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16 Dec 2009 : Column 1312W—continued
Care Homes: Fees and Charges
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to Local Authority Circular (2001)10 on charges for residential accommodation, under what circumstances a local authority is permitted to terminate its contract with the care provider for the 12-week property disregard; and whether the disregard continues to qualify for an individual who sells their home before the end of the 12-week period. [307697]
Phil Hope: Local authorities have a duty to provide residential care for people who are assessed as needing such care but are unable to pay for it. Under regulation 20 of the National Assistance (Assessment of Resources) Regulations 1992, no one shall be assessed as being unable to pay for their own residential care if their capital exceeds £23,000. It is for each local authority to decide whether it has a duty to provide care for an individual, taking all the available information into account and taking its own legal advice where appropriate.
For up to 12 weeks from the date a person is provided with local authority supported permanent residential care for the first time, the value of the dwelling the person would otherwise normally occupy as their only or main residence is disregarded from the financial assessment. If a person sells their home within the 12-week period, the disregard ceases to have effect from the date of the sale.
If the resident has more than £23,000 in capital, including the money from the sale of their main or only residence, they will be assessed as being able to pay and should contract for their own residential care. If the resident has less than £23,000, the local authority contract should continue and the money from the sale will be taken into account in the financial assessment for charging purposes.
Departmental Art Works
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department spent on art works in the last 12 months. [306442]
Phil Hope:
Works of art displayed in the Department are from the Government Art Collection (GAC), which publishes an annual list of acquisitions. The most recent
details of acquisitions made by the GAC were published on 5 October 2009 and are available on the GAC website:
Departmental Manpower
Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff of his Department were in its redeployment pool on 1 (a) January, (b) April, (c) July and (d) October 2009. [306715]
Phil Hope: The numbers of displaced staff in the Department on the requested dates are presented in he following table.
| Month | Number of displaced staff |
Departmental Public Relations
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what payments NHS Blood and Transplant has made to Fishburn Hedges in the last 12 months; for what purpose; and if he will place in the Library a copy of the contract under which such payments have been made. [305167]
Gillian Merron: NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) has paid £94,458.18 to Fishburn Hedges over the past 12 months for a project manager recruited through that company. The project manager has developed and manages NHSBT's organ donation public awareness campaign, which was launched in November 2009, and which is due to run until spring 2010. A copy of the job description for this post has been placed in the Library.
Mr. Hurd:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what payments the NHS Information Centre has made to Grayling Political Strategy in each of the last three
years; for what purposes such payments were made; and if he will place in the Library a copy of the contract under which such payments were made. [305252]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Payments were made to perform a range of duties relating to media and communications services, including relations with trade and general media, events, press work and general public affairs advice:
| £ | |
The NHS Information Centre will liaise with the Department's sponsor to ensure the relevant contracts are placed in the Library.
Departmental Training
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much (a) his Department and (b) its agencies have spent on away days in the last 12 months; and what the (i) subject and (ii) location of each away day was. [306406]
Phil Hope: The Department is strongly committed to developing its staff and equipping them with the skills, knowledge and expertise they need to carry out their work. Away days make a significant contribution to such development.
Away days are typically arranged by individual teams in the Department and involve activities such as work planning, skills development and strategic thinking. No central records of these events are kept and extracting the necessary data from local sources would entail contacting approximately 200 teams and asking them to search for and retrieve the necessary information.
To collect this information task in the core Department would incur disproportionate costs.
The NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency has arranged the following away days in the last 12 months:
| Date | Subject | Location | Spend (£) |
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has arranged the following away days in the last 12 months:
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