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Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the (a) minimum, (b) maximum and (c) average payment made to GPs in each primary care trust area for the purpose of dispensing medicines was in the most recent period for which information is available. [231561]

Phil Hope: Information is not collected centrally on minima or maxima average payments made to general practitioners (GPs) in each primary care trust for dispensing medicines. Overall dispensing GPs earned on average £126,996 in 2006-07, £23,000 more than non dispensing GPs.

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Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures are being considered to provide elderly patients with limited mobility who live in remote rural areas with access to dispensing facilities where GP dispensaries are closed. [231694]

Phil Hope: The pharmacy consultation paper “Pharmacy in England: Building on Strengths—delivering the future—proposals for legislative change” was published on 27 August 2008. As part of this consultation, we have put forward options for possible reform of general practitioner dispensing arrangements on which we are seeking views. We have no preferred option at this stage nor have we come to a view as to whether any reform of these particular arrangements is necessary. However, any decisions will seek to protect the access to medicines for vulnerable members of the community.

Health Services: International Co-operation

John Cummings: To ask the Secretary of State for Health by what process the mandate he gives his officials for international negotiations on areas of
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policy which are not the subject of settled Government policy is determined. [230260]

Dawn Primarolo: UK Government positions for negotiations that the Department leads are agreed in advance. This process involves other Government Departments with an interest and takes account of prior consultation with stakeholders.

All UK positions on international health should reflect the goals and principles in Health is Global—the Government’s Global Health Strategy published on 30 September. A copy has been placed in the Library.

Hepatitis

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 6 October 2008, Official Report, column 422W, on hepatitis, how many notifications of hepatitis B were made to the Health Protection Agency and its predecessor bodies in each year since 1997, broken down by strategic health authority area. [231967]

Dawn Primarolo: The information requested is shown in the following table.

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Statutory notifications of hepatitis B in England by strategic health authority: 1997 to 2007
S trategic health authority (SHA)
Current	Previous	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
East Midlands	Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Rutland	21	22	33	33	17	28	24	28	36	77	65
	Trent	8	25	20	35	26	35	28	16	32	26	28
East of England	Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire	15	13	24	38	48	66	51	59	59	14	8
	Essex	6	4	3	7	8	6	3	—	—	3	3
	Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire	4	8	19	17	3	5	9	12	17	8	7
London	North Central London	30	55	37	39	30	27	44	27	16	24	28
	North East London	30	30	57	50	43	36	18	23	10	20	11
	North West London	10	13	14	27	19	13	21	11	8	11	8
	South East London	87	87	101	92	149	162	157	174	209	171	111
	South West London	12	16	13	11	9	14	5	8	6	7	8
North East	County Durham and Tees Valley	7	6	11	30	55	37	23	13	23	53	13
	Northumberland, Tyne and Wear	24	20	14	16	15	31	80	70	91	30	20
North West	Cheshire and Merseyside	70	45	23	50	29	32	46	22	24	36	33
	Cumbria and Lancashire	26	31	33	55	46	45	48	43	27	30	31
	Greater Manchester	72	85	60	76	75	52	74	56	52	32	30
South Central	Hampshire and Isle of Wight	5	14	6	2	6	14	32	52	58	64	78
	Thames Valley	18	21	30	32	28	34	17	13	35	30	138
South East Coast	Kent and Medway	6	23	16	27	37	20	25	23	28	10	18
	Surrey and Sussex	48	37	34	51	40	27	14	24	34	26	39
South West	Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire	4	2	12	10	20	80	60	50	55	69	86
	Dorset and Somerset	20	45	22	51	57	42	43	72	71	45	52
	South West Peninsula	2	14	17	16	14	5	5	7	10	8	3
West Midlands	Birmingham and the Black Country	18	21	25	21	14	35	33	100	109	56	45
	Coventry, Warwicks., Herefords.,Worcs.	9	8	5	7	5	14	22	12	10	10	32
	Shropshire and Staffordshire.	1	8	14	10	19	21	25	25	39	46	32
Yorkshire and Humbershire	North and East Yorkshire, N Lincolnshire	53	100	116	77	68	55	85	64	63	58	81
	South Yorkshire	15	5	13	16	28	29	38	60	36	26	47
	West Yorkshire	49	54	45	89	62	48	67	70	81	71	68
Port Health Authority		—	1	—	—	—	1	—	—	—	—	—
Total		670	813	817	985	970	1,014	1,097	1,134	1,239	1,061	1,123
Notes: 1. Hepatitis B is notifiable under the Public Health (Infectious Diseases) Regulations 1988. 2. SHAs have been merged, and the number reduced from 28 to 10. The table gives data for both the previous and the current SHAs. 3. Cells are left empty if no cases have been reported. 4. These data have already been published. Source: Health Protection Agency

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