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12 Jan 2009 : Column 139W—continued
Departmental Freedom of Information
Mr. Amess:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 have been made to his
Department since 2005; how many such requests were (a) agreed to and (b) refused in each of those years; how many refusals were subject to appeal to the Information Commissioner in each of those years; how many appeals were successful; if he will place in the Library copies of the material subsequently provided in each case; how much was spent by his Department opposing each appeal; which (i) consultants and (ii) law firms were employed by his Department in connection with each appeal; and if he will make a statement. [245078]
Mr. Bradshaw: The following table provides a breakdown of the number of requests under the Freedom of Information Act to the Department since 2005; requests agreed to and refused in each of those years; how many refusals were subject to appeal to the Information Commissioner in each year; and how many appeals were successful. A copy of the material provided in each successful appeal to the Information Commissioner has been placed in the Library.
Legal advice on Information Commissioner appeals is provided to the Department by Department of Health Legal Services, which is part of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Legal Group. Department of Health Legal Services provides a full range of legal services to the Department of Health including arranging representation in court. The Department has not directly employed consultants or separate law firms in connection with any Information Commissioner appeals. Elements of the Department employ law firms during the course of their business and, as such, may contribute to the Department's handling of ICO appeals. The Department of Health's Connecting for Health and Commercial Directorate use separate lawyers. To extract the component regarding appeals can be achieved only at a disproportionate cost.
| Table 1: Freedom of Information Act requests to the Department of Health from Quarter 1 2005 to Quarter 2 2008; requests agreed to and refused in each of those years; how many refusals subject to appeal to Information Commissioner in each year; how many appeals were successful; costs for Department of Health opposing each appeal | |||||
| Total FOI requests | Agreed | Refused( 1 (table 3)) | ICO appeals( (table 7)) | Successful appeals( 2) | |
| (1) Includes partially and fully withheld. (2) Includes upheld in full/upheld in part. (3) Quarters 1 and 2 only. (4) Includes granted in full/partially upheld. (5) To be published in the Ministry of Justice annual report expected in June 2009. Note: Data extracted from Annual and Quarterly statistics published by the Ministry of Justice (formerly Department for Constitutional Affairs). | |||||
Departmental Marketing
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many complaints about advertisements sponsored or funded by his Department were made to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in each year from 1997 to 2008; and how many of these were upheld by the ASA in each year. [246651]
Mr. Bradshaw: Information on the number of complaints made about departmental advertising to the Advertising Standards Authority is not kept centrally and to gather the information would incur a disproportionate cost.
Departmental Official Hospitality
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been spent on (a) departmental Christmas parties and (b) staff entertainment in the last three years. [243738]
Mr. Bradshaw: Under the Department's Code of Business Conduct, public money must not be used to fund occasions such as social gatherings, retirement or office parties.
Departmental Public Consultation
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on which occasions his Department has convened a citizens' jury or randomly drawn panel of people to aid the Department's policy making since 2000; whether the participants were paid in each case; and if he will make a statement. [243047]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department recognises the important contribution that the public can make in developing policy and carry out a wide range of activities which allow Ministers and officials to listen to and understand the views of the public and stakeholders in developing policy.
Data from 2000 on the number of citizens' juries and consultation with a random panel of people to aid decision-making by the Department is not readily available. Supplying the occurrences of citizens' juries and deliberative consultations would require a substantive investigation into all public engagement programmes undertaken by various divisions within the Department at a disproportionate cost.
However, we can identify some of the recent major occasions that the Department has convened citizens' juries or consulted random panels of people who were paid since 2000. These include:
Potential impact of opt-out system for Organ Donation (2008)
Review into the Consequences of Additional Private Drugs for the NHS (2008)
NHS Next Stage Review—led by Lord Darzi (2007-08)
Primary and Community Care Review (2008)
Carer's Strategy Consultation (2007-08)
Your health, your care, your say (2005)
Choosing Health (2004).
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been spent on banner stands bearing his image and title since his appointment; and how many such stands have been procured. [246857]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department has not spent any monies on procuring or designing banner stands bearing the Secretary of State’s image and title since his appointment.
Departmental Redundancy
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff in his Department left under (a) involuntary and (b) voluntary staff exit schemes in each year since 2005-06; how many of them in each case were paid (i) up to £25,000, (ii) £25,001 to £50,000, (iii) £50,001 to £75,000, (iv) £75,001 to £100,000 and (v) over £100,000 in the year before they left; and how much (A) was spent in each of those years and (B) is planned to be spent on such schemes in (1) 2008-09 and (2) 2009-10 by (y) his Department and (z) each of his Department's agencies. [242255]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information is not available in the form that has been requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Senior Civil Servants
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what remuneration packages senior civil servants in his Department receive; and what benefits in kind each has received in the last 12 months. [245982]
Mr. Bradshaw: Details of the remuneration packages for the Department's Directors-General are shown in the Remuneration Report part of 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 can be accessed at:
The Department Resource Accounts for financial year 2008-09 will be laid before Parliament in 2009 and placed in the Library, in line with standard procedures.
Departmental Telephone Services
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many telephone numbers for which callers are charged at the rate applicable to 0845 numbers are used by (a) his Department and (b) its executive agencies for public access to services. [246973]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department runs or supports six 0845 telephone numbers for use by the public.
Two of these numbers, those serving recruitment for social care and social workers, will be moved over to the new 0300 tariff by the end of February. The use of 0845 numbers for the other four lines is currently under review.
The Department’s Executive agencies, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency have no 0845 or similar cost telephone numbers for use by the public.
Diabetes: Bexley
Mr. Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children under the age of 16 had (a) type one and (b) type two diabetes in the Bexley Primary Care Trust area in the most recent year for which figures are available. [244753]
Ann Keen: Data for the number of children of school age diagnosed with diabetes are not available. 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.
Domestic Violence: Ethnic Groups
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on what date his Department's report on developing effective responses for Asian women experiencing domestic violence was published. [245750]
Phil Hope: The report ‘Effective mental health responses for Asian women experiencing domestic Violence’ will be published early in 2009.
Down’s Syndrome: Research
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department has spent on research into Down's syndrome in each of the last five years. [245856]
Phil Hope: The available information is shown in the following table.
| £000 | ||
| Department of Health | Medical Research Council | |
The Departmental figures relate to national research programme expenditure. They do not include the significant expenditure on Down's syndrome research from the research and development allocations that have over the last 10 years been made annually to national health service providers. That information is not held centrally.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) is one of the main agencies through which the Government support biomedical research. The MRC is an independent body funded by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
Drugs: Coastal Areas
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his most recent estimate is of the number of drug and alcohol support personnel employed in each of the principal seaside towns of England. [245006]
Dawn Primarolo: Information on the number of people employed in drug and/or alcohol treatment services is not collected centrally.
Eating Disorders: Internet
Mark Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent meetings his Department has had with internet service providers regarding websites which are pro-anorexia or pro-bulimia. [245489]
Ann Keen: The Department has had no meetings with internet service providers about pro-anorexia or pro-bulimia websites.
The Government are concerned about the risks posed by websites which encourage anorexia or bulimia. We continue to explore a variety of courses of action. For example, we have worked with a media agency which offered their expertise pro bono to run advertisements directing youngsters to more appropriate sites.
Mark Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent steps his Department has taken to promote awareness among parents of the dangers of pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia websites. [246089]
Ann Keen: Responsibility for the regulation of the internet rests with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
The Government are concerned about the risks posed by websites which encourage anorexia or bulimia. However, these sites are not in themselves illegal, and may be hosted by internet service providers based overseas, so the Government are normally unable to take legal action against them.
Elderly: Abuse
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 11 December 2008, Official Report, column 229W, on elderly: abuse, what each of the 15 reports of serious case reviews was; and what account was taken of them in the drafting of the consultation document. [245234]
Phil Hope: Of the 15 reports analysed for the draft research study on serious case reviews, to be published this winter, 10 involved a fatality and evidence of neglect or abuse (whether or not such neglect or abuse was clearly causative of death). The remainder involved either sexual assault, or institutional abuse. Of the 15 reports, seven of the cases involved neglect or abuse taking place at the service user's home.
The development of the consultation document involved consideration of a wide range of information and views from a wide range of key stakeholders. The information from the draft research report on serious case reviews provided useful information to help formulate the questions asked in the consultation document about serious case reviews.
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