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14 Mar 2008 : Column 673W—continued
Hospices: Finance
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hospices in England received funding from his Department in the last 12 months. [194379]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: It is for individual primary care trusts (PCTs) to decide the level of funding they allocate to end-of-life-care services, including hospices, based on assessments of local needs and priorities. The level of funding a hospice receives is a matter for negotiation between the local PCT and the hospice.
In September 2006, the Government established a £40 million capital fund, which adult hospices were able to bid for to improve their physical environments. The funding has been made available as part of the dignity in care for older people work, although it will benefit all adult patients using hospice facilities. In April 2007, Ministers announced that 146 hospices, with 191 projects, had been allocated funding from the fund.
Incontinence: Medical Equipment
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what expenditure his Department has incurred on the review of Part IX of the drug tariff in 2008; and what the total cost of the review has been to date. [194455]
Dawn Primarolo: In 2008, the Department has spent £125,000 on the Part IX Review of the Drug Tariff up to 31 January, which is the latest figure available.
The total cost of the review to date is £2.25 million.
NHS: Drugs
Jim Dobbin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the NHS will seek reimbursement from pharmaceutical manufacturers for expenditure on ineffective Select Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors. [193485]
Dawn Primarolo: We have no plans to seek reimbursement from pharmaceutical manufacturers in respect of Select Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors (SSRIs).
The Committee on Safety of Medicines Expert Working Group on the safety of SSRIs undertook a comprehensive review of the safety of this entire class of drugs, examining all available evidence and reviewing all the regulatory advice issued. In December 2004, it concluded that the balance of risks and benefits of all SSRIs in adults remains positive in their licensed indications; however prescribers and patients should be more aware of the side effect profile of these medicines and the need for close monitoring of patients being treated for depressive illness or anxiety disorders.
NHS: Stress
Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the annual cost of stress-related illness to the NHS. [194274]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Palliative Care
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health by what mechanisms his Department maintains standards in care plans for people in receipt of end of life care. [194377]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Supportive and Palliative Care Guidance published by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends that assessment and discussion of patients’ needs for physical, psychological, social, spiritual and financial support should be undertaken at key points during the care pathway and that cancer networks should ensure a unified approach to the assessment and recording of patients’ needs. The national health service has been required to set out action plans to achieve compliance with the NICE recommendations and cancer networks now have this unified approach in place. Implementation is being monitored by strategic health authorities. The End of Life Care Strategy, which covers care for all adult patients and which is due to be published this summer, will also address this issue.
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance his Department has issued on co-ordination of the provision of choice and dignity in end of life care between strategic health authorities, primary care trusts and hospices in the last twelve months. [194378]
Mr. Ivan Lewis:
The Department has not issued guidance on the co-ordination of the provision of choice and dignity in end of life care between strategic health authorities, primary care trusts and hospices in the last 12 months. However, the 2008-09 NHS Operating
Framework, which clearly sets out a relatively small number of main priorities for the NHS for the coming year, states that a key element of the forthcoming national End of Life Care Strategy for adults will be to improve people’s access to high-quality services, close to their home. Central to the delivery of this change will be the development of rapid-response services and co-ordination centres. The strategy, which is due to be published this summer, will, among other issues, also address choice and dignity in end of life care.
Suicide: Essex
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health in what proportion of suicides in Essex the victim was previously known to be at risk by (a) the NHS and (b) social services in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [193501]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Information is not held centrally about people identified as at risk of suicide by the national health service or social services who later take their own life.
The following table shows number of patients in the former Essex strategic health authority (SHA) who took their own life who were on enhanced care programme approach (CPA). The CPA is used to assess the care needs of, and provide a package of care for, people with severe mental illness. People on enhanced CPA are more likely to have multiple needs, require more frequent and intensive interventions and have higher levels of risk. However, not everyone on enhanced CPA will necessarily be identified as at risk of suicide.
| Suicides under enhanced CPA( 1) , Essex SHA | ||
| Number of people under enhanced CPA who committed suicide | Percentage of total number of suicides | |
| (1) For 2001, the data refer to patients under standard and enhanced CPA. For 2002 to 2005, the data refer only to people under enhanced CPA. Source: The National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness | ||
Tranquillisers: Pregnant Women
Jim Dobbin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what services are provided to pregnant women to assist withdrawal from (a) voluntary and (b) involuntary or prescribed tranquilliser addiction. [191167]
Dawn Primarolo: The maternity services standard of the ‘National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services’ states that women who have substance misuse problems are at greater risk of problem pregnancies and their care should be provided by an integrated multidisciplinary and multi-agency team.
All national health service maternity care providers and mental health trusts should have in place joint working arrangements for maternity and mental health services, including arrangements for direct access by midwives, general practitioners and obstetricians to a perinatal psychiatrist.
Justice
Administration of Justice: Fees and Charges
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what changes HM Courts Service has made to the fees applying to court lists and registers for 2008-09. [193217]
Mr. Straw: No changes have been made to the fees for photocopying court lists and registers. There is a minimum fee of £5 for up to 10 sheets and 50p thereafter payable for a copy of any document provided by the court.
Asylum and Immigration Tribunal: Databases
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what categories of information and variables are recorded on the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal database. [193329]
Mr. Straw: The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal’s database was designed to hold all information relevant to the administration of an appeal case, together with data essential for monitoring and reporting on the tribunal’s performance. Due to the sheer volume of database categories, variables and fields, to provide a full list or comprehensive summary of these elements would be unwieldy, and to place such information in the public domain would breach agreements between the tribunal and its contracted software developers.
Departmental Official Visits
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the total cost was of overnight accommodation for (a) civil servants, (b) special advisers and (c) Ministers in his Department staying overnight in (i) mainland Great Britain, (ii) Northern Ireland, (iii) the Republic of Ireland and (iv) other countries in the last 12 months. [193534]
Mr. Hanson: It is not possible to list the costs spent on overnight accommodation by the Department in the last 12 months as the expenditure is not separately identifiable within the Department’s accounts and may be provided only at a disproportionate cost.
All ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the rules set out in the “Ministerial Code” and “Travel by Ministers”, copies of which are available in the Library of the House for the reference of Members. All official travel by civil servants is undertaken in accordance with the requirements of the “Civil Service Management Code”, a copy of which is also available in the Library of the House for the reference of Members.
Prisoner Escapes
Mr. Laws:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of the number of prisoners
who escaped from open prisons in each month since January 2007, broken down by (a) prison and (b) offence for which convicted; and if he will make a statement. [193511]
Mr. Hanson: Records show that the level of absconds is the lowest for 10 years. Statistics show that since 1996 the rate of absconds has reduced by half.
Data showing the number of prisoners who have absconded from open or semi-open prisons between January 2007 and February 2008 broken down by (a) prison and (b) offence for which they are convicted is shown in the following tables.
Currently abscond levels are the lowest since centralised recording of figures began in 1995.
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