To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the National Implementation Director of his Department’s 18 weeks programme has spent on (a) travel and (b) other expenses in the last 12 months. (165698)

The following table sets out the amount spent on travel and other expenses by the National Implementation Director for 18 weeks in the 12 months to October 2007.

The National Implementation Director for 18 Weeks has spoken at or participated in 139 national, regional and local events over this period.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff work for the National Implementation Director of his Department’s 18 weeks programme, broken down by pay band. (165697)

Three people report directly to the National Implementation Director. These are Head of Service Transformation, Orthopaedics Programme Manager and a personal assistant.

Their Agenda for Change paybands are band 8D, band 8D and band 6 respectively.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health when changes have been made to the methods of measurement of his Department's target that patients should wait no more than 18 weeks for treatment since the target was announced; and what the (a) date of and (b) reason for the change was in each case. (165692)

No changes have been made to the methods of measurement of the target that by December 2008, no-one will have to wait more than 18 weeks from the time they are referred by their general practitioner for hospital treatment.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health in what percentage of cases his Department’s target that patients should wait no more than 18 weeks for treatment will apply; and if he will make a statement. (165694)

An operational tolerance is needed to account for when it would be clinically inappropriate to treat patients or where patients choose to wait longer than 18 weeks from referral.

The Department is currently considering the tolerance level needed to reflect this. The operational tolerance will be confirmed in the NHS Operating Framework for 2008-09.

Latest figures show that seven out of 10 patients are already being treated in 18 weeks or less. The NHS is making good progress towards effectively ending waiting next year.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many representations his Department has received expressing concern about meeting the 18 week waiting time target. (166371)

The Department receives a wide range of written and other representations on issues relating to 18 weeks. Information on the number of representations specifically expressing concern about meeting the target could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.