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NHS: ICT

Volume 487: debated on Monday 2 February 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff in his Department have been employed (a) on the Connecting for Health project and (b) in roles relating to press and public relations work on the project in each year since it was announced. (252332)

Available information is in the following table. For 2003-05 it relates to the national programme for information technology (NPfIT) only. On 1 April 2005 the Department’s NHS Connecting for Health agency came into being. NHS Connecting for Health is responsible for delivering NPfIT, and maintaining the critical business systems previously provided to the national health service by the former NHS Information Authority.

TotalMedia team1

Employees

Other

Employees

Other

July 2003

80

130

n/a

n/a

July 2004

250

214

n/a

n/a

February 2005

349

301

2

0

February 2006

994

460

3

0

February 2007

1,119.7

566.8

4

0

February 2008

933.6

392

5

6

January 2009

1,098

367.9

4

1

n/a = Not available

1 Staff roles allocated on a ‘best fit’ basis with “press and public relations” duties.

Notes:

1. Figures are for full-time equivalent staff. ‘Other’ includes contract and temporary staff, and secondees.

2. Because of variation in staff numbers to meet workloads over time, figures are quoted for dates for which information is readily available. Figures since February 2005 are quoted as at February for ease of year-on-year comparison.