months. [189782]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department operates a homeworking scheme under which a person's home is formally designated as their regular place of work for some or all of the working week. At the end of December 2007, the Department had seven homeworkers.
Homeworking is one of a number of arrangements that the Department provides to promote flexible working, including part time working, flexitime schemes, job sharing, part year appointments, unpaid leave, and compressing the working week into less than five days. The use of information technology also allows many staff to work from home on an occasional basis.
Departmental Internet
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent on the redesign and implementation of his new departmental website. [190256]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department relaunched its corporate website (www.dh.gov.uk) on 10 February 2008 following a project to redesign the site and restructure the content. The total cost of the redesign and implementation project was £513,000. This includes user research, visual and template design, content review and restructure, technical build, test and deployment, and testing.
The relaunch of the Department's website was far more than a simple 'redesign'. As well as incorporating a new graphic design, the entire website structure was completely changed to reflect better the work of the Department and its priorities. The Department's website was last redesigned four years ago. User research and customer feedback demonstrated that it had become outdated and content was increasingly difficult to find. Feedback suggests that this redesign has significantly improved the ease with which users find information on the site.
Departmental Pay
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the salary range is for each pay band of civil servants in his Department. [188799]
Mr. Bradshaw: Salary range minima and maxima for grades below senior civil service (SCS) in each of the three geographical locations are presented in the following three tables. The Department is responsible for setting these ranges.
| Table 1: National pay rates | ||
| £ | ||
| Grade | Minimum | Maximum |
| Table 2 : Outer London pay rates | ||
| £ | ||
| Grade | Minimum | Maximum |
| Table 3: Inner London pay rates | ||
| £ | ||
| Grade | Minimum | Maximum |
Salary ranges for SCS grades do not differ by location. These ranges are set centrally and apply across all Government Departments.
| £ | ||
| Grade | Minimum | Maximum |
Departmental Private Finance Initiative
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what private finance initiative projects have been approved by his Department in each of the last three financial years, broken down by (a) value and (b) start date. [190886]
Mr. Bradshaw: The capital value and start date for every signed private finance initiative project are recorded centrally on HM Treasury’s website at:
Departmental Property
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what property has been lost or stolen from his Department since 1997; and at what cost to the public purse for replacements. [187472]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information is in the following table.
| Departmental losses/thefts for the years from 1997-98 to 2006-07 | ||||||
| Financial year | Laptops | Replacement cost (£) | Mobile telephones | Replacement cost (£) | Other information technology (IT) equipment/peripherals | Replacement cost (£) |
| Note: Other IT equipment and peripherals includes items such as digital cameras, ansaphones, personal digital assistants, pagers, printers, charger units, etc. | ||||||
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |