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18 Mar 2008 : Column 997W—continued
Lord Darzi’s national health service next stage final report;
Public consultation leading to a Green Paper on the nature and funding of the care and support system for adults; and
Work supported by continued growth in NHS and social care investment.
Abortion
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many women in England had more than (a) four, (b) five, (c) six and (d) seven abortions by the end of 2006. [194641]
Dawn Primarolo: The information requested is as follows and is available in table 4b of the Abortion Statistics, England and Wales: 2006 copies of which are available in the Library.
| Table 4b: legal abortions: number of previous abortions by age( 1) , 2006—England and Wales, residents | |||||
| Number of previous abortions | Total | under 18 | 18 to 24 | 25 to 29 | 30+ |
| (1) Age not stated have been distributed prorata across age group 20 to 24. (2) Values are suppressed where totals are less than 10 (0 to 9) or where a presented total would reveal the suppressed value. | |||||
Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent on treatment, counselling and other support services for (a) alcohol addiction and (b) illicit drug addiction in each of the last 10 years. [193439]
Dawn Primarolo: The Alcohol Needs Assessment Research Project reported in 2005 that the national health service spent an estimated £217 million a year in England in 2003-04. An extra £15 million in additional funding has been included within primary care trusts (PCTs) general allocations from 2007-08 to improve alcohol interventions.
NHS spending on alcohol interventions is not collected centrally, so historic figures are not available.
The National Audit Office will carry out an audit of NHS alcohol spend on interventions and specialist treatment and this is expected to report in the summer of 2008. This will provide a comprehensive picture of how different areas are funding provision for alcohol harms.
Since 2001, the Department of Health and the Home Office have provided specific resources for drug treatment in the form of the pooled drug treatment budget (PTB). This funding is allocated to the 149 drug action teams across the country to use, along with local mainstream funding, to provide for treatment and services according to the specific needs of each locality. We do not hold information on drug treatment spend prior to 2001.
PTB allocations and local investment in drug treatment is shown in the following table.
| £ million | ||
| PTB allocation | Local funding amount | |
| (1) Estimated spend for 2008-09. | ||
In addition to the money spent directly on delivering treatment, central and local government funding is also spent on improving access to treatment (e.g. for offenders via Drugs Interventions Programme) and supporting drug misusers after they come out of treatment (e.g. aftercare and supporting people).
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will allocate increased funding to specialist alcohol treatment services. [194337]
Dawn Primarolo: An extra £15 million in additional funding has been included within primary care trusts (PCTs) general allocations from 2007-08 to improve alcohol interventions.
Alcohol treatment, like all other national health service services is not separately funded but met from mainstream NHS resources. It is for local PCTs to arrange to meet local needs from their resources; they are in the best position to assess the merits of various types of local activity and to determine the allocation of funds at their disposal.
Alcoholic Drugs: Misuse
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many finished admissions to hospital there were where an illness related to (a) alcohol and (b) an illicit drug was a primary or secondary diagnosis at the outset in each of the last three years, broken down by primary care trust. [193816]
Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham) on 12 March 2008, Official Report, columns 465-55W.
Within the system of diagnostic codes used to classify admission to hospital, it is not possible to differentiate whether these drugs have been taken illicitly or if they have been prescribed, e.g. morphine or codeine for pain relief, and a patient has accidentally overdosed.
Children: Developing Countries
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department (a) has taken and (b) plans to take towards implementing the UN global strategy for infant and young child feeding. [193756]
Dawn Primarolo: The Department supports the World Health Organisation Global Strategy for infant and young child feeding and has implemented several of its recommendations. In line with the Strategy, the Department recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of an infant’s life and continued breastfeeding along with solid foods thereafter. The Department is encouraging all health care settings to adopt the principles of Baby Friendly Initiative and have recently produced information leaflets for parents jointly with Unicef UK on breastfeeding, weaning and safe bottle feeding. In addition, we have implemented the new regulations on infant and follow-on formula introducing stricter controls on advertising of all types of formulae, to ensure that breastfeeding is not undermined by marketing of such products.
The Department promotes breastfeeding through a range of initiatives including National Breastfeeding Awareness Week to be held from 11-17 May with the aim of encouraging young mothers from disadvantaged groups to initiate and continue breastfeeding. Increased support is provided through an easily accessible national telephone helpline, which provides information to enable mothers to sustain breastfeeding during the early weeks and beyond.
We have recently announced a £75 million, three year marketing programme in the cross-Government Obesity Strategy, which will inform, support and empower parents in making changes to their children’s diet and levels of physical activity. The programme will particularly focus on the early years including: maternal nutrition, encouraging breastfeeding and supporting healthy weaning and healthy diets in young children.
Civil Service Appeal Board
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what percentage of appeals by employees of (a) his Department and (b) its agencies were (i) heard and (ii) upheld by the Civil Service Appeal Board in each of the last 10 years; how much was awarded in compensation by the Board to each successful appellant in each year; what the reason was for each compensation award; how many appellants were reinstated by the Board in each year; and what the reason was for each (A) dismissal and (B) reinstatement. [192511]
Mr. Bradshaw:
Since 2006 one appeal to the Civil Service Appeal Board (CSAB) has been decided, during 2007. The appeal was not upheld, so no compensation or reinstatement resulted. The reason for dismissal which related to that appeal was redundancy.
Prior to 2006, information from the Department is not available without incurring disproportionate costs as it would be necessary to refer to individual staff files.
No appeals to the CSAB took place from the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency or the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency during the requested period.
Departmental Empty Property
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the sums to be paid by his Department in unoccupied property rates in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09. [193771]
Mr. Bradshaw: Approximately £48,000 was paid in unoccupied business rates by the Department in 2007-08 and it is estimated that £72,000 will be paid in 2008-09.
Departmental Standards
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2008, Official Report, column 1690W, on departmental standards, which standard was not met by each trust listed in the document placed in the Library that did not meet all the core Standards for Better Health in 2006-07; and for what reasons in each case for which information is available. [188358]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is available from the Healthcare Commission.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2008, Official Report, column 1690W, on departmental standards, (1) by how much staff numbers at University Hospital Lewisham NHS Trust were reduced as noted in the document placed in the Library; and what the effect was on capacity at the Trust in 2006-07; [188379]
(2) what weaknesses Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Partnership NHS Trusts demonstrated in relation to the management of bank and agency staff in 2006-07, as noted in the document placed in the Library; [188380]
(3) for what reason the Barnet Primary Care Trust breast screening programme had to be suspended for patient safety in 2006-07, as noted in the document placed in the Library; [188381]
(4) what problems were experienced by South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust with its loan arrangement in 2006-07, as noted in the document placed in the Library. [188382]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is not held centrally.
The specific significant control issues referred to in the questions are included in the Statement on Internal Control of the relevant trust and these are published alongside the annual accounts. This information can be obtained directly from the trusts concerned.
Mr. Lansley:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2008, Official Report, column 1690W, on departmental standards, what contractual problems with dentists were
experienced by Western Cheshire Primary Care Trust in 2006-07, as noted in the document placed in the Library. [188383]
Mr. Bradshaw: North West Strategic Health Authority had set Ellesmere Port and Neston Primary Care Trust and Cheshire West Primary Care Trust a combined target of 417,094 units of dental activity. Following the re-organisation of primary care trusts in October 2006, the newly formed PCT—Western Cheshire Primary Care Trust—completed a six-month review with all its dental contractors and a revised target of 483,474 units of dental activity was agreed. The final annual financial reconciliation figure for 2006-07 showed that dentists across the PCT area produced a total of 430,807 units of dental activity.
Since the finalised year-end figures have been received, the PCT has organised annual reviews with each provider, to review their achievement against their contract for the full year 2006-07 and determine any further changes required for individual contracts.
Departmental Written Questions
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many written Questions to his Department had not received an answer as at 25 February 2008 for (a) between two and four, (b) between four and six, (c) between six and eight and (d) more than eight weeks; and how many in each category were tabled for named day answer. [193401]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information is shown in the following table.
| Number of weeks since Department received parliamentary question (as at 25 February 2008) | Number of parliamentary questions yet to receive an answer | Number of these that were named day questions |
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