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7 May 2009 : Column 335W—continued


Financial year 2008-09

£

Mid Devon District Council

2,021.08

Rother District Council

1,614.50

Chichester District Council

1,309.53

Canterbury City Council

2,508.00

Kent County Council

2,114.50

Bedford Borough Council

1,614.50

Lewes District Council

1,057.25

Ashford Borough Council

1,719.33

Total

13,958.69


The total cost of exceptional funding grants to Travellers in the financial year 2008-09 remains the same as the amount stated in my initial answer, as no further grants were made before the end of the financial year.

The final amounts paid may have varied slightly from the figures aforementioned as the Legal Services Commission can adjust the grant if necessary (for example if the hearing is longer, or shorter, than expected).

Legal Aid: Expenditure

Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department and its predecessor spent on legal aid in (a) England, (b) the South West, (c) Devon and (d) East Devon constituency in each of the last 10 years. [272611]

Mr. Malik: Figures for (a) and (b) are only readily available for the last seven years. These are shown in the following table. Figures for (c) and (d) could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The data come from several databases some of which do not go down to the level of detail requested. Manual extraction of the data would take several days.

£ million

England South West

2001-02

1,628

122

2002-03

1,863

138

2003-04

2,035

146

2004-05

1,978

157

2005-06

1,953

145

2006-07

1,882

135

2007-08

1,929

132

Note:
Small elements of expenditure which cannot be split regionally (e.g. CDS Direct) have been excluded.

7 May 2009 : Column 336W

Legal Aid: Hertfordshire

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department and its predecessor spent on legal aid in (a) Hemel Hempstead and (b) Hertfordshire in each of the last 10 years. [272792]

Mr. Malik: The information requested is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The data come from several databases some of which do not go down to the level of detail requested. Manual extraction of the data would take several days.

Victim Support: Finance

Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much funding from his Department has been allocated to the organisation Victim Support in each of the last five years. [273422]

Maria Eagle: Victim Support has received an annual grant of £30 million from the Ministry of Justice in each of the past five years.

In addition Victim Support received £5.6 million in 2007-8 and £7 million in 2008-9 to finance Victim Support Plus.

Youth Justice

David Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what impact assessment was made of (a) the decision to reduce the number of places contracted for custodial places in local authority secure children’s homes and (b) the allocation of £20 million for development or redevelopment of new young offender institutions for juveniles. [270776]

Beverley Hughes: I have been asked to reply.

The decision to reduce the number of secure children’s home places for which the Youth Justice Board (YJB) contracts was taken following a comprehensive analysis by the YJB of recent data, which showed that the optimum number of secure children’s home places that should be contracted for was 191. The YJB is confident that this number will meet future levels of demand.

The allocation of £20 million of capital provision in 2008-09 for the development or redevelopment of young offender institutions (YOIs) was not directly related to the decision about the award of contracts to secure children’s homes. For the most part, secure children’s homes and YOIs cater for different age groups within the under-18 custodial population. The £20 million has been used by the YJB to develop and improve facilities at a number of YOIs. Capital investment in secure children’s home is the responsibility of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Health

Alcoholic Drinks: Children

Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many under 14 year olds were treated for alcohol-related health problems in each county in the East of England region in the last 12 months. [273244]


7 May 2009 : Column 337W

Dawn Primarolo: The information requested on the number of 14-year-olds treated for alcohol-related health problems in each county in the east of England region in the last 12 months is not held centrally. However, the number of admissions of patients under 14 and resident in east of England with an alcohol-related condition in 2007-08 (the latest 12-month period for which data are available) is shown in the following table:

Number of admissions of patients under 14 and resident in east of England with an alcohol related condition in 2007-08
County Number

Peterborough

*

Luton

*

Southend-on-Sea

*

Thurrock

*

Bedfordshire

*

Cambridgeshire

6

Essex

17

Hertfordshire

18

Norfolk

*

Suffolk

14

East of England total

72

Notes:
1. The data are for residents of the East of England, rather than patients treated in the east of England.
2. Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (i.e. the data are ungrossed).
3. To protect patient confidentiality, figures between one and five have been suppressed and replaced with ‘*’. Where it was possible to identify numbers from the total due to a single suppressed number in a row or column, an additional number (the next smallest) has been suppressed.
4. The number of alcohol-related admissions is based on the methodology developed by the North West Public Health Observatory. Figures for under 16s only include admissions where one or more of the following alcohol-specific conditions were listed:
alcoholic cardiomyopathy (142.6);
alcoholic gastritis (K29.2);
alcoholic liver disease (K70);
alcoholic myopathy (G72.1);
alcoholic polyneuropathy (G62.1);
alcohol-induced pseudo-Cushing's syndrome (E24.4);
chronic pancreatitis (alcohol induced) (K86.0);
degeneration of nervous system due to alcohol (G31.2);
mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol (F10);
accidental poisoning by and exposure to alcohol (X45);
ethanol poisoning (T51.0);
methanol poisoning (T51.1); and
toxic effect of alcohol, unspecified (T51.9).
5. These figures represent the number of episodes where an alcohol-related diagnosis was recorded in any of the 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and seven prior to 2002-03) primary and secondary diagnosis fields in an HES record. Each episode is only counted once in each count, even if an alcohol-related diagnosis is recorded in more than one diagnosis field of the record.
6. The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and seven prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the HES dataset and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital.
7. As well as the primary diagnosis, there are up to 19 (13 from 2002-03 to 2007-08 and six prior to 2002-03) secondary diagnosis fields in HES that show other diagnoses relevant to the episode of care.
8. A finished admission episode is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one health care provider. Finished admission episodes are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year.
9. Years are assigned by the end of the first period of care in a patient's hospital stay.
10. HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. The quality and coverage of the data have improved over time. These improvements in information submitted by the national health service have been particularly marked in the earlier years and need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. Some of the increase in figures for later years (particularly 2006-07 onwards) may be due to the improvement in the coverage of independent sector activity. Changes in NHS practice also need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. For example, a number of procedures may now be undertaken in out-patient settings and may no longer be accounted for in the HES data. This may account for any reductions in activity over time.
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Information Centre for health and social care

7 May 2009 : Column 338W

Appendicitis

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many people were treated for a ruptured appendix in each hospital trust in England in the most recent year for which figures are available; [271185]

(2) how many people were treated for a ruptured appendix in hospital in England in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [271186]

Mr. Bradshaw: Information on treatment for ruptured appendices, specifically, is not collected centrally.

However, we can supply figures for finished admission episodes with a primary diagnosis of ‘acute appendicitis with generalized peritonitis’. This includes perforation, peritonitis (generalized), and rupture.

A table containing these data has been placed in the Library.

Cannabis: Children

Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children under the age of 16 years sought treatment for cannabis use in (a) England, (b) the East of England and (c) Suffolk in the last 12 months. [273245]

Dawn Primarolo: Data on those seeking treatment for drug use are not collected centrally. Data on those in treatment are collected and the following table gives figures for under 16-year-olds in treatment for cannabis, both for primary and adjunctive use, for England, the east of England and Suffolk. These figures are based on data for 2007-08, the most recent period for which data are available.

Primary Adjunctive

England

6,075

2,075

East of England

380

116

Suffolk

52

21

Notes:
1. If a client starts the year already in treatment, age is taken at 1 April, if they begin treatment during the year, age is taken at triage.
2. Figures are provided for primary use (the substance that brought the client into treatment) and adjunctive use (a substance additional to the primary drug used by the client).

Carbon Monoxide: Departmental Responsibilities

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 28 April 2009, Official Report, column 1232W, on carbon monoxide: departmental co-ordination, (1) whether Ministers from his Department attended the Health and Safety Executive-led Officials Group on Gas Safety and Carbon Monoxide Awareness on 5 September 2007; and if he will make a statement; [273110]

(2) whether Ministers took part in meetings on carbon monoxide took place in the three years to September 2007. [273126]

Dawn Primarolo: No Ministers attended the meeting of the Health and Safety Executive-led Officials Group on Gas Safety and Carbon Monoxide (CO) Awareness on 5 September 2007.


7 May 2009 : Column 339W

There was one meeting of the Ministerial Group on Gas Safety and CO Awareness. This took place on 14 June 2007.

Departmental Temporary Employment

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff on temporary contracts are employed at his Department's offices at Richmond House; and what entitlement such staff have to (a) sick and (b) holiday pay. [273224]

Mr. Bradshaw: The Department uses the Home Office Framework set up by the Home Office to engage temporary agency staff. This is used by several other Government Departments as well as Health.

The numbers of workers on temporary contracts requested for Richmond House are given in the following table.

Person type Total full-time equivalents

Agency worker

52.1

Consultant

4.1

Contractor

4.0

Total

60.1


This is based on data as at 31 March 2009 from the Department's Business Management System.

The relevant temporary staff agencies are responsible for managing their staff’s sick leave and annual leave entitlements and not the contracting authority, in this instance the Department.

The provision of non-permanent staff as specialist contractors is under tax exemption IR35 and as such the contractors are deemed to be self-employed. The Work Time Regulations do not apply, there is no holiday entitlement outside of public holidays and the contract is therefore silent on this matter.


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