To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 20 November 2007, Official Report, columns 838-9W, on social services: finance, whether the official steering group is the same as the review of the social care funding group announced by the hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr. Byrne) on 30 March 2006. (172898)

The official steering group, led by Her Majesty’s Treasury, is not the same as the Department of Health Comprehensive Spending Review social care working group, which was announced by the then Parliamentary-under Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr. Byrne), on 30 March 2006.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment the review of social care funding group announced by the hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr. Byrne) on 30 March 2006 made of (a) the long-term costs and cost pressures associated with social care, (b) who should pay for social care services, (c) secondary products relevant to long-term care and (d) options for whole system reform. (172931)

The Department’s Comprehensive Spending Review Social Care Working Group considered a range of issues around the long term funding of social care. The Group’s work was factored in to the Departments plans for social care funding in relation to the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007.