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10 Sep 2008 : Column 1894W—continued
Departmental Telephone Services
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what (a) 0800, (b) 0845 and (c) 0870 telephone numbers for the public are in use by (i) his Department and (ii) agencies which report to his Department. [200127]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department runs or supports the following lines, using the (a) 0800, (b) 0845 telephone numbers for the public. This corrects the information given in written answers to the hon. Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Julia Goldsworthy) on 17 December 2007, Official Report, column 1206W, and to the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris) on 28 January 2008, Official Report, columns 109-10W.
| Telephone number | |
The Department ran the following non-revenue generating lines, using (c) 0870 numbers. While they were mainly for the use of national health service and social services professionals, there was some use by the public. Since May 2008, these services have been available via 0300 numbers but the 0870 numbers need to be maintained until the end of March 2009 to allow for the transition.
| Telephone number | |
(a) 0800, (b) 0845 and (c) 0870 telephone numbers for the public administered by (ii) agencies which report to the Department.
The Department’s Executive agencies, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency have no 0800, 0845 or 0870 numbers for use by the public.
The Department has 25 arms length bodies and a number of national programmes e.g. NHS Employers. Information about telephone services for these bodies is not held centrally and cannot be provided except at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Visits Abroad
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost was of overseas visits made by members of staff in his Department in each of the last three years. [221522]
Mr. Bradshaw: The total cost of overseas visits made by members of staff of the Department in the last three years have been:
| £ | |
Disabled
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what proportion of staff in (a) his Department and (b) the executive agencies for which he is responsible are disabled; and what the average salary in his (i) Department and (ii) executive agencies is of (A) full-time disabled staff, (B) full-time non-disabled staff, (C) part-time disabled staff and (D) part-time non-disabled staff. [220186]
Mr. Bradshaw: The numbers and proportions of staff in the Department and its agencies who are disabled are presented in the following table:
| Number | Proportion (percentage) | |
The figures in the table are taken from information published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as at 30 September 2007. They exclude people who have not declared their disability status. A number is not quoted for PASA because it was less than five; the proportion is therefore based on a maximum number of four.
The median salaries of full-time disabled staff, full-time non-disabled staff, part-time disabled staff and part-time non-disabled staff are presented in the following table:
| £ | ||||
| Full-time disabled | Full-time non-disabled | Part-time disabled | Part-time non-disabled | |
These figures are also taken from ONS information as at 30 September 2007. They exclude people who have not declared their disability status. Salaries are not quoted where there were less than five people in the category.
The civil service is committed to reflecting the society it serves, at all levels, including disabled people. The recently published “Promoting Equality, Valuing Diversity—A Strategy for the Civil Service” builds on what has already been achieved and sets out what the civil service wants to achieve in equality and diversity in employment over the next three to five years. It also provides a framework against which Departments and agencies will take actions.
Reward arrangements below the senior civil service (SCS) are delegated to individual Departments and agencies. For the SCS, Departments and agencies are responsible for their own reward arrangements within a framework set by Cabinet Office. Departments and agencies are responsible for equality proofing their own reward systems.
Due to the self-reporting nature of disability and the relatively large proportion of civil servants whose disability status is unknown or undeclared, care should be exercised when drawing conclusions based on these statistics.
Extreme care should also be exercised when making comparisons of salaries between part-time and full-time disabled and non-disabled staff. For example, a simple comparison of median salary by disability status and working pattern does not take account of the different responsibility levels of the individuals concerned. Therefore, any meaningful comparison should take account of these compositional differences.
Drugs: Misuse
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many people were discharged from treatment for drug misuse in England categorised as (a) treatment completed drug free, (b) treatment completed not drug free, (c) dropped out, (d) referred to other treatment, (e) individual entered prison, (f) individual died and (g) reason not known in each year from 2003-04 to 2007-08; [223388]
(2) how many individuals discharged from treatment for drug misuse in England on the grounds that they completed treatment drug free in (a) 2003-04, (b) 2004-05, (c) 2005-06, (d) 2006-07 and (e) 2007-08 subsequently re-entered treatment for drug misuse. [223389]
Mr. Bradshaw: The following table shows the number of individuals discharged from structured treatment for drug misuse, by discharge reason, for the period 2004-05 to 2006-07.
| 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | ||||
| Discharge reason( 1) | Percentage | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | Number |
| (1) Discharge reasons are taken from the NDTMS statistical release 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007. Data on individuals in structured drug and alcohol treatment are collected by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) via the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS), using the following definitions: ‘Treatment completed drug free’ refers to an individual, who the treatment provider believes has completed their treatment no longer dependent on their drug of misuse and is not using any other illegal drugs. ‘Treatment completed’ refers to an individual, who the treatment provider believes has completed their treatment no longer dependent on their drug of misuse, but who may be using drugs in a non-dependent way. ‘Treatment completed—referred’ refers to an individual who, on completion of a Tier 3 or 4 service, is transferred to a Tier 2 service or support services such as housing support or employment support. | ||||||
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