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16 Jun 2009 : Column 212W—continued

Suicide

Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many people have (a) committed suicide and (b) attempted to commit suicide in each (i)
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local authority area and (ii) constituency area in each quarter of the last five years; and if she will make a statement. [279073]

Angela E. Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated June 2009:

Women and Equality

Demos

Mr. Watson: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality whether the Government Equalities Office has any contracts with the think-tank Demos. [279521]

Michael Jabez Foster: The Government Equalities Office has not had any contracts with Demos.

Discrimination: Age

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what recent representations she has received on the effects of age discrimination legislation on small and medium-sized enterprises. [277329]

Maria Eagle: This summer we will be publishing a consultation document on our developing proposals for exceptions to the prohibition on age discrimination against adults in services and public functions under the Equality Bill. The accompanying impact assessment, which will include a Small Firms impact test, draws on our ongoing discussions with business representatives about impacts, costs and benefits and will invite further evidence on potential impacts of the proposals.

Domestic Violence

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how many centres for victims of domestic violence have been opened in the last 12 months. [279362]

Michael Jabez Foster: The provision of services to victims of domestic violence is a local issue; local decision makers are best placed to assess local needs. The majority
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of services are delivered through local providers who are supported and funded by local bodies, such as local councils and health organisations. As such, the Government do not collect information centrally on the number of services available for victims of domestic violence.

However, the Government do take the issue of domestic violence very seriously and since 1997 have taken significant steps to combat it. The Government have continued to provide funding to help lines to support a range of victims including the national 24 hour free phone help line (0808 2000 247); Men’s Advice Line and Enquiries for male victims (0800 801 0327); Broken Rainbow for LGBT victims (08452 60 44 66); and RESPECT for perpetrators wishing to change their behaviour (0845 122 8609).

In addition, the Specialist Domestic Violence Court (SDVC) programme has continued to expand and the Government are committed to increasing the number of SDVCs to 128 by 2011. Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences are currently operational in over 200 areas, and will be rolled out nationally by 2011. Furthermore, in 2008-09 we provided over £6 million to support the roll-out of Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs).

Employment Tribunals Service

Grant Shapps: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how many actions under employment law have been brought against the Government Equalities Office in each year since its establishment; how many such actions were brought under each category of action; and how many such actions were contested by the Government Equalities Office at an employment tribunal. [277425]

Maria Eagle: No such actions have been brought.

Government Equalities Office: Equality Bill

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how many individual representations the Government Equalities Office has received from members of the public concerning the provisions of the Equality Bill since its publication; and how many of these representations were (a) in favour of and (b) opposed to the provisions of the Bill. [279372]

Michael Jabez Foster: We have received 158 individual representations from members of the public concerning the provisions in the Equality Bill, since the Bill was published on 28( )April 2009.

Many of the correspondents cover a wide range of issues and do not simply make representations of support or opposition to the Bill. Collating and analysing this information would be complex and incur a disproportionate cost.

Government Equalities Office: Drinking Water

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how much the Government Equalities Office has spent on water coolers in each of the last two years. [279366]


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Michael Jabez Foster: Since its creation on 12 October 2007 the Government Equalities Office has not spent any money on the provision of water coolers.

Government Equalities Office: Industrial Health and Safety

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how much the Government Equalities Office has spent on health and safety training for its staff in each of the last two years. [279367]

Michael Jabez Foster: The information requested is not collated centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Government Equalities Office: Information and Communications Technology

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how much the Government Equalities Office has spent on the maintenance of its website in each of the last two years. [279363]

Michael Jabez Foster: The GEO website was established in financial year 2008-09. The cost of maintaining it in that year was £4,846.29.

Government Equalities Office: Manpower

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how many people from ethnic minority backgrounds are employed by the Government Equalities Office. [279377]

Michael Jabez Foster: The Government Equalities Office employs 23 staff (20 per cent. of its workforce) from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how many (a) women and (b) men are employed by the Government Equalities Office. [279378]

Michael Jabez Foster: The Government Equalities Office employs 69 women and 36 men.

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how many staff the Government Equalities Office has employed in each month since October 2007. [279379]

Michael Jabez Foster: The Government Equalities Office has employed the following number of staff since it was established in October 2007. A monthly breakdown is not available for the first year of GEO’s operations. Since the implementation of GEO’s own set of terms and conditions in October 2008 automated recording of staff numbers has been introduced and monthly data are available.


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Number

October 2007

62

March 2008

70

October 2008

99

November 2008

102

December 2008

107

January 2009

104

February 2009

104

March 2009

105

April 2009

106

May 2009

112

June 2009

105


Government Equalities Office: Surveys

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how much the Government Equalities Office spent on staff surveys in (a) 2007 and (b) 2008; and which companies were contracted to carry out the surveys. [279370]

Michael Jabez Foster: The Government Equalities Office did not spend any money on staff surveys in 2007 or 2008.

Victim Support Schemes: Rape

Mrs. May: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality (1) on what date rape crisis centres will be able to begin applying for funding from the new £1.6 million Special Fund; against what criteria applications will be assessed; who will be responsible for deciding which centres receive funding; when she expects the first grants from the Fund to be (a) allocated and (b) distributed; and at what points in the financial year such funds will be distributed; [268042]

(2) when she plans to answer Question 268042, on rape crisis centres, tabled by the right hon. Member for Maidenhead on 26 March 2009. [279574]

Michael Jabez Foster: Details of how to apply to the Special Fund have been made available on the Government Equalities Office website since Tuesday 28 April when the Special Fund opened. This includes information on eligibility criteria, governance and assessment procedures. A Board has been established to assess grant applications. The Board comprises of representatives from the two umbrella bodies, (Rape Crisis England and Wales and The Survivors' Trust), Government and an independent member. Grants are likely to be allocated and distributed in July and August 2009.

Health

Allied Health Professions: Manpower

Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) community and (b) primary care-based (i) physiotherapists and (ii) speech therapists there are in each primary care trust area. [279460]

Ann Keen: The number of physiotherapists and speech therapists in each primary care trust area is set out in a table which has been placed in the Library; however, these data cannot be further separated to show community and primary care based staff.


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Antidepressants

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many prescriptions for anti-depressants were dispensed in each of the last five years. [279661]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The following table shows the number of prescription items for anti-depressant drugs within section 4.3 of the British National Formulary, written in the UK and dispensed in the community, in England.

Prescription items dispensed in the community, in England, 2004 to 2008

Number (thousand)

2004

28,995.5

2005

29,389.9

2006

31,038.0

2007

33,839.6

2008

35,960.5

Source:
Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) system

Cancer: Consultants

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many consultants were employed in the treatment of cancer patients in the NHS in each year since 2001. [279471]

Ann Keen: Many medical specialities spend a considerable amount of time working with cancer patients, including staff from the anaesthetics, surgical and paediatric specialities, therefore it is not possible to give a total number of consultants employed in the treatment of cancer patients.

The NHS information centre has identified six main groups working in the treatment of cancer patients, a table of consultants working in these six groups since 2001 is shown as follows.

Hospital and community health services (HCHS): Medical consultants within the six main cancer specialties
Number (headcount)
England as 30 September each year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

All main cancer specialties

3,721

3,913

4,169

4,381

4,593

4,711

4,810

5,034

Clinical oncology

333

315

347

392

438

482

506

533

Clinical radiology

1,645

1,702

1,810

1,876

2,014

2,061

2,086

2,224

Haematology

556

588

609

637

648

663

680

684

Histopathology

915

968

1,021

1,083

1,094

1,087

1,111

1,129

Medical oncology

147

185

202

201

215

233

225

235

Palliative medicine

125

155

180

192

184

185

202

229

Notes:
Data Quality.
Workforce statistics are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and primary care trusts in England. The NHS information centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data. Processing methods and procedures are continually being updated to improve data quality. Where this happens any impact on figures already published will be assessed but unless this is significant at national level they will not be changed. Where there is impact only at detailed or local level this will be footnoted in relevant analyses.
Source:
The information centre for health and social care medical and dental workforce census.

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