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29 Jan 2009 : Column 757W—continued
Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust: Hospital Beds
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many beds there were in the Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust area in (a) May 1997 and (b) the latest date for which figures are available. [252593]
Ann Keen: Information is not available in the format requested. Information on beds data is collected annually via the KH03 return collecting the total available bed-days by trust. The following numbers are the calculated average daily bed number at the Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust.
1997-98: 911 beds (open overnight and day only beds)
2007-08: 786 beds (open overnight and day only beds)
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what proportion of beds in the Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust area were in mixed sex wards in (a) 1997 and (b) the latest period for which figures are available; [252594]
(2) how many beds in the Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust area were in mixed sex wards in (a) May 1997 and (b) the latest period for which figures are available. [252595]
Ann Keen: Information about the number/proportion of beds that are in mixed sex wards is not collected centrally. However, the Healthcare Commission’s annual national in-patient survey does provide data relating to mixed sex accommodation. For Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust, the survey shows that in 2007(1), 36.8 per cent. of respondents reported sharing their sleeping area with a patient of the opposite sex upon first admission to the hospital.
Our guidance to the national health service has always required single sex accommodation rather than single sex wards. Even within a mixed ward, good single sex accommodation can be achieved by using single rooms or single sex bays and toilet facilities.
On 28 January 2009, the Department announced a six-month programme to eliminate mixed sex accommodation, this includes a £100 million ‘Privacy and Dignity Fund’ to support local improvements and tough financial penalties from 2010-11 for those trusts that do not deliver.
(1) Source:
Healthcare Commission National Inpatient Survey, published May 2008.
NHS: Finance
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the capital budget for the NHS in 2008-09 is; and what proportion of this budget has been spent to date; [252330]
(2) how many (a) private finance initiative, (b) public capital project and (c) local improvement finance trust schemes were in operation at the latest date for which figures are available; how many such schemes were subject to delays; and for how long the completion date of each such scheme has been put back; [252510]
(3) what capital expenditure his Department is planning to bring forward; [252511]
(4) what he expects the capital budget for the NHS to be in 2009-10; and what proportion of it he expects to be underspent. [252512]
Mr. Bradshaw: Under this Government 76 private finance initiative funded schemes (with capital value over £10 million); 225 public capital projects over £1 million using the Procure 21 Framework agreement have opened; and 196 local improvement finance trust facilities have opened. Detailed records on schemes below these capital cost thresholds and other public capital funded schemes are not held centrally. Information on delays which occurred on these schemes and the impact on their project timetables is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
The Government announced in their pre-Budget report (24 November 2008) that as part of the £3 billion fiscal stimulus package the Department would bring forward £100 million of capital spending to advance the upgrading of up to 600 general practitioner surgeries to advanced training practices. This spending is being brought forward from financial year 2010-11 to 2009-10.
The Department will have £5.6 billion of public capital resources in 2009-10. This funding is fully committed albeit based on plans that are still being finalised.
The 2008-09 capital departmental expenditure limit for the Department is £4.7 billion. This funding is fully committed against national and local national health service capital spending programmes. The latest forecast outturn suggests that the great majority of available capital resources will be spent in 2008-09.
Patient Choice Schemes
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the merits of reducing the scope of Choose and Book to operate only as an electronic booking service. [252283]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department has not considered and has no plans to reduce the scope of choose and book.
The choose and book system has been designed to support patients and general practitioners. It is a big step towards giving patients greater involvement in the decisions about their treatment and is a tool to support patient choice—helping them shape for themselves the services that are on offer. It also helps general practitioners (GPs) navigate through the increasing array of choices that national health service patients can make.
“The NHS Constitution” published on 21 January 2009, gives patients the right to make choices about their NHS care and to information to support these choices. A copy has already been placed in the Library. Primary care trusts must ensure that choices are available and the necessary systems are in place to offer and support choice and to enable booked appointments to be made.
Pharmacy
Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to encourage the use of medicine use reviews to meet local health priorities. [250932]
Phil Hope: There is provision within the Pharmaceutical Services (Advanced and Enhanced Services) (England) Directions 2005 to allow primary care trusts to notify pharmacists in their area of the categories of patients who would benefit from the provision of Medicines Use Review (MUR) services. The pharmacist should consider this in determining who to offer the service to.
Further, the White Paper ‘Pharmacy in England: Building on strengths—delivering the future’ makes clear we are concerned that the provision of MUR services is currently geared to rewarding the volume of MURs undertaken. We believe it is necessary for MUR services to be prioritised to meet health needs. NHS Employers (NHSE) and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) have discussed a mechanism for delivering this objective and ensuring funding rewards health outcomes. NHSE and PSNC have now presented their proposals to the Department, which are being considered.
Teenage Pregnancy
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how he plans to assess the value for money of the £26 million allocated to primary care trusts for programmes to reduce teenage pregnancies; [251784]
(2) how the £26 million allocated to primary care trusts (PCTs) for programmes to reduce teenage pregnancies has been spent by each PCT; and what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the expenditure. [251786]
Dawn Primarolo: A total of £26.8 million has been allocated this year to strategic health authorities (SHAs) and primary care trusts (PCTs) to improve women’s knowledge of, and access to the full range of contraception, to help reduce the number of teenage pregnancies and abortions.
It is for SHAs and PCTs to determine how to use this funding most effectively to meet the needs of their local populations. However, departmental officials are working with SHAs to provide advice and spread good practice. Priority areas include encouraging innovation and ensuring equitable access to all methods of contraception including long acting reversible (LARC) methods. Guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) highlighted that the National Health Service could save around £100 million through reducing unintended pregnancies if women switched to LARC.
The South West Public Health Observatory is developing a balanced score card for sexual health which will monitor a range of indicators at PCT, SHA and national level. This will be available during 2009 and the first phase will focus on outcomes for young people.
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Arms Trade
Mr. Fallon: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what was the total value of military equipment supplied by the UK to (a) Israel and (b) Palestine in 2007-08. [249672]
Mr. Thomas [holding answer 20 January 2009]: HM Revenue and Customs’ Overseas Trade Statistics do not provide a complete identification of defence equipment. For Standard International Trade Classification division 98 (military weapons and accessories), they record UK exports to Israel worth £77,000 in 2007 and £1,445,000 in the first 10 months of 2008, and UK imports from Israel worth £607,000 and £1,947,000 respectively. There was no recorded UK trade in SITC division 98 with the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Departmental Pay
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform 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. [248405]
Mr. McFadden: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 14 January 2009, Official Report, column 757W.
Furniture: Safety
Mrs. Moon: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many items of unsafe furniture have been seized by scambuster teams since 2005. [251169]
Mr. Thomas: Since 2005 Trading Standards scambuster teams have been involved in two operations involving unsafe furniture. To date, the majority of the scambuster investigations have been in relation to doorstep selling and rogue traders providing home improvement products.
The north-east team seized 161 pieces of furniture in a warehouse raid. After testing, all 161 items were found to be in compliance with the Furniture and Furnishing (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1998.
The scambuster team covering the south-east region investigated a rogue trader selling furniture door to door. Seven of the nine items of furniture seized failed to comply with the regulations.
Mrs. Moon: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much the scambusters programme has spent in each year since 2005, broken down by category of expenditure. [251170]
Mr. Thomas:
£1.8 million of funding was allocated for the pilot phase of the project. Scambusters teams were piloted in three areas; the North East, Central England and across the South East, London and East of England. In June 2008 the Government announced that £7.5 million of funding was available over three years for specialist trading standards scambuster teams
throughout Great Britain. During the course of this year, five new scambuster teams have become operational. The final team in the North West will be operational from April 2009.
Since 2005, the scambuster initiative has spent the following:
| Pilot stage | |||||
| £ | |||||
| Salaries | Marketing | Running costs( 1) | Legal | Total | |
| (1) Running costs will cover training, accommodation, office equipment, travel. | |||||
| Roll out | |||||
| £ | |||||
| Salaries | Marketing | Running costs | Legal | Total | |
| (1) Figures as of December 2008. | |||||
Mining: Bangladesh
Lynne Jones: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what support his Department is providing to the proposal by the UK company Global Coal Management Resources plc for an opencast mine at Phulbari in Bangladesh. [248925]
Mr. Thomas: Global Coal Management Resources plc is in contact with officials within the British high commission, Dhaka with respect to their proposed project in Bangladesh. As a UK company they are entitled to support. This support ensures that the company are aware of legislative issues that may have implications for their business in Bangladesh. Officials will remain in contact with the company and the Government of Bangladesh and respond to specific requests for assistance in accordance with Government policy.
Newspapers: Regulation
Richard Ottaway: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform whether (a) he and (b) the Office of Fair Trading plans to make an assessment of the implications for the regulatory matters for which each is responsible of the change in ownership of the London Evening Standard. [250941]
Mr. Thomas: We understand the Office of Fair Trading does not propose to examine this transaction on competition grounds. My right hon. and noble Friend the Secretary of State has no plans to issue an intervention notice to require an investigation on public interest grounds. There is no indication that the purchase may be expected to result in inaccurate presentation of news or a loss of plurality of views in newspapers.
Regional Development Agencies: Trade Unions
Mr. Maude: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much funding each of the regional development agencies has given to trades union bodies in the last 12 months; and what the purpose of such funding was. [250594]
Mr. McFadden: RDAs fund initiatives through a variety of third party organisations to deliver projects to increase economic growth, such as on workforce development and economic inclusion. The specific focus and priorities of such activities are set out in each region’s Regional Economic Strategy.
The following funding has been provided by RDAs to trade unions as requested in the question.
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