To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the carbon dioxide emissions generated by (a) the NHS IT programme (i) to date and (ii) over the lifetime of the programme and (b) (A) the Connecting for Health Agency and (B) information technology usage in the NHS in the last 12 months. (222412)

There are a range of initiatives to reduce carbon dioxide emissions across the national health service and in the use of information technology, including initiatives extended to IT suppliers. However, information is not collected centrally that would enable such estimates to be made and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.