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17 Mar 2008 : Column 742W—continued
Departmental Land
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of land owned by his Department is unused; and if he will make a statement. [193013]
Mr. Bradshaw: It is estimated that 70 per cent. of stand-alone land owned by the Department is unused. All such land is programmed either to be sold or its ownership transferred to the national health service for long-term health use.
Departmental Older Workers
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people over the age of 55 have been recruited by his Department in each of the last three years. [191518]
Mr. Bradshaw: The number of people over the age of 55 recruited by the Department in each of the last three full financial years and in the first 11 months of the current financial year are presented in the following table.
| Financial year | Number of staff |
Departmental Property
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many residential properties are owned by his Department; how many of these are vacant; and how many have been vacant for longer than (a) three months, (b) six months and (c) 12 months. [192918]
Mr. Bradshaw:
The Department owns 22 individual residential properties, nine of which are in one block.
14 are occupied and the remainder have been vacant for more than 12 months. All bar one has been marketed.
Residential accommodation that may have existed on surplus hospital sites awaiting disposal has not been included.
Written Questions
Richard Younger-Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what proportion of parliamentary questions for answer on a named day to his Department received a (a) holding and (b) substantive answer on the named day in each year since 2001. [190297]
Mr. Bradshaw: Information is only available from 2003, as set out in the following table.
| Number of named day questions received | Number answered on the day specified | Percentage answered on the day specified | |
Elderly: Carers
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what financial support is made available to persons over the age of 65 acting as full-time carers. [191878]
Mrs. McGuire: I have been asked to reply.
Since October 2002, carers aged 65 or over have been able to claim carer’s allowance.
A carer who receives state pension at a lower rate than carer’s allowance can receive an amount of carer’s allowance to make up the difference. Carers who are entitled to a rate of state pension equivalent to or more than the rate of carer’s allowance cannot receive both benefits. However, entitlement to carer’s allowance also attracts the additional amount for carers in pension credit, currently £27.15 per week, for those eligible. More than 220,000 carers in lower-income households are gaining from this measure.
Emergency Ambulance Services
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the cost of operating emergency ambulance services in Hemel Hempstead constituency was in each year since 1997; [194795]
(2) what steps he is taking to improve emergency ambulance services in (a) Hemel Hempstead constituency and (b) Hertfordshire. [194796]
Mr. Bradshaw: Information on expenditure is not available in the format requested. Information prior to 2000-01 is not available. Information is held by ambulance trust rather than by constituency. The Hemel Hempstead constituency is served by East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust, which was formed in 2006. Prior to that, it was served by Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Paramedic and Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
Information for these individual organisations from 2000-01 onwards is shown in the following table.
| The emergency patient transport services expenditure for Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Paramedic and Ambulance Service NHS Trust (2000-06) and for East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust | ||
| Name of trust | Emergency patient transport services expenditure (£000) | |
| Source: National Health Service Trust Financial Returns TFR6 2000-01 to 2006-07 | ||
It is for strategic health authorities, as the local headquarters of the NHS, and primary care trusts, as commissioners, to ensure that national response time standards are delivered and maintained by ambulance trusts.
The hon. Member may wish to raise this with the chief executive of the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
General Practitioners
Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many GP surgeries serve settlements of fewer than 10,000 people; and how many such surgeries were sold to private providers in each year since 1997. [192826]
Dawn Primarolo: In 2007, there were 1,221 general practitioner (GP) practices located in settlements of fewer than 10,000 people. We do not hold information on the sale of GP practices to any form of contractors.
General Practitioners: Staffordshire
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients were seen by out of hours GP services in (a) Tamworth and (b) Staffordshire in each of the last 10 years. [193622]
Mr. Bradshaw:
The information requested is not held centrally. My hon. Friend may therefore wish to approach the chief executive of South Staffordshire Primary Care
Trust (PCT), which may hold some information on numbers of patients seen by out of hours general practitioner services.
PCTs now have a legal responsibility to ensure that they provide, or secure provision of out of hours services for their local population.
General Practitioners: Tamworth
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many GP superclinics he plans to establish in Tamworth constituency. [193632]
Mr. Bradshaw: South Staffordshire PCT will receive additional investment to procure a new general practitioner-led Health Centre from the £250 million access fund announced by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on 10 October 2007. This Health Centre will open seven days a week from 8 am until 8 pm and will offer flexible appointments and walk-in and other services, for either registered or non-registered patients.
General Practitioners: Working Hours
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what proportion of general practitioners were contracted by their primary care trust to provide extended opening hours in each year since 2004-05. [192428]
Mr. Bradshaw: This information is not currently collected centrally.
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of GP surgeries that routinely open out of hours, broken down by primary care trust; and if he will make a statement. [192678]
Mr. Bradshaw: This information is not currently collected centrally.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps the Government is taking to ensure that requirements for GPs to extend opening hours in the evening or at weekends are not accompanied by reductions in availability at other times; and if he will make a statement. [193966]
Mr. Bradshaw: Primary care trusts already have a duty to ensure that general practitioner practices are fulfilling their current contractual obligations of core hour availability. This will not change when opening hours are extended.
As part of the directed enhanced service arrangements, currently being negotiated with the British Medical Association, and its accompanying guidance, we will ensure that extended opening hours will be in addition to what is already being offered by practices and that there should be no consequential reductions of availability during core hours.
Health Services: Expenditure
Mr. Lansley:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much money was (a) allocated to and (b) spent
from each central budget held at (i) his Department and (ii) strategic health authorities in each of the last five years. [191452]
Mr. Bradshaw: Listings of all Centrally Funded Initiatives Services and Special Allocations (CFISSA) programme allocations by budget title and value from 2002-03 to 2006-07 are contained in the departmental reports which are available in the Library. Details are as follows:
2003—Table 6.6 Centrally Funded Initiatives and Services and Special Allocations
2004—Table 6.6 Centrally Funded Initiatives and Services and Special Allocations
2005—Table 6.9 Centrally Funded Initiatives and Services and Special Allocations
2006—Table 6.9 Centrally Funded Initiatives and Services and Special Allocations
2007—Table 9.21 Centrally Managed NHS Budgets
The CFISSA programme is the national health service related funding that is not issued to primary care trusts as part of their initial resource limits. Commencing with the 2007 Departmental Report this area is now referred to as the centrally managed NHS Budgets.
Total expenditure of the CFISSA/centrally managed programme from 2002-03 to 2006-07 is contained in the operating cost statement in each year of the Resource Accounts.
It would be at disproportionate cost for the Department to list expenditure from each individual central budget held in each of the last five years due to the very large number of budgets and several departmental re-organisations.
Health Services: Greater London
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will publish a breakdown of (a) the costs to date and (b) the estimated final costs of the Healthcare for London Review; [190923]
(2) how much has been paid to (a) IPSOS MORI and (b) other external providers in relation to the Healthcare for London review; [190924]
(3) how many responses to date (a) in total and (b) from each primary care trust area have been received by the Healthcare for London Review. [190925]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is not held centrally.
Proposals for changes to services are a matter for the national health service locally. The Department does not hold information on the detailed breakdown of Healthcare for London's costs and responses—this is available directly from NHS London.
The hon. Member may wish to raise this issue locally with NHS London.
Health Services: Private Sector
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of healthcare has been delivered by the private sector in each year since 1980. [194234]
Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 14 March 2008]: The Department has figures for the total purchase of healthcare from non-national health service bodies for the years 1997-98 to 2006-07, as shown in the following table. However, it should be noted that these figures relate to healthcare expenditure with all non-NHS bodies including the private sector.
| Spend on non-NHS provision | ||
| Total (£) | As a percentage of NHS expenditure | |
| Note: 2004-05 to 2006-07 exclude NHS Foundation Trusts. Source: Annual financial returns for primary care trusts, (strategic) health authorities and NHS trusts for 1997-98 to 2006-07. | ||
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