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26 Jan 2009 : Column 223W—continued

Dentistry: Education

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many students (a) started and (b) graduated from dentistry courses in England in each year since 1997. [250160]

Ann Keen: Information for ‘home fee’ students is provided in the following table.

Academic year Admissions Dental graduates

1996-97

685

504

1997-98

631

542

1998-99

603

563

1999-2000

600

554

2000-01

623

591

2001-02

626

566

2002-03

665

524

2003-04

672

548

2004-05

674

565

2005-06

848

560

2006-07

854

593

2007-08

888

656


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Departmental Data Protection

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many members of staff in his Department have been (a) investigated, (b) suspended and (c) dismissed for losing (i) memory sticks, (ii) laptop computers, (iii) desktop computers and (iv) mobile telephones belonging to his Department in each year since 1997. [248247]

Mr. Bradshaw: In the past two years, no member of the Department’s staff has been investigated, suspended or dismissed for losing departmental information technology 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.

The Department has strict rules on data protection and security of its assets which the Department is expected to adhere to. Its policy and procedures are constantly reviewed and cases of losses or thefts are investigated. All mobile equipment reported as lost or stolen is registered on the police mobile equipment national database to aid recovery.

Security cables have been purchased and supplied to mobile workers to secure valuable portable assets to furniture where practicable to reduce risks. The Department marks its portable equipment with an invisible forensic dye called Smartwater. The Department’s security and assurance unit continues to raise security awareness and physical protection of IT equipment among its staff.

Mobile phones and Blackberrys are deactivated centrally if reported lost or stolen.

Disciplinary action where staff are in breach of the Department’s rules for data protection and security of its assets (including negligent loss of equipment) are as follows:

Departmental Pay

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy that temporary and permanent employees of his Department employed at the same grade receive the same hourly rate of pay. [248413]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Department does not employ any permanent staff paid at an hourly rate. Since July 2008 temporary clerical and administrative workers are supplied from agencies to the Department under the Home Office Framework. The supplying agencies are selected by fair competition on the basis of value for money. The Department contracts with the supplying agencies and not their temporary employees.


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The Department cannot interfere in the commercial relationship between an agency and its employee and so cannot ensure parity in the rates paid by the agency to its employee as compared with the Department's own employees.

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been spent by his Department on staff reward and recognition schemes in each of the last three years. [248710]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Department operates a Long Service Award scheme—a reward of either a monetary nature or special leave, which is given to staff in recognition of having served for more than 20 years. The figures available for the monetary payments are presented as follows. The information about leave taken instead of payment is not held centrally and would incur disproportional cost to establish.

Period covered £ Number

2006-07

3,200.00

16

2007-08

3,000.00

15

2008-09 to December

2,200.00

10

Total

8,400.00

41


Departmental Written Questions

Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on how many occasions in the last 12 months Ministers in his Department have used their discretion to rule that a parliamentary question for written answer should be answered because it would be in the public interest to do so, even though to do so would exceed the disproportionate cost threshold of £700. [249141]

Mr. Bradshaw: Separate records of these occasions are not kept.

Eyesight: Testing

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the proportion of privately-funded eye examinations paid for by an individual's employer. [250755]

Ann Keen: The General Ophthalmic Services Activity Statistics for England and Wales for the year ending March 2008, published by the Information Centre, estimated that of the 16 million sight tests undertaken during 2007-08 5 million of these were privately funded sight tests. The Department does not collect statistics on privately funded sight tests and as a consequence has made no estimate of the proportion of those funded by employers.

Food: Research

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many public food analyst laboratories his Department operated in (a) 2006, (b) 2007 and (c) 2008. [250822]

Dawn Primarolo: The Department does not operate public analyst laboratories.


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As central competent authority for food safety and standards, the Food Standards Agency has a responsibility to ensure United Kingdom food control bodies have access to analytical services to enable them to carry out statutory functions. Statutory provisions require local authorities to appoint a ‘public analyst’. These public analysts operate independently and are not part of central Government. Information on these appointments is not held centrally. However at the end of 2008 there were 21 public analysts laboratories in the UK, 22 at the end of 2007, and 23 at the end of 2006.

General Practitioners

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information (a) his Department and (b) NHS agencies collect on the number of patients not registered with a GP. [249507]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Department collects figures on the numbers of patients registered with general practitioner (GP) practices. Information on the number of patients not registered with a GP is derived from periodic survey of the population as no data are collected routinely on those people who are not registered with a GP.

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the GP patient survey has cost in each year since its inception; how much it is costing this year; how many surveys were sent out in each year and how many responses were received; if he will list the new (a) questions and (b) answer options which were added this year; and who chooses the questions. [249785]

Mr. Bradshaw: Budgets for the GP patient survey project were £11 million in 2006-07, £10 million in 2007-08 and £8 million for 2008-09. It is not appropriate to provide costs paid to the survey provider, Ipsos Mori, as that is commercially sensitive information.

The number of surveys issued to patients in each year and the number of responses received are provided in the following table.

GP patient survey Number sent out Number of responses

2006-07

Access

5.2 million

2.3 million

Hospital Choice

2.0 million

267,440

2007-08

Access

4.9 million

2.0 million

Hospital Choice

2.0 million

283,400

2008-09

New

5.7 million

(1)

(1 )Not yet available.

A sample copy of the 2008-09 questionnaire has been placed in the Library. All questions and answers listed here are new with the exception of key demographic questions 37, 38, 39, 44, 46 and 47.

Questions have been developed and chosen through a systematic review process undertaken by a Joint Review Group comprising independent primary care research experts, independent survey experts and officials from the Department. This process also included engagement with a range of stakeholder representatives.


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Genito-Urinary Medicine

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of people who were unable to obtain an appointment at a genito-urinary medicine clinic on the day they presented at the clinic in the last 12 months. [250168]

Dawn Primarolo: No such estimate has been made.

Data on access to genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics are collected on the number of people seen within two normal working days and the number of people offered an appointment within two normal working days. Data for November 2008 shows that 86.6 per cent. of people were seen within two working days and 99.7 per cent. were offered an appointment within two working days. This compares with 80.6 per cent. of people seen within two working days and 92.7 per cent. offered an appointment within two working days in November 2007.

Health Services: Elderly

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many elderly people have received services under the quality care and support system in (a) Hemel Hempstead and (b) Hertfordshire in each of the last five years. [250555]

Phil Hope: Information about the number of elderly people who have received services under the quality care and support system in Hemel Hempstead in each of the last five years is not available.

However, the NHS Information Centre for health and social care collects and publishes information on the number of people receiving local authority funded social care in a domiciliary or residential setting in England. Information is collected from Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (CASSRs). Data are not collected centrally at constituency level.

The following table shows the number of individuals in Hertfordshire aged 65 and over who received domiciliary or residential care funded wholly or in part by councils with adult social services responsibilities as at 31 March of each year.


26 Jan 2009 : Column 228W
Number of people aged 65 and over receiving care funded wholly or in part by councils with adult social services responsibilities as at 31 March, England
Hertfordshire (rounded numbers)

2004

Domiciliary care

(1)

Residential care(2,)( )(3,)( )(4,)( )(5)

4,035

2005

Domiciliary care

9,900

Residential care(2,)( )(3,)( )(4,)( )(5)

3,950

2006

Domiciliary care

8,840

Residential care(2,)( )(3,)( )(4,)( )(5)

3,480

2007

Domiciliary care

11,535

Residential care(2,)( )(3,)( )(4,)( )(5)

3,505

2008(6)

Domiciliary care

13,015

Residential care(2,)( )(3,)( )(4,)( )(5)

3,520

(1) Not available. Data for 31 March 2004 are not comparable to future years as guidance was restated for the 2004-05 collection.
(2) Data include clients formerly in receipt of preserved rights.
(3) Data include Boyd loophole residents.
(4) Includes nursing care.
(5) Excludes other, unstaffed homes and adult placements.
(6) Data for 2007-08 are provisional.
Source:
RAP from P2s and SR1 form Table S4.

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