To ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures her Department plans to take in respect of those primary care trusts which (a) failed to achieve in 2005-06 and (b) fail to achieve in 2006-07 the proposed target of the purchase of 15 per cent. of the budget for all planned elective procedures from the private and independent sector. (81980)

The figure of 15 per cent. is not a target but a level of service that the independent sector might be providing by 2008. The number of procedures in any one year will vary depending on the actual case mix that is required by the local national health service. Contracts are designed to allow for this flexibility and therefore no action is required by the Department.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to her oral statement of 7 June 2006, Official Report, column 264, on NHS performance, what assessment she has made of the impact on primary care trusts (PCTs) of (a) social and economic deprivation, (b) the proportion of elderly people living in the community, (c) the demands of a rural economy and (d) the market forces factor where each factor has the greatest (i) positive and (ii) negative impact; and what assessment she has made of the average impact of each element on PCTs. (82500)

Our initial analysis on a range of factors relating to the 2005-06 financial positions of national health service organisations has shown that there is no strong relationship between NHS financial performance and any single factor.