| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
8 Mar 2010 : Column 60W—continued
Languages
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) Ministers and (b) civil servants in his Department received coaching in a foreign language in the last 12 months; what expenditure his Department incurred in providing such coaching; and in what languages such coaching was provided. [320419]
Phil Hope: The Department does not hold a central record of the information requested. A survey to gather the necessary information from the Department's directorates would incur disproportionate cost.
NHS: Private Sector
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate his Department has made of the cost to the NHS of an entitlement for a patient to be treated privately if not treated within 18 weeks in the first year of operation of such an entitlement. [320877]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: As detailed in the impact assessment
relating to the consultation on new patient rights, the proposals are largely cost neutral. If the proposed right is brought forward we would expect any alternative providers to provide services at the national health service tariff.
A copy of the assessment has already been placed in the Library.
Prescriptions: Fees and Charges
Dr. Richard Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what timetable has been set for the publication of Professor Ian Gilmore's report on prescription charges for those with long-term conditions. [321179]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Professor Gilmore has submitted his report on exempting people with long-term conditions from prescription charges to the Department. The recommendations are being considered, and we intend to publish our response shortly.
Primary Care Trusts
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many primary care trusts there were in 2005. [320973]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: There were 303 primary care trusts in 2005. This number reduced to 152 from 1 October 2006.
Private Finance Initiative
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding his Department will have to provide to fund all existing private finance initiative and public-private partnership contracts in each of the next 10 years. [320566]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: There are many hundreds of contracts negotiated annually between national health service bodies and private sector suppliers for a full range of services and equipment that involve elements of public-private partnerships (PPPs).
Information is collected centrally for the three major areas of PPP contracts-private finance initiative (PFI) schemes, local improvement finance trusts (LIFT) and independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs). The following table shows the unitary and lease payments for PFI and LIFT schemes respectively for the next 10 financial years in nominal terms (i.e. uprated annually for retail prices index inflation of 2.5 per cent.; these are only approximate profiles as the LIFT payments are collected by calendar year not financial). From the information collected centrally it is not possible to express the ISTC payments on an annualised basis over the same period, but from a calculation of the total mean monthly payments, ISTC contract payments in 2010 will total approximately £469 million.
| £ million | ||
| PFI payments (by financial year | LIFT lease payments (by calendar year) | |
As total NHS planned resources for 2010-11 are £105.8 billion, PFI payments will represent approximately 1.2 per cent. of the total, LIFT approximately 0.2 per cent. and ISTCs 0.4 per cent. As payments rise with the rate of inflation, as demonstrated by the tables, we expect that NHS PPP/PFI contributions will remain at the level of less than 2 per cent. of the total budget for the life of the contracts. The phase 1 ISTC schemes have reached, or are reaching the end of their contracted periods and are being renegotiated.
Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust
Jane Kennedy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when he expects to make a decision on the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals Trust's building project; and if he will make a statement; [320865]
(2) what recent representations he has received on the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals Trust's proposed building project; and if he will make a statement. [320866]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Outline Business Case (OBC) for the £453 million private finance initiative proposal to redevelop Royal Liverpool University Hospital is currently with the Department for approval. Subject to approval by departmental officials and Ministers the OBC will then go to the Treasury for approval.
Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital
Jane Kennedy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when he expects to make a decision on the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital building project; and if he will make a statement; [320867]
(2) what recent representations he has received on the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital building project; and if he will make a statement. [320868]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust went to the market for its (approximately) £200 million private finance initiative scheme for a new children's hospital through the launch of a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union on 14 January 2010. This is the beginning of the procurement phase to select a preferred bidder to work with, sign a contract and proceed to construction, subject to appropriate approvals.
Syringes
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many young people aged (a) under 18 and (b) between 18 and 21 years old have been provided with needle exchange services in the latest period for which figures are available. [321169]
Gillian Merron: Information on the number of people supplied with clean needles is not collected centrally, by either the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse or the Department.
Whittington Hospital: Accident and Emergency Departments
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent discussions he has had with London North Central Health Authorities on the future provision of accident and emergency services at Whittington Hospital; and what information has been provided to him on the future of the service. [321069]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave him on 26 February 2010, Official Report, column 807W.
International Development
Departmental Buildings
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much his Department spent on office refurbishments in each of the last 10 years. [320509]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) recorded spend on office refurbishments and security upgrades by calendar year from 2002 until 2008, from which time this information has been recorded by financial year. Amounts spent on refurbishments and security upgrades for both UK and overseas offices, since 2002, are provided in the following table:
| £ | |
Information on spend prior to 2002 cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate costs.
Departmental Disciplinary Proceedings
Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many (a) disciplinary and (b) capability procedures have been (i) initiated and (ii) completed in his Department in each of the last five years; how much time on average was taken to complete each type of procedure in each such year; how many and what proportion of his Department's staff were subject to each type of procedure in each such year; and how many and what proportion of each type of procedure resulted in the dismissal of the member of staff. [320629]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) has initiated and completed one capability procedure in the last five years. To provide further information on this procedure would breach confidentiality.
Details of the number of disciplinary procedures which have been initiated and completed; the number and proportion of staff subject to disciplinary procedures; and the number and proportion of disciplinary procedures which resulted in the dismissal of the member of staff in each of the last five years are provided in the following table.
| Procedures initiated | Number of staff | Proportion of staff (Percentage) | Procedures completed( 1) | Number of dismissals | Proportion of disciplinary cases resulting in dismissal (Percentage) | |
| (1 )Disciplinary procedures that have not been completed are either ongoing cases; cases that have been dropped due to there being no case to answer; or cases which did not result in formal action under the disciplinary procedures. (2 )To date. | ||||||
The average time taken to complete these disciplinary procedures was 46 days. The procedure is initiated when the individual is issued with the invitation to attend a disciplinary meeting and includes any appeal process that may take place.
Departmental ICT
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what information technology projects initiated by his Department were cancelled prior to completion in the last 12 months; and what the cost of each such project was to the public purse. [320432]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) has not cancelled any information technology projects prior to completion in the last 12 months.
Departmental Marketing
Mr. Syms: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Ruislip Northwood of 5 January 2010, Official Report, column 103W, on departmental marketing how much his Department and agencies have spent on advertising, marketing, public relations and publicity in relation to the (a) Real Help Now and (b) Building Britain's Future themed campaign to date. [320455]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) has not spent any money on advertising, marketing, public relations and publicity in relation to Real Help Now or Building Britain's Future.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |