To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether decisions on the methods used for deep-cleaning hospitals will be made according to national or local guidelines. (160457)

[holding answer 23 October 2007]: The precise arrangements for the delivery of the deep-clean programme will be determined locally since individual trusts are best placed to know what is required and the best way of achieving it. There are therefore no plans to issue any guidelines centrally. Whether local guidelines will be issued by individual strategic health authorities (SHA), who will be allocating funding, is a matter for the SHA to decide.