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5 May 2009 : Column 109W—continued
NHS: Pensions
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the administration costs of the NHS Pension scheme were in each of the last 10 years. [272667]
Ann Keen: The information is shown in the following table.
| Year ending 31 March | Administration costs ( £ million ) |
| Note: In 2004, the Student Grants Unit (SGU) merged with NHS Pensions to become one strategic health authority, and the SGU admin costs are included in the figures for years ending 2005 and 2006. The SGU was then separated out again once NHS Pensions became part of the NHS Business Services Authority. Source: NHS Pensions | |
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS staff started claiming their pension from the NHS Pension scheme before the scheme's normal retirement age in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [272668]
Ann Keen: The information available is shown in the following table.
| Retirements of Active NHS Pension scheme members | |||||
| Year ending 31 March | Age | Ill-health | Redundancy | Agreed voluntary early retirement (AVER) | Voluntary early retirement (VER) |
| Note: Data on AVER and VER was not collected separately until the year ending 2006 Source: NHS Pensions | |||||
NHS: Redundancy
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time NHS staff have been made redundant in each of the last 10 years. [272669]
Ann Keen: The information requested is not available for the period or the form requested. Numbers of compulsory redundancies have been collected since 2006-07. In 2006-07 there were 2,330 redundancies and in 2007-08 there were 2,223.
Information on the numbers of staff who were granted an early retirement pension on the grounds of redundancy is shown in the following table.
| Year ending 31 March | Numbers of redundancy retirements |
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the policy of the NHS on the size of redundancy payments is; and if he will make a statement. [272670]
Ann Keen: Redundancy payments to NHS staff are made in line with the arrangements set out in section 16 of the Agenda for Change Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook. These came into force from 1 October 2006. At the same time changes were made to the National Health Service (Compensation for Premature Retirement) Regulations 2002 and the NHS Pension Scheme Regulations 1995. These were also negotiated in partnership with the NHS trade unions. Under these arrangements the standard redundancy terms are one months pay per year of reckonable service up to a maximum of 24 months pay. Members aged over the minimum pension age may choose to use their redundancy payment to pay for their retirement pension to be paid on redundancy without reduction. The previous redundancy arrangements involving enhancements of service of up to 10 years are being phased out and will cease to apply completely from October 2011.
Section 16 makes clear that before making staff redundant employers should seek suitable alternative employment either in their own organisation or with another NHS employer.
Nurses: Hertfordshire
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average ratio of nurses to patients was at each hospital in Hertfordshire in each of the last 10 years. [272159]
Ann Keen: The average ratio of nurses to patients at each hospital in Hertfordshire in each of the last 10 years is not held centrally.
Patient Rights
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 12 February 2009, Official Report, column 2186W, on patient rights, what the financial levers will be in the standard contracts from April 2010; and what the measures of and definitions for overriding clinical justification are. [271204]
Ann Keen: Progress is being made to develop the levers that would fit into the current structure of the contracts. The options will be tested prior to final decisions being taken later in the year for implementation in April 2010.
The local national health service, rather than the Department, is best placed to make final decisions about what constitutes a clinical justification of mixed sex accommodation for an individual patient. To assist with such local determination, the Department will shortly be issuing definitional guidance relating to emergency admissions, day treatment, critical care environments, children and young people, as well as services used by transsexual people and gender variant children.
Strokes
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) women and (b) men aged (i) under 30 years, (ii) between 30 and 50 years and (iii) over 50 years (A) were admitted to hospital and (B) died upon having a stroke in each of the last 10 years. [270813]
Ann Keen: The available information is in the following tables and notes.
| Count of finished admission episodes where there was a primary diagnosis of stroke( 1) , by age and sex, 1998-99 to 2007-08: Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector | ||||||||
| Ages 29 and under | Ages 30 to 50 | |||||||
| Male | Female | Not specified | Not known | Male | Female | Not specified | Not known | |
| Ages 51 and over | Unknown age | |||||||
| Male | Female | Not specified | Not known | Male | Female | Not specified | Not known | |
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