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12 Jan 2009 : Column 173W—continued
Publication of contractor event of default notices would or would be likely to cause prejudice to the commercial interests of the providers concerned. It would also potentially compromise the Department's position in any possible future formal contractual disputes, which in turn would or would be likely to cause prejudice to the commercial interests of the Department.
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to the answer of 24 November 2008, Official Report, column 930W, on NHS: information and communications technology, how many one-off payments have been made. [246033]
Mr. Bradshaw: The total number of payments relating to deployments made to local service providers (LSPs) since the inception of the contracts is 107. This includes a number of forward payments, a proportion of which have subsequently been depleted in recognition of successful deployments.
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to the answer of 24 November 2008, Official Report, column 930W, on NHS: information and communications technology, (1) what payments have been made to aid with suppliers' capital costs under Connecting for Health and the London Programme for IT; [246034]
(2) what payments have been made in advance to aid with Fujitsu's capital costs; and what mechanism there is for recouping those payments in the case of work not completed. [246035]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is in the following table.
| Contract | Total forward payments (£ million) |
Forward payments are repayable on demand in the event of non-delivery.
NHS: Standards
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made in developing a series of practical human rights tools to improve service planning and delivery in the NHS; and if he will make a statement. [245758]
Phil Hope: The Department has a programme of work on human rights that has resulted in the publication of ‘Human Rights in Healthcare—A framework for local action’, launched on 7 October 2008. The framework, a copy of which has been placed in the Library, contains guidance for national health service organisations on promoting human rights in their work, and includes a CD-Rom containing practical tools developed by five NHS trusts who have been piloting human rights based approaches in health care. These tools are also available on the Department of Health website, together with an independent evaluation of this work by Ipsos MORI. A copy of the evaluation has been placed in the Library.
NHS: Waiting Lists
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people were on waiting lists for NHS treatment in (a) England, (b) the North East, (c) Tees Valley district and (d) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency in each year since 1997. [244897]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information is not available in the format requested. However, the following table shows information on the total commissioner based inpatient waiting list from 1997 to present.
| Middlesbrough Primary Care Trust (PCT) | Redcar and Cleveland PCT | Stockton PCT | Hartlepool PCT | Tees Health Authority (HA) area | North East Strategic Health Authority area | England | |
| Notes: 1. In-patient waiting times are measured from decision to admit by the consultant to admission to hospital. 2. Figures only available by PCT and HA. 3. Figures for Tees HA from 2003 are the sum of the PCTS in existence at that time. 4. PCT boundary changes in October 2006 affects figures for Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland PCTs. Source: Department of Health Quarterly Waiting List Collection QF01 and MMRCOM. | |||||||
Obesity: East Riding
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number and percentage of children under the age of 16 who are clinically obese in the East Riding of Yorkshire PCT area; and if he will make a statement. [244781]
Dawn Primarolo: The information is not available in the format requested. Prevalence data on obesity by primary care trust (PCT) are only available for children in two school years. The number of children who are obese is not available.
Information on the proportion of children that are obese in the East Riding of Yorkshire PCT is collected through the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP). The NCMP report provides high-level analysis of the prevalence of obese children, in reception year (aged four to five years) and year six (aged 10 to 11 years), measured in England in the school year 2007-08.
This information is available in the “National Child Measurement Programme 2007/08 school year headline results”, which was published on 11 December 2008. The prevalence of obese children at PCT level can be found in annex 1: Detailed tables, Table A (pages 31-32). A copy of this publication has already been placed in the Library.
Offenders
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many former prisoners are employed by his Department; and what his Department’s policy is on employing former prisoners. [246344]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department does not hold figures on the number of former prisoners it employs.
It is departmental policy to not automatically exclude an individual from applying for a post if he or she has a previous conviction. In common with other Government Departments the Department applies the Cabinet Office’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard. That Standard includes a check on Criminal Record Declaration of ‘unspent convictions’ by the applicant. The Department’s Human Resources division then decide on a case-by-case basis, making a judgment based on that conviction and the post applied for, and considering whether there would be any conflicts of interest in employing that individual.
The Department would usually not know about any ‘spent’ convictions under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. When a member of staff needs to be security cleared under National Security Vetting procedures, a part of that procedure is a Criminal Record Declaration of all previous convictions. These declarations are checked by the Department’s Security Vetting Team against police records who then make a decision whether to grant security clearance.
Organogram
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library a copy of his Department's administrative organogram. [243837]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information available has been placed in the Library.
Pacesetters Programme
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many strategic health authorities are taking part in the Pacesetters programme. [245761]
Dawn Primarolo: To date, six strategic health authorities (SHAs), and six trusts in each of their areas, are currently participating in the Pacesetters programme. The SHAs are: East Midlands, London, South East Coast, South West, West Midlands, and Yorkshire and the Humber.
Partnership for Patients Programme
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made on the Partnership for Patients Programme; and if he will make a statement. [245738]
Mr. Bradshaw: National health service primary care trusts are working with local libraries as part of the Partnership for Patients Programme to help support patients in using information to make their choices when they are referred to hospital. Following successful pilots, librarians are now being trained, via e-learning, as information providers who can help patients access choice information from NHS Choices and make their hospital booking through Choose and Book.
The Partnership for Patients Programme is one of the levers the Department recommends primary care trusts use to make their local population aware of the range of choices open to them, currently around 500 of a possible 3,044 public libraries are currently offering this support. The 10 national health service strategic health authorities are now leading the implementation of the library project at a local level.
Patient Choice Schemes
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the Choose and Book system is now operational throughout England. [245740]
Mr. Bradshaw: All national health service hospitals are now using Choose and Book, along with 93 per cent. of general practitioner (GP) practices in England. There are now up to 28,000 bookings taking place every day, and 107,000 referrals every week. Over 10 million referrals having been made using the system.
Choose and Book continues to become the everyday method of referral across the national health service. Around half of all GP referrals to first consultant out-patient appointments are going through Choose and Book, and the number of referrals to other services, including community based services and allied health professionals are increasing steadily.
Choose and Book is easy and convenient to use, and over the last 12 months the national system has been available for use over 99 per cent. of the time.
Pharmacy
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has had on proposals in the Pharmacy White Paper; and if he will make a statement. [245756]
Phil Hope: We are currently analysing responses to the consultation “Pharmacy in England: Building on strengths - delivering the future - proposals for legislative reform” which ended on 20 November 2008 and will make further announcements in due course. However, in respect of the consultation proposals to amend the criteria for dispensing by doctors, I refer the hon. Member to the oral answer given to the hon. Member for Bassetlaw (John Mann) on 16 December 2008, Official Report, column 952.
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