To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the figures for the last five financial years on capital expenditure and revenue in respect of (a) version 2 and (b) version 3 of the Read Codes. [18533]

Version 3 of the Read Codes was developed by the Clinical Terms Projects. The relevant costs are as follows:

£million
	Revenue	Capital
1992–93	1.1	Nil
1993–94	2.1	Nil
1994–95	0.5	Nil
Total	3.7	Nil

Although the Clinical Terms Projects ended in 1995, during 1994–95 and 1995–96 significant numbers of new Read Codes were added to version 3 as part of routine maintenance. The costs were as follows:

£ million
	Revenue	Capital
1994–95	0.7	Nil
1995–96	0.7	Nil
Total	1.4	Nil

Since 1996 maintenance of new Read Codes version 3 has stabilised. Maintenance of all versions is now part of the baseline activity of the NHS Centre for Coding and Classification. It is not possible retrospectively to break down its baseline budgets into separate capital and revenue figures for the maintenance of each version of the Read Codes.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the total licence income from all NHS sources to Computer Aided Medical Systems Ltd. in each financial year since 1991–92; and what proportion of this income was derived from Read Codes version 3. [18534]

The revenues for National Health Service licences paid to Computer Aided Medical Systems Ltd. up to 1995–96 are as follows:

£
April 1991 to September 1992 (18 months)	1,530,900
October 1992 to September 1993	1,286,912
October 1993 to September 1994	1,572,877
October 1994 to September 1995	1,684,016
October 1995 to September 1996	1,615,189

The relevant accounts for the year 1996–97 are not yet available.The National Health Service Read Code licence covers the use of all versions of the Read Codes and it is not possible to estimate what proportion of the above income was derived from Read Codes version 3.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations he has received from NHS clinicians in relation to Read Codes version 3; and what assessment he has made of the degree of clinician support for the viability of that version. [18535]

In 1994 the clinical professional bodies wrote formally to the National Health Service Executive supporting the use of the Read Coded Clinical terms as recommended clinical dictionary to underpin all clinical information systems and communication in the NHS.A review of the Information Management and Technology Strategy for the NHS is currently in progress and this will include a proposal for the future role of version 3 of the Read Codes.