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Healthwatch England

Liz Kendall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the current (a) budget, (b) number of staff employed and (c) budget for staff salaries is for Healthwatch England. [175537]

Norman Lamb: The information requested is as follows:

2013-14 budget: £3,825,000

Staff employed: 25

Budget for staff salaries 2013-14: £1,679,018.

HIV Infection

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of HIV screening rates in the last three years; and what steps he is taking to encourage greater uptake. [175904]

Jane Ellison: Reducing late diagnosis of HIV is an indicator in the public health outcomes framework. Increasing access to HIV testing is crucial to make progress on this indicator. Public Health England closely monitors HIV testing rates in genito-urinary Medicine (GUM) and antenatal services (as part of the antenatal screening programme), where the majority of HIV tests in England are performed.

The estimated uptake of HIV testing in 2012 in GUM was 81% and 98% in antenatal services. The number of individuals tested and estimated uptake from 2010 to 2012 are provided in the following table.

The first national HIV testing week ran in 2012 in England. Over 50 organisations delivered support, events or testing sessions, 3,500 posters promoting the benefits of testing were distributed and over 110 news items appeared in the media.

National HIV testing week 2013 will take place from 22 to 29 November 2013 and is running as part of a pan-European initiative. In England, this is led by the Terrence Higgins Trust as part of the HIV Prevention England programme that the Department funds. It has the aim to raise awareness about the importance of increasing HIV testing and increase the proportion of people who are aware of their HIV status and reduce late HIV diagnosis.

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In 2013, National HIV testing week campaign activity will centre on the ongoing “It Starts With Me” campaign, which launched last year. A range of local delivery partners across the country have signed up to support the campaign.

HIV screening should be offered at a woman’s first antenatal visit. Some women choose to decline this offer of screening. The programme therefore re-offers antenatal screening at 28 weeks gestation, emphasising the benefits of early detection and treatment for both the mother and unborn baby, which will help to increase levels of uptake.

Hyperactivity

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the incidence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder over the last 20 years. [175043]

Norman Lamb: The Department has made no such assessment. The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines, ‘Attention deficit hyperactive disorder: Diagnosis and management of ADHD in children, young people and adults’, published in 2008 state that around 1-2% of children and young people in the United Kingdom meet the criteria for severe ADHD, up to 9% may meet the broader criteria for mild or moderate ADHD and 2% of adults worldwide.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey ‘Mental health of children and young people in Great Britain, 2004’ (ONS 2005) suggest that around 1.5% of children have Hyperkinetic Disorder, which is a term used by the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) to refer to the more severe form of ADHD.

‘Adult psychiatric morbidity in England, 2007, Results of a household survey’ found the overall proportion of adults scoring four or more (the threshold at which clinical assessment for ADHD is warranted on the Adult Self-Report Scale-v(ASRS)) was 8.2%.

Malnutrition: Children

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children in (a) Bristol and (b) the UK have been treated for malnutrition in each of the last five years; and what estimate he has made of the number of children in (i) Bristol and (ii) the UK suffering from malnutrition. [175817]

Norman Lamb: Information is not available in the format requested. The following table has the number of finished hospital episodes where the primary or secondary diagnosis was malnutrition.

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Mental Health Services

Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 29 October 2013, Official Report, columns 442-43W, on mental health services, what assessment he has made of the effect of changes in data collection on the number of people recorded as waiting over 28 days for Improving Access to Psychological Therapies between Quarter 3 2008-09 and Quarter 1 2013-14. [175316]

Norman Lamb: The number of people waiting more than 28 days for Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services has increased since quarter 3, 2008-09. We believe this reflects the increase in the number of IAPT services, demand for them and the overall number of people accessing services. The IAPT programme has monitored waiting times since roll-out of its first wave sites in 2008. Measurement of waiting times is complicated by various factors, including local processes, information technology system capabilities and patient choice.

IAPT has refined the measurement of waiting times as processes and systems for collecting data have become embedded in services. This is reflected in IAPT guidance over recent years in an attempt to improve accuracy and consistent measurement across services. For this reason the figures from 2008 cannot be viewed as a complete time series as definitions have changed over this period. The present data collection process ensures that more detailed information than previously is collected and published on waiting times.

Mental Health: Young People

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the effect of modern technology and digital media on levels of mental health in children and adolescents. [175014]

Norman Lamb: The Department has made no such assessment.

I convened a meeting on 31 January 2013 bringing together internet security companies, charities and Departments to explore how to protect children and young people from harmful internet content related to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders. I urged the security companies to work collaboratively with interest groups and internet service providers to sign up to a concordat that would help to speed up the process for reporting harmful content and the blocking of harmful websites by parental controls. The companies gave me positive assurances that they would explore such a concordat.

I am working with companies and voluntary sector organisations to secure this concordat. The UK Council for Child Internet Safety is already making parental controls more accessible so that children can access less harmful content, such as pro-anorexia content.

Midwives: West Midlands

James Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many qualified midwives were employed by the NHS in the West Midlands in (a) the latest period for which figures are available and (b) May 2010. [175608]

Dr Poulter: Information on the number of registered midwives in the West Midlands Health Education England (HEE) area at 31 July 2013 and 31 May 2010 is shown in the following table.

Newham University Hospital

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to monitor the extent to which the planned benefits for Newham University Hospital of the merger into Barts Health Trust are being realised; and if he will make a statement. [175614]

Jane Ellison: This is a matter for the local commissioners of NHS services from Newham University Hospital. It is for local commissioners to ensure high quality services are being delivered to their patients.

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As part of the review of the merger proposal, commissioners and the merging parties agreed to put in place arrangements to monitor the realisation of the planned benefits and the Newham University Hospital's performance against quality indicators. Monitor is in correspondence with local commissioners about reporting arrangements.

NHS England

Liz Kendall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how much was spent on consultancy services by NHS England local area teams in (a) 2012-13 and (b) 2013-14; [175462]

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(2) how many NHS England local area teams there are; and what the (a) total budget, (b) number of staff employed and (c) budget for staff salaries is for each such team. [175585]

Dr Poulter: There are 24 NHS England Area Teams. These are not the same as Regional Teams.

The total budget for the Area Teams (pay and non-pay) is £229,958,766.

The number of staff employed (as at month 7, contracted) is 3,432.38 full time equivalent (FTE).

The pay budget is £168,061,103.

The breakdown for each area team is in the following table:

Nothing was spent on consultancy services by NHS England Area Teams in 2012-13, as NHS England only took on its full functions in April 2013. NHS England has informed us that £380,400 was spent in 2013-14 as at 31 October 2013.

NHS Property Services

Charlotte Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) pursuant to the answer of 8 November 2013, Official Report, column 380W, on NHS Property Services, (a) what the appointment procedure was and (b) what external scrutiny took place when the current shareholder representative on the board of NHS Property Services was appointed as a non-executive director; [175591]

(2) who the current shareholder representative on the board of NHS Property Services is and what salary they receive for that position; and what their current position within the Department of Health is and what salary they receive for that position; [175592]

(3) pursuant to the answer of 8 November 2013, Official Report, column 379W, on NHS Property Services, who the senior responsible officer for the PCT Estates Programme is; and what salary they receive for that position. [175593]

Dr Poulter: A shareholder representative is appointed to all Department of Health-owned limited companies to ensure the priorities and policy direction set by the Secretary of State for Health is adhered to. Following

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ministerial approval to form NHS Property Services Limited (NHS PS), the Commercial Director at the Department was appointed to act as one of the first directors (and thereby the shareholder representative) of the company—as is consistent with his role and responsibilities at the Department.

The shareholder representative does not receive a salary or expenses from the company for this position. The salary for their role as Commercial Director is published on the data.gov.uk website as part of the Government's transparency agenda.

The Department established the PCT Estates Programme to manage and identify emerging associated with the transfer of property and staff from primary care trusts and strategic health authorities into NHS PS. This programme came to an end on 31 March 2013.

The Senior Responsible Officer for the PCT Estates Programme was the Director General for Finance and NHS at the Department. The responsibility for running this programme was part of his role and did not attract separate remuneration.

Charlotte Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 8 November 2013, Official Report, column 379W, on NHS Property Services, whether the individual who was senior responsible officer for the PCT Estates Programme on 6 December 2012 was at any time (a) a non-executive director and (b) an executive director of NHS Property Services; what procedure any appointment followed; and what their salary is or was. [175748]

Dr Poulter: The Senior Responsible Officer for the PCT Estates Programme has never been a director or non-executive director of NHS Property Services Ltd. The responsibility for running this programme was part of his role and did not attract separate remuneration.

NHS: Commissioning Support Units

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) former NHS staff and (b) staff hired from outside the NHS work in NHS Commissioning support units. [175221]

Dr Poulter: NHS England has advised that the vast majority of Commissioning Support Unit (CSU) staff are NHS staff and have therefore previously worked for other NHS organisations (e.g. hospital trusts, community services and primary care trusts). Many of these staff have transferred into the CSU, maintaining their continuity of service. There are 8,447 staff currently employed through CSUs.

A relatively small proportion of staff employed in CSUs have been employed from outside agencies. The majority of these staff have been employed for their commercial experience and specialist expertise in order to improve the business acumen of the CSUs and to support the delivery of high quality commissioning support services to clinical, commissioners, including clinical commissioning groups and NHS England. Without interrogating all staff records it is not possible to provide exact figures for the information requested.

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Obesity: Children

Dr Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate his Department has made of the levels of child obesity in (a) England, (b) London and (c) Hendon constituency. [174882]

Jane Ellison: Data from the National Child Measurement Programme combined over three years from 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 show the following estimate of child obesity in England, London and Hendon:

Patient Choice Schemes

Liz Kendall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of NHS outpatient appointments were made through Choose and Book in each quarter between 2010 and 2013. [175463]

Dr Poulter: The information is provided in the following table:

Utilisation is calculated as the percentage of referrals made to first consultant-led out-patient services using Choose and Book.

Pharmacy

Mr Barron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effect a pharmacy-led national minor ailments scheme would have on the number of people attending accident and

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emergency services with minor ailments; what consideration he has given to the creation of such a scheme; what assessment he has made of the minor ailments schemes currently run by pharmacies; and if he will make a statement. [R] [174889]

Norman Lamb: NHS England is responsible for the commissioning of pharmaceutical services and can commission minor ailment services from community pharmacies as an enhanced service. Clinical commissioning groups can also commission minor ailment services. Both will do so according to local need.

NHS England is undertaking an urgent and emergency care review, which acknowledges the potential of community pharmacy in reducing pressure on the national health service and envisages this being a means to facilitate a greater level of patient self-care, where clinically appropriate. The outputs of the review will form a national framework to guide commissioners in the commissioning of urgent and emergency care services.

On 13 November, NHS England published its report, ‘Transforming urgent and emergency care services in England: Urgent and Emergency Care Review End of Phase 1 Report.’ This outlines proposals for changes to the current system of urgent and emergency care, and next steps. NHS England expect that if the full range of proposals made in the review, including those relating to community pharmacy, are implemented, then this will relieve pressure on the system as a whole—as well as its individual parts, such as accident and emergency departments. A copy of the report has been placed in the Library.

Smoking

Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department has plans to regulate and license shisha bars and cafes. [174943]

Jane Ellison: Shisha bars and cafes are already subject to existing tobacco control legislation including age of sale and smokefree legislation. The Government have no plans to introduce new legislation to regulate or licence shisha bars and cafes.

Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of the health effects of shisha smoking. [174944]

Jane Ellison: According to the World Health Organisation's advisory note Waterpipe Tobacco Smoke: Health effects, research needs and recommended actions by regulators, the science base supports the following conclusions to be made about waterpipe smoking:

Using a waterpipe to smoke tobacco poses a serious potential health hazard to smokers and others exposed to the smoke emitted. It is not a safe alternative to cigarette smoking.

A typical one-hour long waterpipe smoking session involves inhaling 100-200 times the volume of smoke inhaled with a single cigarette.

Even after it has been passed through water, the smoke produced by a waterpipe contains high levels of toxic compounds including carbon monoxide, heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals.

Commonly used heat sources that are applied to burn the tobacco, such as wood cinders or charcoal, are likely to increase the health risks because when such fuels are combusted they produce their own toxicants, including high levels of carbon monoxide, metals and cancer-causing chemicals.

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Pregnant women and the foetus are particularly vulnerable when exposed either actively or involuntarily to the waterpipe smoke toxicants.

Second-hand smoke from waterpipes is a mixture of tobacco smoke in addition to smoke from the fuel and therefore poses a serious risk for non-smokers.

There is no proof that any device or accessory can make waterpipe smoking safer.

Sharing a waterpipe mouthpiece poses a serious risk of transmission of communicable diseases, including tuberculosis and hepatitis.

Waterpipe tobacco is often sweetened and flavoured, making it very appealing; the sweet smell and taste of the smoke may explain why some people, particularly young people who otherwise would not use tobacco, begin to use waterpipes.

Public Health England is currently leading a project to identify the prevalence of shisha establishments across England, assess the nature of any enforcement difficulties in respect of smokefree legislation and develop a toolkit for local authorities to complement existing guidance to help them effectively tackle the challenges presented by shisha smoking in their local areas.

Telephone Services

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many telephone lines with the prefix (a) 0845, (b) 0844 and (c) 0843 his Department (i) operates and (ii) sponsors; how many calls each number has received in the last 12 months; and whether alternative numbers charged at the BT local rate are available in each case. [174999]

Dr Poulter: The Department operates or contracts for the provision of the following telephone lines with the prefix 0845:

The Healthy Start Issuing Unit public and beneficiary helpline (0845 607 6823), which received approximately 350,000 calls in the year up to 20 October 2013 (excluding short calls which terminated once the caller had listened to automated answers to common queries, on which no information is available). There is no alternative telephone number, but the helpline is also contactable by email or post, and call backs can be requested. The cost of calls to these numbers from landlines is capped to less than 4p a minute;

The Department's Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR) branch maintains a Major Incident Line using a 0845 prefix. This line is not advertised to the general public and is only used by health responders and other departments to contact the Department's EPRR team in the event of a major incident or emergency. It has not been used over the last 12 months; and

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) operates a number of telephone lines prefixed 0845 on the Department's behalf, although these are being replaced over time by 0300 numbers. Each of the 0845 numbers now has an alternative 0300 number which callers are advised of automatically, and this number along with a BT local rate number are publicised on the NHSBSA website. The relevant telephone lines relate to Help with Health Costs; NHS pensions; bursaries for Healthcare and Social Work students; European Health Insurance Cards; NHS Prescription Services; and NHS Dental Services. Between November 2012 and October 2013 the 0845 lines still in use received a total of 1,997,421 calls. Calls to these numbers from landlines typically cost up to l0p per minute, but this can vary depending upon the provider and in some cases calls from landlines will be included in free call packages.

The Department contracts for the provision of two telephone lines with the prefix 0844:

The Healthy Start Reimbursement Unit (HSRU) retailer helpline number (0844 991 2222) received 12,015 calls in the 12 months up

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to 30 September 2013. There is no alternative telephone number, but retailers can view the status of their claims for payment online, and can also contact HSRU by email or freepost; and

The Nursery Milk Scheme helpline number (0844 991 4444) received 16,210 calls in the 12 months up to 30 September 2013. There is no alternative telephone number, but the Nursery Milk Reimbursement Unit can also be contacted by email, fax and post, and child care providers can manage their claims for payment online. The cost of calls to these numbers is capped to less than 4p a minute from landlines.

The Department does not provide or contract for the provision of any telephone lines prefixed by 0843.

Information on any telephone lines prefixed by 0843, 0844 or 0845 separately operated by, or contracted for, by the Department's arm's length bodies could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Thromboembolism

Nick de Bois: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will take steps to ensure that (a) medical professionals and (b) patients are aware of the benefits of all currently available anticoagulant treatments; [175819]

(2) if he will take steps to ensure that patients who need anticoagulant treatment are given access to warfarin or novel oral anticoagulants; [175820]

(3) if he will take steps to ensure that patients are fully informed by medical professionals of all anticoagulant treatments available to them; [175821]

(4) what assessment he has made of the use of self-monitoring technology in the NHS; and if he will make a statement. [175822]

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Jane Ellison: Responsibility for determining the overall national approach to improving clinical outcomes from health care services lies with NHS England.

There are a range of anticoagulant treatments available, including Warfarin and novel anticoagulants. It is for individual clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to commission treatment and services for patients, as they are best placed to identify what is needed in their local areas.

It is the responsibility of NHS England to support CCGs and ensure that they are safely and effectively discharging their commissioning responsibilities, and are making progress in delivering excellent outcomes for patients. This support may include providing commissioning resources, tools or guidance.

NHS England advises that it expects practitioners to consider anticoagulant treatments in conjunction with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines and to discuss treatment options with the patient before deciding on the most appropriate course of action.

The Department has made no assessment of the use of self-monitoring technology in the national health service. Under its Diagnostics Assessment Programme, NICE is developing guidance on self-monitoring coagulometers for self-testing or self-managing coagulation status in patients with atrial fibrillation or heart valve disease for whom long-term vitamin K antagonist therapy is intended. NICE expects to issue guidance in July 2014. NHS England advises that it will then consider what action, if any, is required, taking this guidance into account.