| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
21 Jan 2010 : Column 444W—continued
NHS: Finance
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) which NHS charities which have NHS bodies as corporate trustees have submitted requests to change to independent trustees in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement; [311760]
(2) which NHS charities will be required to consolidate their funds into the accounts of the relevant NHS body under the new International Accounting Standard 27 being introduced in April 2010; and if he will make a statement. [311761]
Phil Hope: Three national health service bodies submitted a request to appoint independent trustees. Two have since indicated that they do not want to proceed at this stage.
It is not possible to identify individual NHS charities that will be required to consolidate their accounts into those of their relevant NHS body under the new International Accounting Standard 27 in April 2010, as application of the accounting standard will be determined locally taking into account the materiality of charitable funds. Our best estimate is that this may be around 30, which amounts to around 10 per cent. of those who are currently governed by a corporate trustee.
However, we are continuing to work with the Treasury, the Charity Commission and other stakeholders to seek ways to strengthen the independent governance of NHS charities to enable us to meet the standard without invoking the requirement for consolidation.
Although accounts may be consolidated for reporting, the charity's funds would remain wholly independent from NHS budgets.
Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the additional cost to the NHS arising from incidents attributable to weather conditions in January 2010. [311773]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: This is a matter for the local national health service. The NHS, as part of its planning process, ensures operational challenges, such as adverse weather are factored into local contingency plans, including the cost of treating patients.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to the pre-Budget report, which budgetary headings of NHS spending will comprise (a) the 95 per cent. of NHS frontline spending due to rise in line with inflation and (b) the 5 per cent. that will not. [311995]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: National health service frontline spending is defined as 95 per cent. of the NHS near-cash expenditure limit in 2010-11. This covers all NHS spending that supports patient care.
The remaining 5 per cent. covers a large number of budgets that do not directly contribute to patient care in the NHS including areas like consultancy and administrative budgets for the Department, arm's length bodies and strategic health authorities.
Full details will be set out in the next spending review.
NHS: ICT
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much NHS benefits and pensions sub-departments spent on information technology in the last three financial years; how much of this was spent on (a) software development and testing and (b) application including (i) staff training, (ii) the cost of new hardware and software and (iii) the cost of launching into the live environment. [311383]
Ann Keen: NHS Pensions, a division of the Business Services Authority, administers the NHS Pension Scheme on behalf of the Department. They are unable to breakdown the costs of launching into the live environment because these costs are not broken down to this level within their accounts. These particular costs are therefore included in the overall development and testing costs in section 1 of the following table:
| NHS Pensions | ||||
| £ | ||||
| 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10( 1) | Total | |
| (1) April to December. | ||||
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which NHS IT projects have been outsourced to companies based overseas in the last three years; and what the monetary value is of each such contract. [311384]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Within the national programme for information technology (IT), no discrete system or service projects have been outsourced to companies based overseas during the period. Comprehensive information is not held centrally about local IT procurements by national health service organisations outside of the national programme, and could be obtained only at disproportionate expense.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the NHS has allocated for the (a) procurement, (b) maintenance, (c) compliance testing and (d) security of IT systems in 2010-11. [311385]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The information requested is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
NHS: Negligence
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of clinical negligence which were funded by conditional fee agreements were closed in each of the last five years; in how many such cases damages were paid (a) by agreement to settle and (b) by award; what the total cost was of defending each such case where damages were paid; how much was paid to claimants in legal costs in (i) total, (ii) base costs and (iii) success fees; and in such cases where damages were paid, how much was paid in after-the-event insurance premiums. [312528]
Ann Keen: The information requested is in the following table and was provided by the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA). The NHSLA is only able to provide an overall total of claimant costs because a global figure is recorded in its database. To provide a detailed breakdown of claimant costs, including After the Event insurance, would be at disproportionate cost.
| Number of claims where the claimant funding was conditional fee arrangement (CFA) closed April 2004 to March 2009 | |||||
| Year of closure | Number of CFA claims closed | Number of claims | Damages paid (£) | Defence costs paid (£) | Claimant costs paid (£) |
Primary Care Trusts: Overtime
Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much each primary care trust has paid in staff overtime in January 2010. [312015]
Ann Keen: Information about how much each primary care trust has paid in overtime in January 2010 will be available from the Electronic Staff Record in March 2010.
Swine Flu
Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of persons who died following contraction of swine influenza in the last 12 months had also contracted other diseases. [312495]
Gillian Merron: Overall approximately 80 per cent. of people who died with Pandemic H1N1 (2009) infection also had other pre-existing diseases or other underlying medical conditions.
Further detail is available in a report in the British Medical Journal, 'Donaldson LJ, Rutter PD, Ellis BM, Greaves FEC, Mytton OT, Pebody RG and Yardley IE. Mortality from pandemic A/H1N1 2009 influenza in England: public health surveillance study'. BMJ 2009; 339 b5213; this is available online at:
Swine Flu: Vaccination
Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of unused stocks of swine influenza vaccine can be returned to suppliers at no cost to the public purse. [312497]
Gillian Merron: We are unable to return vaccines that have already been delivered. The options for handling the anticipated surplus of vaccine are currently being explored with the manufacturers. We will be seeking to minimise the overall cost to the British taxpayer.
Swine Influenza: Expenditure
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his Department's estimated expenditure under each budgetary heading has been on the swine influenza outbreak. [311997]
Gillian Merron: The spend on drugs for pandemic flu preparedness (not swine flu specific) prior to the swine flu pandemic was over £500 million. We also had plans for additional committed spend on further drugs. Since the outbreak, that spend has taken our expenditure to over £1 billion. We are not able to break down this number due to confidentiality clauses in our contracts with the various manufacturers.
The costs of consumables are also subject to confidentiality clauses.
The system development costs incurred to date for the National Pandemic Flu Service amount to approximately £13.5 million. Further operational costs are all in commercial confidence.
The cost of advertising and publicity activity in England on swine influenza, including the Swine Flu Information Phone Line, is approximately £15 million to date.
Home Department
Departmental Billing
John Mason: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of invoices from suppliers his Department paid within 10 days of receipt in December 2009. [311258]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office performance for paying all invoices within 30 days and paying SME compliant invoices within 10 days in December 2009 is shown in the following table:
CRB's performance of paying invoices within 10 days in December 2009 is shown in the following table:
| Table 2: CRB performance of paying SME invoices within 10 days for December 2009 | |
| Number/percentage | |
Departmental Contracts
Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 11 January 2010, Official Report, column 703W, on the UK Border Agency, who his Department's commercial partners are; and which are the 110 locations referred to. [311463]
Mr. Woolas: UKBA has global contracts with two suppliers to provide visa application support services across all its regions. These are VFS-Global and CSC.
The two commercial partners operate 105 visa application centres, the locations of which are in the following list. This is an updated figure.
| Country | Location |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |