| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
22 Oct 2008 : Column 365W—continued
Veterinary Services: Standards
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will ensure that the implementation of any recommendations emerging from the Hampton Review of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate does not lead to a diminution of the quality of support provided for the delivery of veterinary medicines. [226732]
Jane Kennedy: Recommendations relating to Hampton have as their objective more effective and efficient delivery of regulation and interactions with business. This is the basis behind the consultation on a possible structural merger involving the Veterinary Medicines Directorate.
Warm Front Scheme
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the projected budget for Warm Front is for the next three years. [223899]
Joan Ruddock: I have been asked to reply.
The projected Warm Front budget for the 2008-11 period is set at £874 million.
Health
Ambulance Services
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of ambulance handovers took more than (a) 15, (b) 30, (c) 45 and (d) 60 minutes in the last 12 months. [228276]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information is not available in the format requested. The Department of Health expects ambulance trusts and acute trusts to work together and to share information to manage periods of high or unexpected demand effectively to prevent delays in patient handovers from occurring.
It is clearly important that patients are handed over to A and E as soon as possible after the ambulance arrives, and the A and E clock for the four-hour standard should start 15 minutes after the ambulance arrives regardless of whether the patient has been handed over or not. The Department continues to make clear to the NHS that local services need to ensure they have effective and efficient processes in place to deliver timely handover.
Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospital Trust: Cleaning Services
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent on cleaning by the Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospital Trust in the latest period for which information is available. [227758]
Mr. Bradshaw: Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust have reported £6,224,771 through the annual estates related information collection as their cleaning services costs in 2006-07. These data are as provided by the NHS organisation. Further information is available on the following Hospital Estates and Facilities Statistics (hfes) website
Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospital Trust: Parking
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much revenue was raised in car parking by Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospital Trust area in the latest period for which information is available. [227757]
Mr. Bradshaw: Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS trust has reported via the estates related information collection income of £748,000 for car parking for staff and visitors in 2006-07. These data are as provided by the NHS organisation. Further information is available on the following Hospital Estates and Facilities Statistics (hfes) website:
Carers
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps the Government are taking to assist carers; [224601]
(2) how many people over the age of 60 were registered as carers in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) England in each year since 1997; [224603]
(3) how many people are in receipt of a carer’s allowance in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) England; and how many were in receipt of the allowance in each year since its inception. [224604]
Phil Hope: This information is not held centrally.
We are investing over £255 million to ensure that the Carers Strategy is implemented, this includes:
providing every carer with the opportunity to access comprehensive information when they need it;
making an additional £150 million available over two years for provision of breaks from caring;
pilots to look at how the national health service can better support carers and to improve the support offered by general practitioners. We will also pilot annual health checks for carers;
up to £38 million to enable carers to be better able to combine paid employment with their caring role through enhanced flexible working and skills training opportunities;
over £6 million in increased support for young carers in universal services, such as schools, targeted support and whole family support for carers;
training carers and so enable them both to strengthen them in their caring role and empower them in their dealings with care professionals. We will also train professionals across the board to provide better support for carers; and
we have made available £1.2 million to help ensure that key partners in the voluntary sector are able to develop their capacity and the capacity of local partners to implement the strategy.
To help carers who want to work part-time, we have increased the earnings limit in carer’s allowance every year since 2001, and it now stands at £95 a week—almost double its pre-2001 level of £50.
Christmas
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many Christmas functions (a) he, (b) officials from his Department and (c) officials from its executive agencies (i) hosted and (ii) attended in 2007-08; what the cost to the public purse was; and if he will make a statement. [226953]
Mr. Bradshaw: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State attended the following Christmas functions in 2007-08:
Tuesday 4 December 2007—looked into the Guardian Media Christmas Drinks Reception; and
Tuesday 11 December 2007—looked into Unite The Union Christmas Parliamentary Reception.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State hosted one Christmas function, a reception for journalists, on 17 December 2007. It was held in the Cathedral room in Richmond House and the cost was £1,079.30.
The Department does not collect information about the Christmas functions hosted or attended in 2007 or to be hosted or attended in 2008 by officials in the Department or officials in executive agencies and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.
Dental Services: Hemel Hempstead
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS dentists there are per 1,000 people in Hemel Hempstead constituency. [228365]
Ann Keen: Information is not available in the format requested.
The number of dentists with national health service activity during the years ending 31 March 2007 and 31 March 2008 per 100,000 population is available in Table G1 of Annex 3 of the report NHS Dental Statistics for England: 2007-08. Information is available by strategic health authority and by primary care trust. This information is based on the new dental contractual arrangements introduced on 1 April 2006.
Following a recent consultation exercise, this measure is based on a revised methodology and therefore supersedes previously published workforce figures relating to the
new dental contractual arrangements. It is not comparable to the information collected under the old contractual arrangements. The revised methodology counts the number of dental performers with NHS activity recorded through FP17 claim forms in each year ending 31 March.
This report, published on 21 August 2008, has already been placed in the Library and is also available on the website of the Information Centre for health and social care at:
Figures relate to headcounts and do not differentiate between full-time and part-time dentists, nor do they account for the fact that some dentists may do more NHS work than others.
Departmental Civil Service Agencies
Mr. Ancram: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many agencies were sponsored by his Department in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 1997-98. [228513]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department sponsored two agencies in 2007-08:
Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency; and
NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency
The Department sponsored four agencies in 1997-98:
Medical Devices Agency;
Medicines Control Agency;
NHS Estates Agency; and
NHS Pensions Agency
Departmental Manpower
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many full-time equivalent staff there are in each (a) directorate and (b) team in his Department, broken down by payband. [228275]
Mr. Bradshaw: The number of full-time equivalent staff in each directorate are presented in the following tables. The figures are for 30 September 2008. They cover permanent and temporary civil servants, and people on loan or secondment into the Department. Most of the cases where the grade or directorate is unknown relate to secondees in, where our systems do not currently always record this. Information is not held centrally in a way that allows us to provide a team breakdown, and to assemble this information from local records would incur disproportionate cost.
| Directorate | Administrative officer | Executive officer | Higher executive officer | Senior executive officer | Fast stream | Grade 7 |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |