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12 Oct 2009 : Column 693W—continued
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department has spent on its review of the dental public health work-force; and if he will make a statement. [290349]
Phil Hope: Officials with policy responsibilities for oral health and dental education within the chief dental officer's team are leading on the review with the help of an external consultant. As at July 2009, the consultant's fees and the costs of providing accommodation and services for meetings amounted to a total of approximately £43,000. Estimating and costing the proportion of the time, which officials have devoted to the review within their other duties, could be undertaken only at disproportionate cost.
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects the review of the dental public health work-force commissioned by his Department to be published; and if he will make a statement. [290350]
Phil Hope: We hope to publish the report of the review by the end of the year. It has taken longer than expected because of the need to take account of helpful recommendations in the report of the independent review of national health service dental services in England led by Professor Jimmy Steele. The continuing development of the world class commissioning initiative, which is intended to ensure that the health and care services provided by the NHS effectively meet the needs of the population, is also relevant to this review.
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) with reference to page 88 of chapter 7 of the independent review of NHS dental services in England, which of the four longer-term aims identified by the review his Department has accepted; and what mechanism his Department has put in place for implementation in each such case; [290491]
(2) which of the medium-term actions identified by the review his Department has accepted; and what mechanism his Department has put in place for implementation in each such case; [290492]
(3) with reference to page 87 of the independent review of NHS dental services in England, which of the seven immediate priorities identified by the review his Department has accepted; and what steps his Department has taken towards implementation in each such case. [290495]
Phil Hope: The Government have accepted all the recommendations of the review in principle, subject to working through the detail of their financial implications and the outcome of piloting. The report recognises the more difficult future fiscal environment, and rightly puts an emphasis on piloting, cost containment and more efficient ways of working.
Work has begun to implement the seven immediate priorities identified, and a programme is being developed to take forward the implementation of the other recommendations, and the contract pilots.
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to chapter 7 of the independent Review of NHS dental services in England, whether his Department has identified separate funding streams in respect of the (a) immediate priorities, (b) medium-term actions and (c) longer-term aims identified in the review. [290494]
Phil Hope: Funding has been identified for this year for the immediate priorities. Budget plans for 2010-11 are still being finalised.
Dental Services: Information and Communications Technology
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to develop an IT plan for NHS dentistry; and if he will make a statement. [290455]
Phil Hope: The report of the independent review of NHS dental services in England, led by Professor Jimmy Steele, recommend that there should be a formal national information technology (IT) strategy for NHS dentistry, aiming to link all dentists to the wider NHS within five years. We have accepted the recommendations of the report in principle, but any decision on an IT plan would need to be subject to a full appraisal of cost and the wider financial context.
Departmental Advertising
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department spent on newspaper advertising carried in each newspaper in the most recent year for which figures are available. [289506]
Phil Hope: The following table provides a breakdown of the Department's expenditure through the Central Office of Information (COI) on advertising in each national newspaper for the 2008-09 financial year.
To identify the amount of expenditure by the Department in each regional newspaper would incur a disproportionate cost.
| National press | 1 April 2008-31 March 2009 (£) |
| Ethnic press | 1 April 2008-31 March 2009 |
| Notes: 1. All figures above exclude VAT. All figures exclude advertising rebates and audit adjustments and therefore may differ from COI official turnover figures. 2. Advertising spend is defined as covering only media spend (inclusive of agency commissions but excluding production costs, COI commission and VAT). 3. These figures do not include the Department's recruitment/classified advertising costs. 4. These figures may include occasional minor spend through COI by national health service organisations, to supplement national campaigns in their area. While this expenditure has been excluded as far as possible, it would incur disproportionate cost to validate that every item of NHS expenditure has been removed. | |
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on which initiatives of his Department and its agencies expenditure on advertising has been incurred in each of the last five years; how much was spent on each such initiative; and which such initiatives were offered for tender through the Central Office of Information. [292527]
Phil Hope: The following table shows the Department's advertising expenditure over the last five completed financial years. A further breakdown of these figures is available in the Library.
All departmental advertising listed as follows was carried out via the Central Office of Information (COI), with the exception of those initiatives highlighted with an asterisk. To identify other ad hoc expenditure not carried out via the COI would incur disproportionate cost.
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