To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is the distribution of settlement times for claims to the Compensation Agency for (a) injury and (b) damage. [34367]
Responsibility for the subject in question has been delegated to the Compensation Agency under its chief executive, Mr. Denis Stanley. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from D. A. Stanley to Mr. Tony Worthington, dated 17 July 1995:
The Minister of State, Sir John Wheeler, has asked me to reply, on behalf of the Compensation Agency, to your recent Question regarding settlement times for claims for criminal injury and criminal damage compensation in Northern Ireland.
During 1994–95 the average time taken to reach a decision on criminal injuries claims was 65 weeks. This compares with a key performance target of 71 weeks.
Over the same period the average time taken to decide criminal damage claims was 44 weeks compared with a key performance target of 40 weeks. Failure to reach this target can be attributed largely to a reduction in the number of criminal damage claims received following the paramilitary cease-fires. This reduction in new claims allowed the Agency to make significant in-roads into the clearance of older claims which inevitably led to an increase in the average time to decide claims.
The Agency's performance against all the key performance and subsidiary targets is shortly to be published in the Agency's Annual Report and Accounts for 1994–95.
September
| Eastern
| Northern
| Southern
| Western
| ||||
Number
| WTE
| Number
| WTE
| Number
| WTE
| Number
| WTE
| |
Qualified health visitors
| ||||||||
| 1993 | 209 | 191.9 | 109 | 100.2 | 88 | 80.5 | 71 | 64.9 |
| 1994 | 184 | 166 | 103 | 93.5 | 91 | 82.4 | 69 | 63.2 |
Qualified district nurses
| ||||||||
| 1993 | 161 | 157.0 | 72 | 69.2 | 64 | 63.2 | 75 | 72.3 |
| 1994 | 145 | 139.8 | 68 | 64.9 | 60 | 59.2 | 73 | 69.5 |
Qualified community psychiatric nurses
| ||||||||
| 1993 | 71 | 71.0 | 19 | 19.0 | 17 | 17.0 | 15 | 15.0 |
| 1994 | 68 | 67.0 | 20 | 20.0 | 16 | 16.0 | 19 | 19.0 |
Qualified school nurses
| ||||||||
| 1993 | 38 | 32.0 | 21 | 14.4 | 16 | 12.6 | 19 | 14.8 |
| 1994 | 46 | 38.1 | 21 | 14.4 | 18 | 14.1 | 19 | 14.9 |
Student health visitors
| ||||||||
| 1993 | 8 | 8.0 | — | — | 7 | 7.0 | — | — |
| 1994 | — | — | — | — | 5 | 5.0 | — | — |
Student district nurses
| ||||||||
| 1993 | 2 | 2.0 | — | — | 3 | 3.0 | — | — |
| 1994 | — | — | — | — | 2 | 2.0 | — | — |
Notes:
The latest figures available relate to September 1994.
WTE= whole-time equivalent.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will publish a breakdown by area of the health visitors, district nurses and school nurses by each income band for September 1993 and for the latest date for which information is available. [33255]
The information requested is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will publish a breakdown by area of the population numbers per health visitor on September 1992 and September 1993 and for the latest date for which information is available; and what is the number of health visitors (a) per under five and (b) per over 65 years in each area. [33256]
The information is as follows:
| September | Eastern | Northern | Southern | Western |
| Population number per health visitor | ||||
| 1992 | 2,842 | 3,503 | 3,270 | 3,399 |
| 1993 | 3,178 | 3,728 | 3,337 | 3,770 |
| 1994 | 3,620 | 3,967 | 3,267 | 3,910 |