To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on how the money to improve intensive care services announced in September 2002 has been spent.[108224]

Since 1997 we have steadily increased investment in the improvement of paediatric intensive care services. The announcement in September of an extra £10 million increased these additional funds to a total of £25 million, now available annually. The funding has been spent on capacity building for lead centres providing intensive care to the most critically ill children, ensuring greater access to these centres and to local high dependency care for children recovering from serious illness.