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Liver Diseases: Health Services

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what timetable has been set for the development of the National Liver Strategy; and when the final strategy will be completed. [309652]

Ann Keen: Our intention is to publish a national strategy for consultation by the autumn of 2011.

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans his Department has to consult (a) patient groups, (b) the public and (c) health care professionals in the development of the National Liver Strategy. [309653]

Ann Keen: The Department will work closely with the national health service, public and patient groups on the development of the National Liver Strategy, and will undertake a consultation on the draft strategy before it is finalised.

NHS: Data Protection

Dr. Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many members of NHS staff have been disciplined for inappropriate use of information on (a) an NHS database and (b) medical records in each of the last 10 years. [310121]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The information requested is not held centrally. Legal responsibility for the secure handling and management of patient information rests with individual national health service organisations. It is therefore a matter for NHS organisations to take the appropriate action where patient information has been inappropriately accessed by their staff.

NHS: Motor Vehicles

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost to his Department has been of repairing NHS vehicles that have been filled with the wrong type of fuel in each of the last five years. [309617]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Department does not collect the information requested. Funding of repairs to vehicles is a matter for the local national health service.

NHS: Non-Profit Making Associations

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether NHS staff transferred to a social enterprise will remain in the NHS pension scheme; and if he will make a statement. [309887]

Ann Keen: Where primary care trusts and staff set up social enterprises constituted as charities, community interest companies, or industrial and provident societies to deliver services, then staff transferring under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations can continue to benefit from the NHS Pension Scheme while they continue to work on national health service funded services. This is afforded by the provision of a direction under section 7(2) of the Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1967.


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NHS: Standards

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the reasons are for the time taken by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to recommend new indicators to be considered in the Quality and Outcomes Framework. [310127]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The new independent National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) process involves the suggestion of topics by stakeholders and collation of information about potential new indicators reviewed by its independent Primary Care QOF Advisory Committee. Potential topics are prioritised by the committee for further development and go through a period of piloting in a number of general practitioner practices across the United Kingdom. They are then subject to a period of consultation with stakeholders before final publication on the NICE menu for QOF. NHS Employers (on behalf of the Department) and the British Medical Association will then negotiate on which of the published indicators will be applied nationally and what the value of these indicators should be. Full details of the new process can be found in the published document called "Developing clinical and health improvement indicators for the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF)-Interim process guide". A copy has already been placed in the Library.

NHS: Training

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been spent establishing the NHS Graduate Management Scheme for Communications; how many places will be available on this scheme in each of the next three years; and what the (a) wage costs and (b) other running costs of this scheme will be in each of those years. [309486]

Ann Keen: The total cost spent on establishing and running the Pilot NHS Graduate Management Scheme for Communications is £1.2 million. This pilot scheme is just one stream of the larger graduate programme. The other established schemes are: General, Human Resources, Finance and Informatics.

There are 12 trainees on the Pilot NHS Graduate Management Scheme for Communications who are each paid a starting salary of £21,733. The total cost (wage and running costs) for each trainee is £100,000 for the two years of the scheme.

This is the same cost per trainee as for the other established graduate management schemes. The pilot communications scheme is the smallest of the schemes.

The pilot communications scheme runs for two years-October 2009 to September 2011, although it is funded over three financial years to cover this period (October 2009 to March 2010, April 2010 to March 2011, April 2011 to September 2011-see the following table for full details.)

The Department's Communications Directorate and Directors of Communications for six strategic health authorities jointly fund this pilot scheme. The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement manages the scheme.

The breakdown of costs are:


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£

Wage costs (including on costs such as national insurance and travel costs) Running costs Total

October 2009-March 2010

168,000

182,000

350,000

April 2010-March 2011

343,000

257,000

600,000

April 2011-September 2011

168,000

82,000

250,000

Total

679,000

521,000

1,200,000


Patients: Transport

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent estimate he has made of the number of voluntary drivers for NHS health services. [309695]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Department does not collect information on the number of voluntary car drivers for national health service services. The NHS locally is responsible for managing voluntary driver schemes.

Pharmacy: Regulation

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health for what reasons the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence is consulting on future General Pharmaceutical Council standards; and what recent assessment has been made of the adequacy of the existing standards. [309449]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: As the General Pharmaceutical Council will be independent of Government, it was not thought it appropriate for the Department to consult on these standards on their behalf.

The General Pharmaceutical Council will be a new body with new powers so there are no comparable statutory standards in existence for pharmacy. However, where there are existing standards that cover the same geographical remit as the new regulator, that is Great Britain, they have been used as a starting point for development. In particular, the most recent Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain education standards have been incorporated where possible.

Radiography: Manpower

Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many interventional radiologists work in each strategic health authority area; and whether his Department has a target for the preferred number of interventional radiologists per head of population in the NHS. [309977]

Ann Keen: Interventional radiologists (IR) are captured within the clinical radiology specialty in the NHS Workforce Census. IR are not separately identifiable within these figures as shown in the following table.

There is currently no specific target, however, international radiology has been identified as a key priority for medical workforce planning and plans are in place for it to become a recognised sub-speciality.


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Workforce planning, including training, in the national health service is managed and led at a local level by the strategic health authorities taking into account the national policy direction.

Local NHS organisations are best placed to determine the levels of service and resource required to meet the health needs of the local population.

Clinical radiology, England at 30 September 2008

Number (headcount)

England

3,284

North East

168

North West

485

Yorkshire and The Humber

350

East Midlands

234

West Midlands

249

East of England

280

London

470

South East Coast

164

South Central

270

South West

344


Treasury

Air Passenger Duty

Mark Hunter: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his Department (a) made projections of the number of passengers departing the UK for all seat types which take account of the rise in air passenger duty on 1 November 2009 and (b) has made any such projections in respect of 1 November 2010. [309758]

Sarah McCarthy-Fry: In March 2009 HMRC published an impact assessment of the reformed APD on its website at:

A copy was deposited in the Library of the House.

Mark Hunter: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what factors were taken into account in determining which flight seat types would be liable for (a) the higher and (b) standard air passenger duty. [309760]

Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Determining air passenger duty (APD) liability by reference to whether carriage on a plane is in the lowest class of travel (in which the majority of passengers travel) or any other class, is a simple and transparent system which minimises administrative burdens and compliance costs.

Banks: Iceland

Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has had with his Icelandic counterpart since 5 January 2010 on compensation to UK investors in Icelandic banks who have lost their investments. [309998]

Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings and discussions with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government's practice to provide details of all such meetings and discussions.


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Child Benefit

John Battle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many child benefit applications are being processed for (a) UK nationals, (b) non-UK EEA nationals, (c) A8 EEA nationals, (d) A2 EEA nationals and (e) non-European nationals. [308206]

Mr. Timms: All claims for child benefit are checked to establish whether further inquiries are required before being entered into the child benefit computer system.

Where no further inquiries are required, claims are then processed.

In some cases further inquiries are necessary before entitlement is decided.

For non-European nationals when a claimant is subject to immigration control, this can involve inquiries being made with the claimant and the Home Office to determine the claimant's status.

For all other claimants, when European Community regulations are involved, this can involve inquiries being made with the customer and other European economic area member states.

Child Benefit: Overpayments

John Battle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate his Department has made of (a) the number and (b) the amount of child benefit overpayments caused by the failure of a claimant to notify the Child Benefit Office of a change of circumstances in (i) 2005-06, (ii) 2006-07, (iii) 2007-08 and (iv) 2008-09. [308185]

Mr. Timms: The information requested is not available, as HM Revenue and Customs' systems do not capture the reasons for child benefit overpayments.

Departmental Buildings

Mr. Baron: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what works and refurbishments to offices allocated to Ministers in his Department's buildings that are included in the annual unitary payment have taken place since 27 June 2007. [309114]

Sarah McCarthy-Fry: No major works or refurbishments have been undertaken in ministerial offices since 27 June 2007. During that period, only minimal redecoration works and minor office moves have been carried out within the PFI lifecycle fund and met from the annual unitary payment made to the PFI provider.

Departmental Fines

Mr. Garnier: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what powers (a) his Department and (b) each of its agencies and its non-departmental public body has to impose administrative penalties; what the statutory basis is for each such power; and how much (i) his Department and (ii) each of its agencies and its non-departmental public bodies has recovered in administrative penalties in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available. [309292]


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Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Neither the Treasury, nor any of its agencies or non-departmental public bodies, have any powers to impose administrative penalties.


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