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25 Nov 2009 : Column 182W—continued
Mortgage Rescue Scheme
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people resident in each local authority area have (a) applied for and (b) received help under the Mortgage Rescue Scheme since the scheme was established. [300381]
John Healey: We have acted rapidly to put in place a range of help and support for households struggling with their mortgage at every stage, and launched a campaign to ensure households have clear information about the help available.
Mortgage Rescue Scheme summary monitoring statistics are published on a quarterly basis on the Department's website. Figures can be assessed using the following link:
Figures reported by local authorities from January to September 2009 are provided in a table which has been placed in the Library.
Mortgages
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many first time buyers defaulted on their mortgage in each of the last three years. [301450]
Mr. Ian Austin: The Department does not collect information on mortgage possessions and arrears although information for the United Kingdom as a whole is published separately by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) and the Financial Services Authority (FSA). These are not split by whether the borrower was a first time buyer or not.
National Coalfields Programme
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent progress has been made on the National Coalfields Programme; and if he will make a statement. [300446]
Mr. Ian Austin: I refer the hon. Member to the Homes and Communities Agency's 2008-09 Annual Report and Accounts, which are available in the Library of the House, and can also be found at:
Overcrowded Households
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the overcrowding pathfinders in tackling overcrowding and severe overcrowding. [301764]
Mr. Ian Austin: Since April 2008, the 54 local authorities in the pathfinder programme have rehoused approximately 30,000 overcrowded households.
CLG continue to support and monitor pathfinder progress through regular meetings with the National Overcrowding Coordinator.
Sheltered Housing: Tamworth
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much Tamworth Borough Council spent on sheltered housing in each of the last three years. [301615]
Mr. Ian Austin: The following table shows the amounts spent by Tamworth borough council on sheltered housing in each of the last three financial years (2006-7; 2007-8; and 2008-9).
| Sheltered housing and Alarm call services | |||
| £ | |||
| Revenue expenditure | Capital expenditure | Total revenue and capital | |
Smoke Alarms
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will make it his policy to require (a) local authorities and (b) registered social landlords to ensure that all of their residential properties have working smoke alarms. [300219]
Mr. Ian Austin: The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) assesses 29 categories of housing hazards, such as excess cold, electrical hazards, falls, fire, explosions etc. It applies to all residential property regardless of tenure. If a local authority considers that there is a serious (Category 1) hazard, it has a duty to take the most appropriate action.
As far as assessing the risk from fire is concerned, the lack of smoke detectors and or heat detectors, or defective smoke detectors and or heat detectors with alarms are considered relevant matters in an HHSRS assessment.
In 2001 the Department issued guidance to all local authority housing directors emphasising the importance the government attaches to encouraging the wider provision of smoke alarms in domestic properties.
More broadly, it has been our policy for some time that smoke alarms have a vital role to play in saving lives as they provide the vital early warning of fire and therefore help people to escape. Since 1987, the Government have conducted high profile national and regional television campaigns promoting smoke alarms which have proved very successful. Ownership has increased from 9 per cent. in 1987 to the current level of 80 pert cent. and we are seeking to raise it further as evidence suggests that those without alarms are often in those groups who are most at risk from fire. The Government are currently running a national media advertisement to promote smoke alarms ownership and maintenance messages.
Vacant Land: Tamworth
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many acres of green space excluding flood plains there are in the Borough of Tamworth. [300770]
Mr. Ian Austin: The latest figure we have on the amount of green space within the borough of Tamworth, excluding the flood plain, is 2,400 acres. Government do not maintain a comprehensive record of information on green spaces, but this information is available from many local authorities, given their responsibility for the effective planning and management of green spaces. The borough of Tamworth may collect and hold its own information on the quantity of green space in its area.
Health
Abortion
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to address the variation in levels of repeat abortions across England. [300328]
Gillian Merron: One of the aims of the Government's Sexual Health and HIV Strategy for England is to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies. The standard national health service contract for 2009-10 includes a new clause to ensure that abortion providers improve access to the full range of contraception for women undergoing abortion. A specification for abortion services is currently being developed to support implementation of this new requirement.
The Department has invested £20.5 million in 2009-10 to improve access to contraception to improve all women's knowledge of and access to the full range of contraception and help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, abortion and repeat abortions. This includes £7 million
for a "contraceptive choices" media campaign and a further £10 million to strategic health authorities (SHAs) for local action.
Primary care trusts and SHAs were asked to use their funding to improve access to all contraceptive methods to reduce teenage conception, abortion and repeat abortion rates, particularly in areas where teenage pregnancy rates were high. We are actively working with the SHAs to monitor additional spend and share best practice.
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much it cost his Department to (a) collect, (b) process, (c) collate and (d) store statistics on abortion in the most recent 12-months for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [300793]
Gillian Merron: This information is not collated in the categories requested. Registered medical practitioners are legally required to send a notification to the chief medical officer after each abortion is performed. Information derived from the form is used to monitor compliance with the Abortion Act 1967, as amended, and to compile statistical outputs as appropriate.
The overall cost to the Department over the last 12 months of issuing, processing and storing the forms, and the provision of statistical outputs is estimated to be £408,670. This figure includes staff, printing and information technology costs.
Accident and Emergency Departments
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will rank by mortality rate those accident and emergency departments with annual admissions below 69,000 in the latest year for which information is available. [300330]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Bone Marrow Disorders: Donors
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how much his Department has spent on advertising for the recruitment of bone marrow donors in each of the last 12 years; and if he will make a statement; [300668]
(2) what proportion of people who were on the Blood Donor Register were also on the Bone Marrow Donor Register on the latest date for which figures are available; [300671]
(3) how many registered stem cell donors there were in each year since registration began; [300673]
(4) what proportion of bone marrow donors were resident in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Northern Ireland and (d) Scotland in each of the last 12 years. [300913]
Gillian Merron: The British Bone Marrow Registry (BBMR) is run by the NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT). Bone marrow donors are recruited from the existing pool of blood donors.
Therefore, the promotion of bone marrow donation is carried out in conjunction with blood donor promotion campaigns. Examples include the NHSBT website, The Donor magazine, which is sent to 1.4 million donors,
and promotional material at blood collection sessions. It is not possible, therefore, to provide an exact figure for the amount spent on advertising exclusively for the recruitment of bone marrow donors.
Not all of those currently on the British Bone Marrow Register will still be active blood donors, although at the time of joining the BBMR all would have been registered as blood donors. As of September 2009, the estimated figures supplied by NHSBT for bone marrow donors on the blood donor register were:
| Region | Number | Percentage |
| Note: Numbers in Wales are not held. | ||
The number of donors on the BBMR for the years 2001-02 to 2008-09 are listed as follows. The totals do not represent the availability of donors as this can fluctuate for many different reasons. We do not have figures for the Welsh Bone Marrow Donor Registry.
| Total | |
In addition to the British Bone Marrow Register, stem cell donations are also sourced from the NHS Cord Blood Bank, which at present has around 13,000 stored umbilical cord blood units.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the merits of using DNA swabs to identify matches for bone marrow donors. [300672]
Gillian Merron: The British Bone Marrow Registry recruits donors from the blood donor population. The tissue type of a donor is identified through tests carried out on samples collected during blood donation, which is believed to be a more stable medium than DNA swabs. As there is currently no requirement for additional tests such as DNA swabs to be carried out, no such assessment has been made.
Breast Cancer
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what proportion of all breast cancer cases were diagnosed through the (a) non-urgent referral route, (b) screening and (c) urgent referral route in (i) England, (ii) each cancer network area and (iii) each primary care trust area in each of the last five years. [300553]
Ann Keen: The following table provides the most recent statistics for England, and the previous years requested, showing the number of breast cancers diagnosed by cytology and/or histology following breast screening in England:
| Cancers diagnosed by cytology and/or histology following breast screening | |
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