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17 Dec 2008 : Column 894W—continued
Departmental Data Protection
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many civil servants in his Department have been (a) investigated, (b) suspended and (c) dismissed for (i) losing and (ii) deliberately disclosing (A) data stored on departmental equipment and (B) confidential information in each year since 1997. [242922]
Mr. Bradshaw: In the past two years no member of the Department's staff has been investigated, suspended or dismissed for losing or deliberately disclosing either data stored on departmental equipment or confidential information.
Prior to April 2006 the human resources records of the Department were not held centrally and it would incur disproportionate cost to establish the information requested.
Policy and procedures on security are constantly reviewed. Data held on the Department's laptops and portable media devices, including memory sticks are encrypted to minimise the risk of confidential data being compromised should the devices be lost or stolen.
Departmental Ministerial Policy Advisers
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many special advisers were employed in his Department at each pay band on 30 November 2008; and what his Department's total expenditure on special advisers was in 2007-08. [243572]
Mr. Bradshaw: Since 2003, the Government have published on an annual basis the names and numbers of special advisers in each pay band. For the most recent information I refer the hon. Member to the statement made by my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister on 22 July 2008, Official Report, columns 99-101WS.
Information on the employment of special advisers prior to 2003 was provided at regular intervals and is available in the Library.
Departmental Pay
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in his Department earned a salary over £100,000 in each year since 1997. [243630]
Mr. Bradshaw: The following table presents the data for the years as requested. Figures for 1997 to 2007 are taken from departmental annual reports. The 2008 figure is taken directly from the Department's payroll system.
| In post date (1 April each year) | Number of staff earning a salary over £100,000 on that date |
These figures include secondees from the Department out to other organisations but not secondees from external organisations into the Department.
Departmental Pensions
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many civil servants working in his Department and its agencies have pensions with a cash equivalent transfer value of over £1 million. [240313]
Mr. Bradshaw: Pension information for board members is presented in the Remuneration Report in the Annual Resource Accounts. A copy of the Department's Resource Accounts for the financial year 2007-08 has already been placed in the Library and is also available at:
The Accounts for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has already been placed in the Library and is also available at:
The Accounts for the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency has already been placed in the Library and is also available at:
Departmental Procurement
Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of invoices for goods and services procured from small and medium-sized businesses were paid within 10 days of receipt by (a) his Department and (b) the agencies for which his Department is responsible in (i) 2006-07 and (ii) 2007-08; and if he will make a statement. [243353]
Mr. Bradshaw: The commitment to pay invoices within 10 working days of receipt was made by the Prime Minister on 8 October 2008. Response to this initiative is being led by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), who advise that this applies only to central Government Departments at present and that no targets have yet been set. No data are available for prior years as there was no requirement at that time.
The performance of Government Departments in paying invoices continues to be measured against the Public Sector Payment Policy, which set a target of payment within 30 days in line with the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. The Act states that suppliers who are not paid within 30 days of the receipt of the invoice by the party billed are entitled to claim interest on the delayed payment. The Act makes no distinction between small and medium-sized businesses and other suppliers.
The Department has configured its systems to enable its performance to be measured against both the 30-day and 10-day targets from November 2008 for all suppliers, regardless of size. The first formal data collection is being co-ordinated across Government by BERR based on November statistics. 98.02 per cent. of payments made by the Department in November were made within 10 working days of receipt of the invoice.
Depressive Illnesses
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of people with mild or moderate depression in (a) East Devon, (b) the South West region and (c) England. [242256]
Phil Hope: This information is not held centrally.
Information is not collected centrally about diagnoses for any condition in primary care, so reliable data are not available about the number of people with mild or moderate depression. However, an Office of National Statistics survey recently found that one sixth of the population suffers from a common mental health problem at any one time.
Depressive Illnesses: Hertfordshire
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of people with mild or moderate depression in (a) Hemel Hempstead and (b) Hertfordshire. [242679]
Phil Hope: The information requested is not held centrally.
Most people with depression are seen and treated in primary care. However, data on the number of people with individual conditions seen in primary care—such
as depression—are not held centrally. While data are available on the total number of people admitted to the care of a consultant in secondary care with depression, they are likely to exclude many patients diagnosed with mild to moderate depression.
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost of prescribing anti-depressant drugs in (a) Hemel Hempstead and (b) Hertfordshire was in the last year for which figures are available. [242680]
Dawn Primarolo: The British National Formulary (BNF) classifies anti-depressant drugs within Section 4.3. The following table shows the net ingredient cost for drugs within this section that have been prescribed in West Hertfordshire primary care trust (PCT), which covers Hemel Hempstead, and in West Hertfordshire PCT and East and North Hertfordshire PCT combined, which cover Hertfordshire.
| Net ingredient cost of anti-depressant drugs (BNF Section 4.3) in 2007-08 | |
| Area | Net ingredient cost (£) |
| Source: Prescribing Analysis and Cost Tool (ePACT) | |
Depressive Illnesses: Medical Treatments
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department has taken to ensure that primary care trusts in the South West comply with National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommendations on computerised cognitive behavioural therapy for mild and moderate depression; what estimate his Department has made of levels of compliance in the South West; and if he will make a statement. [242073]
Dawn Primarolo: Primary care trusts (PCTs) are obliged to provide funding for National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)-recommended computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (cCBT) packages where clinicians want to use them, but the Department of Health is not in a position to ring-fence funds specifically for cCBT because decisions about funding local services are made by local commissioners based on local needs assessments.
NICE technology appraisals (TA) are mandatory: if a clinician prescribes a product named in a TA, the PCT concerned has to make it available. Consequently, the Department recognises the important contribution that the effective provision of cCBT will make in supporting the NHS to implement the NICE guidelines and deliver effective treatment for people with depression and anxiety disorders. This is the core aim of the Department's Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme.
The Department is investing significantly in the IAPT programme with annual funding rising to £173 million in the third year (2010-11), to train 3,600 extra therapists and treat 900,000 more people in those three years.
This programme is relieving distress and transforming lives by offering effective intervention and treatment choice to people with depression and anxiety disorders and improving the collection, recording and measuring of patients' health outcomes, producing data that allow further research.
25 organisations—psychological therapies professional bodies and the leading mental health charities—have signed up to the New Savoy Declaration, congratulating the Government on investing in the IAPT programme and pledging their support. CBT has the strongest evidence base and the greatest shortage of fully trained therapists, so we are addressing this shortage first. IAPT services will offer all NICE-approved therapies, including guided self-help, counselling, cCBT, behavioural activation and exercise.
cCBT is recommended by the NICE technology appraisal TA097, and the directions on NICE appraisals impose an obligation on PCTs to ensure that cCBT is “normally available” to be prescribed or supplied and administered to patients.
The Department has taken steps to support the implementation of cCBT. This has included the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA) National Framework Agreement (March 2007) providing procurement advice to the national health service, publishing the cCBT Commissioning Guide (March 2007) which provided implementation advice to PCTs and the IAPT Commissioning Toolkit (April 2008) recommending the delivery of cCBT as an integral component of the IAPT model of care.
cCBT is integral to the IAPT model of care which seeks to enable the NHS to implement the full range of NICE guidelines for effective treatment of people with depression and anxiety disorders.
The Department's position is that while it continues to recognise the benefit of using cCBT to implement evidence-based psychological therapy services and it has acted to support the NHS in delivery, the level of uptake of cCBT is ultimately the decision of the local clinicians and NHS commissioners based on their assessment of the needs of their local populations.
Diabetes: Children
Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children between the ages of (a) five and seven, (b) eight and 12 and (c) 13 and 16 years in (i) North Wiltshire and (ii) London have type 1 diabetes. [243779]
Ann Keen: The information requested is not held centrally. However, estimates suggest there are an estimated 20,000 children with diabetes in England (the vast majority Type 1 diabetes) and some experts suggest that there may also be up to 1,000 children with type 2 diabetes in England.
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children aged 16 years old and under have diabetes in England; and if he will make a statement. [244168]
Ann Keen:
Data for the number of children of school age diagnosed with diabetes are not available. However, estimates suggest there are some 20,000 children with
diabetes in England (the vast majority type 1 diabetes), and some experts suggest that there may be up to 1,000 children with type 2 diabetes in England.
Diabetes: Research
Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been spent by his Department in each of the last five years on research into type 1 diabetes. [243780]
Ann Keen: The available information is shown in the following table.
| All diabetes research | ||
| £ million | ||
| Department | Medical Research Council | |
Over the last 10 years, the main part of the Department's total expenditure on health research has been devolved to and managed by national health service organisations. Those organisations have since 2001 accounted for their use of the research and development allocations received from the Department in an annual report. The reports do not separately identify the cost of research concerned specifically with type 1 diabetes.
Departmental expenditure from 2006-07 includes the costs of the National Institute for Health Research diabetes clinical research network formed in May 2006.
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