Written Answers to Questions
Monday 12 October 2009
Church Commissioners
Eco-Towns
With the assistance of their professional advisers, the Church Commissioners keep their property holdings under constant review to ensure that development potential is identified, thoroughly assessed and taken forward in the most appropriate way.
When the Government originally announced the eco-town idea, the Commissioners liaised with their advisers to determine whether any potential sites already identified in their portfolio might meet the eco-town criteria or whether any other land might be suitable to accommodate an eco-town. No suitable opportunities emerged and therefore this initiative was not taken forward in relation to the Commissioners' landholdings.
Business, Innovation and Skills
Apprentices
Table 1 shows the number of apprenticeship starts by Government Office Region and Gender in 2007-08, the latest year for which full-year figures are available. Table 2 shows the number of apprenticeship achievements by Government Office Region and Gender in 2007-08. This gives the total number of achievements in 2007-08, regardless of the academic year the apprenticeship started.
Tables 3 and 4 show the number of apprenticeship starts and achievements by Government Office Region and Sector Subject Area in 2007-08. Information is not available by 'industrial sector'.
Region Male Female Total North East 8,600 8,000 16,700 North West 18,200 17,200 35,500 Yorkshire and the Humber 16,200 13,100 29,300 East Midlands 10,800 10,900 21,700 West Midlands 11,600 13,800 25,400 East of England 10,800 10,200 21,000 London 7,200 7,300 14,500 South East 18,400 13,800 32,200 South West 14,600 10,700 25,300 Other 1,800 1,500 3,200 Total 118,200 106,600 224,800
Region Male Female Total North East 4,300 3,300 7,600 North West 9,700 9,300 19,000 Yorkshire and the Humber 9,000 6,300 15,400 East Midlands 5,400 5,300 10,700 West Midlands 6,900 6,700 13,600 East of England 5,400 4,600 10,000 London 3,100 3,100 6,200 South East 9,700 6,600 16,300 South West 7,500 5,000 12,500 Other 700 500 1,300 Total 61,700 50,800 112,600 Notes: 1. Region is based on home postcode of the learner. 2. Where the postcode is outside of England, or not known, learners are shown in the 'Other' category. 3. Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred and may therefore not sum to the totals. Source: Work-based Learning Individualised Learning Record
Sector Subject Area Male Female Total Agriculture, Horticulture and Animal Care 2,200 2,300 4,500 Arts, Media and Publishing 100 1— 100 Business, Administration and Law 14,700 36,100 50,700 Construction, Planning and the Built Environment 27,300 500 27,800 Education and Training 1— 300 300 Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies 41,800 1,300 43,100 Health, Public Services and Care 3,900 27,200 31,100 Information and Communication Technology 5,900 2,100 8,000 Languages, Literature and Culture 1— 1— 1— Leisure, Travel and Tourism 3,400 2,800 6,300 Preparation for Life and Work 1— 1— 1— Retail and Commercial Enterprise 16,700 32,600 49,300 Science and Mathematics 1— 1— 1— Unknown 2,200 1,300 3,500 Total 118,200 106,600 224,800
Sector Subject Area Male Female Total Agriculture, Horticulture and Animal Care 1,200 1,300 2,500 Arts, Media and Publishing 100 1— 200 Business, Administration and Law 6,300 17,200 23,600 Construction, Planning and the Built Environment 17,600 200 17,800 Education and Training 1— 1— 1— Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies 20,200 500 20,800 Health, Public Services and Care 1,800 12,000 13,800 Information and Communication Technology 4,400 1,200 5,500 Languages, Literature and Culture 1— 1— 1— Leisure, Travel and Tourism 2,100 1,500 3,600 Preparation for Life and Work 1— 1— 1— Retail and Commercial Enterprise 7,800 16,700 24,400 Science and Mathematics 1— 1— 1— Unknown 200 200 400 Total 61,700 50,800 112,600 1 Indicates a value of less than 50. Note: 1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred and may therefore not sum to the totals. Source: Work-based Learning Individualised Learning Record
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: Table 1 shows the number of Learning and Skills Council funded apprenticeship starts by learners aged under 19 in North East Cambridgeshire parliamentary constituency and England from 2003-04 to 2007-08, the latest year for which full-year figures are available.
Area 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 North East Cambridgeshire parliamentary constituency 230 210 180 230 240 England 108,300 113,500 99,500 105,600 107,600 Notes: 1. Parliamentary constituency is based on home postcode of the learner. 2. The figures provided for England includes learners undertaking apprenticeships in England. It includes those resident in England, a small number of learners which are resident outside of England e.g. in Scotland or Wales, and those where their postcode is not known. 3. Figures for parliamentary constituency have been rounded to the nearest ten and figures for England have been rounded to the nearest hundred. 4. Age Source: Work-based Learning Individualised Learner Record (WBL ILR) is calculated based on age at start of programme.
The Government are committed to rebuilding apprenticeships. Since 1997 we have witnessed a renaissance in apprenticeships from a low point of 65,000 to a record 225,000 apprenticeship starts in 2007-08, of which 107,600 were by young people (aged under 19). Completion rates are also at a record high with 64 per cent. successfully completing an apprenticeship—up from 37 per cent. in 2004-05. The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill now before Parliament will ensure that an apprenticeship place is available for all suitably qualified young people by 2013.
Apprentices: Financial Institutions
We do not hold data centrally that can be used to accurately estimate the total number of apprentices within financial institutions in the City of London.
The London Apprenticeships Taskforce is working to expand apprenticeships in all sectors in London, including financial services. Activity to develop apprenticeships in this sector is being supported by the National Skills Academy for Financial Services. Eskills (the sector skills council for business and information technology) is also developing an IT London Action Plan, which aims to expand apprenticeships in London, including in the financial services sector.
Bankruptcy
The number of individuals with debts of less than £15,000 who filed for bankruptcy in each of the 12 months from April 2008 are as follows:
Number April 2008 902 May 2008 768 June 2008 873 July 2008 1,033 August 2008 737 September 2008 867 October 2008 944 November 2008 888 December 20087 41 January 2009 845 February 2009 903 March 2009 977 Total 10,478
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: The available information on the number of bankruptcies in England, Greater Manchester and Stockport, by age group, can be seen in the following tables. Information prior to 2000 is not available on this basis.
Age group1 Under 25 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 and over Unknown 2000 829 5,510 6,017 3,948 1,565 378 1,933 2001 1,001 5,956 5,691 4,182 1,801 396 2,227 2002 1,191 6,003 6,834 4,175 2,019 559 2,038 2003 1,655 6,915 7,882 4,888 2,491 679 2,117 2004 2,530 8,937 9,949 5,957 3,240 922 2,678 2005 3,338 11,369 13,058 8,103 4,500 1,418 3,584 2006 3,810 14,844 17,751 11,137 6,368 2,152 4,090 2007 2,938 14,797 18,371 12,023 6,727 2,400 4,240 2008 2,769 15,121 19,388 13,260 6,892 2,455 4,256
Age group1 Under 25 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 and over Unknown 2000 20 196 237 163 62 17 72 2001 31 247 273 187 76 13 125 2002 40 225 289 167 85 22 135 2003 44 255 313 195 91 26 118 2004 74 326 364 266 134 45 87 2005 96 378 508 337 206 66 167 2006 131 604 751 491 295 122 154 2007 121 599 830 578 334 128 147 2008 106 679 887 661 366 118 143
Age group1 Under 25 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 and over Unknown 2000 1 12 30 24 4 3 9 2001 0 23 29 12 9 0 13 2002 2 11 21 17 10 1 12 2003 5 13 40 25 14 4 7 2004 3 30 31 38 12 6 10 2005 9 40 50 37 17 8 7 2006 13 66 65 41 27 9 8 2007 13 50 77 74 18 13 13 2008 6 62 95 67 40 7 9 1 Where the bankrupt has provided a valid postcode (increasing from 88 per cent. of cases in 2000 to 97 per cent. in 2008).
Banks: Loans
[holding answer 15 May 2009]: The Department sent a mini prospectus to the British Banking Association who circulated it to its members. The Working Capital Scheme is not directly available to businesses; however, £2 billion of guarantees have been provided to banks under the scheme to free up regulatory capital for new lending to UK companies. As a result of action by the Government and the regulatory authorities leading to improvements in the capital position of the UK banking system since the introduction of the WCS, the Government have been able to allocate resource provision for the WCS to other measures to support businesses, including as announced at the Budget 2009 a trade credit insurance ‘top-up’ scheme and a possible new letters of credit scheme in the Export Credit Guarantee Department.
Banks: Meetings
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: The purpose of these meetings was to enable the relevant Ministers and officials to consider the substantive issues raised by this case and to ensure the Secretary of State was in a position to take properly informed final decisions in accordance with his statutory duties under the Enterprise Act 2002. No summary of outcomes from the meetings was required to ensure action was taken forward. Ministers had the appropriate material and relevant officials at the meetings. The conclusions reached are reflected either in the subsequent actions taken, advice to Ministers about the next steps, or are otherwise set out in public statements such as the final decision document which seeks to provide a clear summary of the reasons behind the decision. The Department does not have a specific policy on taking minutes of meetings though there is a general requirement to keep an appropriate record of all departmental business.
Broadband: Rural Areas
The cable broadband network in the UK is owned and provided by Virgin Media. It is a commercial decision for them whether they should extend this network. However, the Government are working to implement the key broadband recommendations made in the Digital Britain Report to improve the UK's communications infrastructure, namely around the universal service commitment to broadband and Next Generation broadband.
The Universal Service Commitment will ensure the possibility of universal broadband access to virtually all UK homes and businesses at a speed of at least 2Mbps by 2012. The Network Design and Procurement Group will be responsible for the procurement and delivery of the universal service commitment, and will be established by the autumn. Those currently unable to receive a service will be given priority.
The Government are also working to set up the Next Generation Fund to help pay for upgrading the UK telecoms infrastructure, which will help to incentivise the delivery of next generation broadband to the home or business premises in the final third of the UK that the market will not deliver to.
Business Link
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: The RDAs have no record of any business that has requested a Business Link health check having had their request refused for the whole period since such health checks began.
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: No Business Link employee who was directly employed in the provision of the Business Link service, by RDAs and their Business Link Providers, travelled to Beijing to attend the Beijing Olympics in July 2008 in their capacity as a Business Link employee.
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: The number of Business Link employees who carry out health checks as part of their role is shown in the following table.
Name of RDA Number of Business Link employees who currently carry out business health checks AWM 63 EEDA 80 EM DA 94 LDA 49 NWDA 134 ONE 93 SEEDA 162 SWRDA 86 YF 133
Business Links: Finance
For the period 2007-08, an estimate of the budget for Business Link allocated by the regional development agencies was £190 million. No forward budget is agreed with the RDAs for this activity. Business Link services are funded from the Government’s single-pot to the regional development agencies to deliver agreed core services to businesses in each region. The exact budget for those contracted services is left for each RDA to determine based on what is appropriate for its region.
In 2005, responsibility for managing Business Link face-to-face services was transferred to the RDAs. The previous budget used to deliver Business Link services was added to the Department's contribution towards the RDA "Single-Pot". This allows the regions to draw down as much or as little funding as they see fit to deliver the service in their areas.
Over the last five years, the RDAs have allocated the following budgets to their Business Link providers:
£ million 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 NWRDA 17.8 17.8 14.1 16.5 22.1 ONENE 14.1 14.1 12.9 12.9 15.8 AWM 27.2 24.8 22.8 35.2 34.2 EMDA 20.3 14.4 13.0 13.7 18.6 EEDA 15.7 15.5 15.8 16.0 16.2 Y&H £13.0 13.0 13.0 13.0 17.8 LDA £23.7 23.8 19.4 26.7 26.6 SWRDA 24.6 24.6 19.6 19.9 25.8 SEEDA 24.0 24.0 24.0 24.0 30.1
Business Links: Manpower
In the context of the question posed, ‘business advisers’ have been defined as including face-to-face business (link) advisers delivering services under the Business Link brand; that may include functional/sector specialists but not those operating under other service brands e.g. MAS. Internal/telephone based support or partnership staff have not been included.
From 1 April, skills brokerage for Train to Gain was integrated with the Business Link service, accounting for the significant increase in Business Link adviser numbers this year.
Comprehensive national data can only be provided from April 2008 by which time all RDAs had re-contracted to the current network of Business Link providers. Some of the regional data for prior months was held by former Business Link providers and it would be disproportionate cost to collect this information.
Month Number of Business Link advisers April 2008 747 May 2008 748 June 2008 744 July 2008 776 August 2008 804 September 2008 829 October 2008 830 November 2008 835 December 2008 841 January 2009 854 February 2009 855 March 2009 854 April 2009 1021 May 2009 1030 June 2009 1038 July 2009 1051 August 2009 1160 September 2009 1166
Business: Government Assistance
£2 billion of guarantees have been provided to banks under the Working Capital Scheme to free up regulatory capital for new lending to UK companies. As a result of action by the Government and the regulatory authorities, leading to improvements in the capital position of the UK banking system since the introduction of the WCS, the Government have been able to allocate resource provision for the WCS to other measures to support businesses, including as announced at the Budget 2009 a trade credit insurance top up scheme and a possible new letters of credit scheme in the Export Credit Guarantee Department.
Business Link is the Department’s main channel of support businesses of all sizes. In the 12 months to end June 2009, advisers helped over 930,800 businesses, with over 76,000 receiving intensive one-to-one support. The businesslink.gov.uk website attracted around 11.2 million visitors in the same period.
Examples of other specific assistance received by small and medium sized enterprises from BIS and its predecessors include:
In 2008/09, UK Trade and Investment activities assisted 20,700 individual companies to exploit opportunities in overseas markets.
The Enterprise Finance Guarantee, which up to 21 August 2009 has offered loans totalling over £470 million to over 4,600 businesses.
The Technology Strategy Board has supported various collaborative R&D projects and knowledge transfer activities:
Nearly 1,000 SMEs have received grants for collaborative R&D projects worth over £25 million in the 12 month to June 2009.
Over 760 SMEs have received support for Knowledge Transfer Partnerships totalling over £18 million in the 12 months to July 2009.
In addition 57,000 are members of our Knowledge Transfer Networks of which a proportion are SMEs.
Skill support to SMEs through Train to Gain. Provisional information for 2008/09 shows that within the academic year 100,000 SMEs have had an employee start a Train to Gain course.
The annual reports for BERR and DIUS describe the other forms of business support provided more fully in 2008/09.
Business Link is the Department’s main channel of support businesses of all sizes. In the 12 months to end June 2009, advisers helped over 930,800 businesses, with over 76,000 receiving intensive one-to-one support. The businesslink.gov.uk website attracted around 11.2 million visitors in the same period.
Examples of other specific assistance received by small and medium sized enterprises from BIS and its predecessors include:
In 2008/09, UK Trade and Investment activities assisted 20,700 individual companies to exploit opportunities in overseas markets.
The Enterprise Finance Guarantee, which up to 21 August 2009 has offered loans totalling over £470 million to over 4,600 businesses.
The Technology Strategy Board has supported various collaborative R&D projects.
East of England Development Agency (EEDA) funds a range of services to support businesses in the East of England.
Since 2007 EEDA has invested over £30 million annually on a range of services to support businesses from all sectors across the region. This includes the regional Business Link service, specific business support schemes and business finance grants for eligible businesses.
The following information identifies funding for these services.
Note:
Not all of these schemes were in place 10 years ago, therefore funding will be provided as far back as possible. EEDA was not created until 1999; and has only been operating significant business support schemes since 2007.
Business Support Programmes
From 1 April 2007 EEDA has provided £32 million of funding to Business Link East to deliver the service across the region. From 2008/09 Business Link has interacted with 108,391 businesses in the East of England of which 1,416 have been in mid Bedfordshire. Since October 2008 around 8,000 free ‘health checks’ have been delivered in the region.
For the period of 2005-08 EEDA has funded the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) East to the value of £3.4 million and has awarded a further £3.3 million between 2008-11. Bedfordshire businesses, during the period November 2005-October 2008, received £163,680 worth of business support. 104 companies received a basic one-day review through the MAS-east programme. Of these, nineteen companies also received a full implementation programme resulting in 32 projects which generated gross value added of £613,852.00.
EEDA’s Take ITon campaign assists businesses to improve use of IT, focused on helping SMEs save cost through IT. Since December 2007 the regional programme has totalled 347 grants, investing £1,105,508.01 to leverage a total of £3,227,784.06. Mid Bedfordshire Take ITon has funded a total of 11 grants, investing £32,440 and leveraging in a total of £99,166.50.
£2.2 million has funded a regional response to redundancy programme which has supported companies across the region and in Mid Bedfordshire.
Business Finance Schemes:
EEDA has operated a number of business finance schemes since 2003 such as Grant for Research and Development, Proof of Concept funds, Grants for Business Investment. The amounts funded to date for the former county of Bedfordshire are:
£ Grant for Research and Development 18,177,981 Proof of Concept funds 346,217
For the former county of Bedfordshire funding totalled £20,845,345 which has been matched against further investment of £134,067,981.
In May 2009 EEDA launched an Understanding Finance for Business Programme which provides coaching and mentoring to SMEs.
EEDA launched a £5 million Regional Loan Fund in May 2009, aimed at supporting innovative SMEs in early growth prior to attracting venture capital funding.
EEDA is also promoting Olympic opportunities to businesses through CompeteFor, a web based portal. So far 9612 businesses have registered in the region and of those 573 are in Bedfordshire.
East of England Development Agency funds a range of services to support businesses from all sectors across the region. This includes the regional Business Link service, specific business support schemes and business finance grants for eligible businesses.
Key examples of funding and support to IT businesses in the region, where possible, broken down by IT sector and location include:
Since December 2007 £76,561 has been provided through the TakeITon campaign for businesses to receive support for enhanced ICT. Of this, £9,980 in Bedfordshire and £1,980 in mid-Beds.
Since January 2001 EEDA has provided £4,305,127 in Business finance grants in the East of England and of this, £508,050 in Bedfordshire.1
1 Some of the above are grants to businesses under either the Grants for Business Investment (GBI) or Grant for Research and Development (GRaD) programmes. GBI, previously known as Selective Finance for Investment in England (SFIE), transferred to EEDA from the Small Business Service (SBS) in April 2002. GRaD transferred to EEDA from SBS in April 2005.
In July the Government published the Low Carbon Industrial Strategy which outlined the first investments from the £405 million for low carbon industries and advanced green manufacturing announced at Budget 2009. The strategy announced up to £60 million to capitalise on Britain’s wave and tidal sector strengths, up to £15 million capital investment in order to establish a Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, up to £10 million for the accelerated deployment of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, a £4 million expansion of the Manufacturing Advisory Service, up to £6 million to construct low carbon affordable homes and up to £120 million to support the development of a British based offshore wind industry. Copies of the strategy are available in the Libraries of the House.
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: The Capital for Enterprise Fund (CFEF) provides a total commitment of £75 million, made up of £50 million in public funds and agreement in principle to an additional £25 million from the main banks (Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC and RBS).
As from 10 September 2009, CFEF has made 26 offers totalling almost £40 million to 26 businesses. Two of these deals have completed so far with a total value of £3 million.
The Capital for Enterprise Fund (CfEF) makes investments of between £200,000 and £2 million of equity and mezzanine finance. The investment is aimed at releasing and sustaining the growth potential of businesses that are over-geared, under-capitalised or both. To apply, all applicants must have their principal place of business within the UK or be able to demonstrate why an investment will be of tangible benefit to the UK. Additionally, all applications must meet the EU definition of an SME.
CfEF was announced as part of the Real Help Now programme on 14 January and businesses were able to register their applications for the fund immediately through a dedicated registration service. Following an appointment process the contracted Fund Managers were able to start processing these in March.
As at 22 September five businesses had received investment from the CfEF totalling £6.15 million at an average of £ 1.23 million per deal. The first investment was completed on 31 July.
The Department has marketed the CfEF to businesses as part of the wider programme of support through Real Help, in particular through Business Link and using national and regional promotional activity which includes sources of communications used by the main business representative bodies to their members. The CfEF Fund Managers have also produced a promotional flyer which is distributed to businesses through their network of professional bodies.
As a commercial fund the investment process for CfEF involves a period of due diligence and negotiation, which involves the fund manager and potential investee company and often existing investors and lenders to the business. The length of time required to complete this can vary significantly in each case and there is no formal target time between an application and investment, although the managers are working to progress investments as quickly as possible.
Business: Regulation
In May 2005, the administrative cost of regulations was measured using the internationally recognised Standard Cost Model. The measurement exercise included 19 Government Departments, regulators and agencies. The burden was estimated at £13.2 billion annually. The Government have committed to reduce administrative burdens associated with complying with regulations by 25 per cent. net by May 2010. As at December 2008, an estimated £1.9 billion net annual savings had been delivered.
Calman Commission
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has not received any representations from the CBI, the British Chambers of Commerce or any other business organisations on the potential effects of the implementation of the Calman Commission proposals on business costs.
Companies House
The information is as follows:
(a) Prior to January 2008 Companies House issued paper customer surveys covering Companies House Direct, E-Filing, the Contact Centre and also a general survey (which was also available on the Companies House website). Approximately 25,000 were sent each year.
Since January 2008 the customer surveys have been completely electronic and the paper survey is no longer issued. Approximately 60,000 were sent out each year to our WebFiling, Software Filing, Companies House Direct and WebCHeck customers. A customer survey is also available to complete on our website and the Contact Centre survey is included as a link on every e-mail sent out by the Contact Centre.
(b) The number of Companies House customer survey responses are as follows. Unfortunately due to software changes there are no statistics available for the year 2005-06.
Responses 2006-07 8,798 2007-08 7,775 2008-09 9,975
The Companies House WebCHeck service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Companies House: Correspondence
The number of letters received by the chief executive of Companies House from hon. Members in each of the last four years is as follows:
2005: 38 letters
2006: 55 letters
2007: 54 letters
2008: 60 letters.
Companies House: Manpower
The total absence figures of employees of Companies House from work from 2006 to 2008 are listed as follows and have been calculated by adding individual employees absence for each year. The figures for 2005 are not available due to a systems problem.
Number of days 2006 2007 2008 (a) 0 405 140 246 (b) 1-5 481 466 447 (c) 6-10 139 191 189 (d) 11-15 54 70 72 (e) 16+ 155 190 160
Construction
Mark Gibson, now chief executive of the Whitehall and Business Group is currently leading a review of productivity and skills in the engineering construction sector.
Information relating to the securing of individual contracts in a particular sector, including engineering construction, is not collected by Government. The award of engineering construction contracts is a business matter for the parties concerned, and the various award criteria are commercial issues for the private sector clients involved.
Construction Clearing House: Apprentices
(2) how many times the Construction Clearing House Committee has met since its establishment; and who the members are of that committee.
The service operated by Construction Skills provides a helpline offering advice and support for employers, apprentices and parents to help redundant apprentices find alternative employment and help support those whose job is at risk. Construction Skills also actively seek new employers for displaced apprentices to complete their Apprenticeship framework. This service is now available to all training providers delivering Apprenticeships in construction. Additional funding has recently been made available to Construction Skills to provide employers with a £1,000 grant to help with the costs of employing a displaced apprentice. These arrangements are in addition to the contractual requirement on all training providers to help apprentices find alternative employment if they lose their job. The National Apprenticeships Service (NAS) introduced new flexibilities earlier in the year to help ensure apprentices can continue in training to complete their Apprenticeship.
The clearing house arrangements are not directly overseen by a committee; they are managed as part of the operational responsibilities of Construction Skills and NAS.
Construction Task Force
(2) what recent steps the Construction Task Force has taken to ensure the security of apprenticeship places in the construction industry; and if he will make a statement.
The Construction Apprenticeships Task Force membership comprised:
Member Simon Waugh National Apprenticeship Service James Wates Wates Group Alan Ritchie Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians John Thompson Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians Tom Wilson Trade Union Congress Bob Blackman Unite Tom Kelly GMB Union Frank Horan College of North West London Ian Billyard Leeds College of Building Susan Forsyth Chichester College Keith Donnelly Carillion Plc Geoff Green Greenwood services George Fraser ROK Group Nicholas Fowler Denne Construction Geoff Lister Federation of Master Builders Mark Farrar Construction Skills, Sector Skills Council
Representatives from the Department, the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Homes and Communities Agency also attended by invitation. The Task Force met four times between November 2008 and April 2009. The group considered the impact of the economic downturn and its effect on the Construction labour market and agreed actions on a number of issues affecting Apprenticeships in the industry. Key recommendations were on public sector procurement and support for displaced construction apprentices. On procurement we continue to work across Government and in the industry to implement the specific construction commitment set out in the pre-Budget report, 2008 and the task force provided structured input into this process. Progress includes commitments to create new apprenticeship places through the Department of Children’s Schools and Families’ Building Schools for the Future programme, from the Olympic Delivery Authority on the Olympic Park and Village site, and through the Homes and Communities Agency’s £5 billion annual investment budget. For displaced apprentices the Construction Matching Service has sought new jobs for apprentices, and offered advice and support for employers, apprentices and parents through a national helpline. The Task Force also looked at the role of trade unions and medium-to-long term strategies for expanding apprenticeships in the sector, these wider issues will be taken forward through the Cross-Industry Construction Apprenticeship Task Force which advises Government on Apprenticeship issues affecting the sector.
Construction: Apprentices
Like other engineering-related sectors, the engineering construction industry offers attractive career opportunities, but shares challenges in attracting employees for the future. In this regard, there are ongoing discussions at ministerial, and official levels on issues that directly impact on engineering construction. A programme of actions is being taken forward by Government, in conjunction with the sector skills councils and the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board, to address these matters. The Diploma in Construction and the Built Environment, and the Diploma in Engineering, were launched in September 2008, with the aim of introducing young people to the world of working in these industries. This Government are also committed to a significant growth in apprenticeships. That is why funding for apprentices has been increased by almost a quarter since 2007/08 to over £1 billion in 2009/10.
Construction: Industrial Disputes
The Department has not undertaken an assessment of trends in industrial action in the engineering construction sector.
Construction: Reviews
The review is expected to be completed around autumn this year.
Corus: Loans
On 25 June, my noble Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills offered a £5 million training package to Corus. The offer was also discussed when the Prime Minister met with Kirby Adams, Chief Executive Officer of Corus on 16 July.
At present officials in BIS and the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) are working with Corus to take forward the offer of assistance which will contribute to training the workforce, retain capacity in the UK and help the company through the downturn and to recover more strongly as economic conditions improve.
The training package will benefit Corus operations in the regions covered by Yorkshire Forward and ONE North East RDAs and will support apprenticeship and graduate training programmes and a range of training packages focused on Corus' shop floor workers.
Corus has provided assurances relating to the future of 3,000 employees and 1,000 contractors in the Yorkshire and Humber region and in excess of 1,200 employees and 500 contractors within the Tees Valley up to the end of 2010. It is planned that a significant proportion of the training support funding will be drawn down before the end of December 2009.
Departmental Advertising
The former Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) spent £417,906 on press advertising via the Central Office of Information in 2008-09 as follows:
£ Agency Workers Campaign 2008-09 341,212 Employing People 2008-09 37,140 National Minimum Wage 2008-09 30,260 Dispute Resolution 2008-09 5,977 Trawlermen Compensation Scheme 2008-09 3,317 Total 417,906
In addition central financial records indicate that BERR spent £90,235 in 2008-09 through an advertising agency on advertising for external recruitment.
The former Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) spent £208,137 on press advertising via the Central Office of Information in 2008-09 as below:
£ Higher Education Student Finance campaign 2008-09 58,560 Science Innovation Press Campaign 2008-09 149,577 Total 208,137
A breakdown of expenditure on newspaper advertising by title could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has not done any advertising of the Department due to machinery of government changes.
Departmental Buildings
This Department has directorates based in the following buildings in central London:
1 Victoria Street, London SW1H OET
Kingsgate House, 66-74 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6SW
Departmental Dismissal
Staff may be dismissed for poor performance, poor attendance, gross misconduct, repeated misconduct and the contract of employment terminated. Information for the Department and its predecessors in relation to dismissals is set out in the following table. Totals of less than five are suppressed on grounds of confidentiality.
Number of staff dismissed 2009-10 (to date) Less than 5 2008-09 8 2007-08 14 2006-07 11 2005-06 15
Staff may also be dismissed in law when a fixed term contract terminates at the end of the contract period and is not renewed. These are not included.
Information about the costs of terminating contracts is not held in the format requested and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. Where the dismissal relates to either gross misconduct or repeated misconduct no severance cost payments are payable.
Departmental EC Law
It is very difficult to provide precise figures for the annual cost to the economy arising from UK implementation of legislation that stems from the European Union.
The administrative burdens measurement exercise carried out by the Government in 2006 put the proportion of administrative burdens stemming from the EU at approximately 1/3 of the annual total of 13.2 billion pounds.
Departmental Electronic Equipment
The Department holds information only on the total number of Blackberry and laptop computers used by BIS staff during the requested period and the mobile telephone services held by ex BERR staff in 2008. The information available is presented in the following table.
Laptops in use Laptops lost/stolen Blackberries in use Blackberries lost/stolen Mobiles in use Mobiles lost/stolen 2004 2,650 12 0 0 n/k 26 2005 2,500 14 60 3 n/k 11 2006 1,620 8 60 3 n/k 14 2007 2,163 8 539 14 n/k 2 2008 1,917 13 567 17 949 2
Departmental Flexible Working
The information is as follows:
1. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills was created on 5 June, with the merger of BERR and DIUS.
2. Both staff on former BERR and DIUS terms and conditions have flexible working policies which enable staff to vary their conditioned hours, and support a work-life balance. The different ways to work flexibly include flexi-time, part-time, also compressed hours, term-times and home working. In addition staff can job share and have access to an internal job share register and the wider Civil Service Job Share Website.
3. The former Departments do not keep a central record of how many staff participate in such arrangements each year; flexible working is dealt with locally by line managers in accordance with the departmental policies. In the 2008 Staff Surveys, of the staff who responded to the survey 68 per cent. of former BERR and 66 per cent. of former DIUS staff said they worked flexibly.
Departmental ICT
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills IT infrastructure systems are provided via long standing agreements with Fujitsu Services and cover desktop services, web infrastructure services and in some cases other business applications, which are charged for as part of the overall, bundled, service charge.
In the last five years the following systems have, however, been developed from scratch and the details requested are provided:
Flexible Computing
Reason for development: Provision of secure remote access services via Blackberries and mobile laptops
Development costs: £4.9 million
Lynx
Reason for development: Provision of a correspondence handling system
Development cost: £1.9 million
MATRIX 2
Reason for development: Upgrade to the Department's existing electronic document management system, (itself over five years old)
Development cost: £104,000
SPIRE
Reason for development: Provision of a range of electronic export control services
Development cost: £2.6 million
In all cases all systems were fully implemented and remain fully operational.
Departmental Industrial Accidents
Since its inception on 8 June, there have been eight workplace accidents recorded across the BIS estate related to departmental employees or contractors. The cause of each accident, all of which were relatively minor, was as follows:
1. Finger caught by spring loaded bin lid.
2. Bump on head following fall caused by an ongoing medical condition.
3. Bump on nose caused by front cover of a paper towel dispenser falling open.
4. Fall following standing on an office chair (two instances).
5. Contractor cut finger while replacing broken light fitting.
6. Injured back while moving a cabinet.
7. Struck knee while lifting an item of computer equipment into trolley bag.
Departmental Languages
This information is not held centrally and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, based on business demand, there are 19 civil servants in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills currently receiving language training from our preferred supplier.
Departmental Manpower
Since the creation of BIS we have moved Ministers and their private office staff, plus Press Office staff. In total, we have moved 46 staff. We have also moved 170 policy officials within our two London buildings, although these were simply people moves rather than structural changes.
Moving ex DIUS staff into 1 Victoria Street was already planned before the merger between DIUS and BERR to create BIS. None of these moves were required at the previous MOG, when DECC was created and ex BERR staff moved from 1 Victoria Street to 3 Whitehall Place.
We do not record this information nor hold it centrally. It could only be made available at disproportionate cost.
We are unable to supply details of suspensions as authority to suspend staff is delegated to line managers throughout the Department and a central record is not maintained.
The average length of employment of ex-DIUS staff is shown in the following table as at 31 March.
Pay band Years EA 8.1 EO 8.8 HEO 7.9 SEO 9.1 G7 8.1 G6 6.8 Directors, directors general and above 3.4
The average length of employment of ex-BERR staff is shown in the following table as at 31 March.
Pay band Years AA 8.2 AO 19.2 EO 18.2 HEO 10.9 SEO 21.0 G6 12.7 G7. 17.9 Directors, directors general and above 11.6
Departmental Marketing
The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) had one member of staff responsible for managing the Department’s brand. This included the publication and dissemination of the brand guidelines and advising on their application. It is estimated that 25 per cent. of this person’s time was spent on branding-related activities. Based on the average pay costs for a member of staff at this grade, this represents a staff cost of approximately £11,653 in 2008/09.
The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) had one member of staff responsible for managing the Department’s brand. It is estimated that 25 per cent. of this person’s time was spent on branding-related activities. The total staff cost on branding was approximately £6,300 in 2008/09.
Departmental Meetings
Officials from UK Trade and Investment have met with representatives from Landis & Gyr in the last three years. Neither Ministers nor officials have met with Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd., Eastern Petroleum Corporation Ltd., African Minerals Ltd. or Energy Enterprises Ltd.
The Prime Minister’s delivery unit is in constant contact with Departments as part of its process of taking stock of delivery. It reports regularly to the PM, the Treasury and the Departments concerned.
Departmental Motor Vehicles
The Department spent the following on hire vehicles (including leasing) in the last five financial years:
£ 2004-05 709,714 2005-06 662,084 2006-07 574,068 2007-08 628,126 2008-09 673,781
Departmental Non-Domestic Rates
This Department owns only one building, situated in Edinburgh, which is fully occupied. This is a warehouse facility that is currently let to the British Geological Survey, part of the Natural Environment Research Council, and they are liable for the business rates bill. The building is let to them on a 10 year term which began in August 2005.
All other departmental buildings are leased.
Departmental Official Hospitality
The Department spent £154,444 on hospitality and £1,078,530 on entertainment in 2008-09.
Departmental Paternity Leave
The information is as follows:
1. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills was created on 5 June 2009, with the merger of BERR and DIUS.
2. The former Departments did not keep a central record of how many staff took paternity leave. Paternity leave is dealt with locally by line managers in accordance with the departmental policies. The information can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
3. Paid paternity leave for former BERR staff is two weeks and for former DIUS staff is three weeks.
Departmental Pay
You will be aware that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has only recently been created (6 June 2009) by merging the former Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). BIS is still in the early stages of setting up its own systems and policies so I have provided you with the information you have requested based on the rewards paid by the former BERR and DIUS.
Ex-BERR and ex-DIUS has two common bonuses, while ex-BERR has three. Both Departments awards:
1. Non-consolidated performance pay and non-pay reward to recognise performance in particularly demanding tasks or situations. Staff in receipt of a special bonus may also receive an annual performance award. This award is open to all staff.
2. Annual Performance Awards paid to Highly Successful performance as part of the annual pay award.
3. In addition, BERR also awards Team Triumphs—Team Triumphs is an awards ceremony designed to recognise the achievements of teams in the Department. Any team can be nominated providing it has at least two members. Cost of this scheme comes out of non-consolidated performance pay and non-pay rewards pot.
The following tables show the number of staff receiving the awards, and the cost of the scheme.
Number of staff receiving Total value (£) Number of staff receiving Total value3 (£) 2008-09 1,218 586,631 2,930 2,240,592 2007-08 1,238 693,386 3,86 42,265,502 2006-07 919 491,669 1,286 2,532,180 2005-06 1,237 521,902 1,257 1,808,630 2004-05 1,261 498,592 1,274 1,563,180 1 Financial year running from 1 April to 31 March. 2 The non-consolidated performance pay and performance awards for non-SCS staff are paid on a non-consolidated, non-pensionable basis and do not increase the Department's paybill costs each year. For the SCS the Senior Salaries Review Body determines the level of expenditure to cover bonuses. 3 The total figure includes SCS staffs. 4 Includes staff who were transferred from DTI to DIUS as part of the June 2007 machinery of government changes as these staff received a DTI/BERR pay award in 2007. Does not include those staff transferred into BERR from Cabinet Office and the Department for Communities and Local Government as part of the June 2007 machinery of government changes as these staff received Cabinet Office and DCLG pay awards respectively in 2007. Note: In 2007-08 the total value of bonuses paid was approximately 1.5 per cent. of the total Department's paybill.
Financial year Non-consolidated performance pay Performance awards Number of staff receiving Total value (£) Number of staff receiving Total value (£) 2007-08 273 21,125 10 10 2008-09 201 13,855 216 459,615 1 The performance awards for 2007-08 was paid by both former Departments.
Departmental Recruitment
The Department invites each candidate in individual recruitment exercises to complete a diversity monitoring questionnaire. The information from questionnaires is collated and monitored in order to assess the effectiveness of our advertising and recruitment processes and the workforce profile.
In line with the requirements in the public sector Employment Duties, the Department publishes annual reports covering our equality and diversity reporting responsibilities, including diversity data on applicants for employment. The annual reports for 2008 and 2009 are not yet available following machinery of Government changes and extracting the specified data alone at this stage would incur disproportionate cost.
Departmental Recycling
Since the inception of BIS on 8 June, the following amounts of waste have been recycled by this Department:
June—40,700 Kg (63.9 per cent. of total)
July—42,342 Kg (62.1 per cent. of total)
August—33,929 Kg (64.3 per cent. of total)
I would also refer the hon. Member to the previously published Sustainable Development in Government (SDiG) reports in which central Government Departments publicly reported on the data requested. The most recent report can be found at:
http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/sdiu2008/
Departmental Reorganisation
There have been no changes to the furnishings in offices occupied by Ministers in this Department following the recent departmental reorganisation. New Ministers have taken the furniture of departing Ministers.
Departmental Responsibilities
In the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), I am the Minister responsible for overseeing the delivery of value for money. In addition, Lord Davies has responsibility for overseeing public service reform.
BIS is committed to ensuring that public services delivered to citizens and business are as efficient and effective as possible. There are specific staff leading a range of work on value for money, public service reform and public sector reform. They co-ordinate work across the Department and engage with partners and other Government Departments to drive change.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Solihull (Lorely Burt) on 3 July 2009, Official Report, column 436W.
Departmental Secondment
We do not record this information nor hold it centrally. It could only be made available at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Training
Training budgets are delegated to line managers to determine locally what external training will be funded. This information is not held centrally and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Training budgets are delegated to line managers to determine locally what private sector training is suitable and will be funded. This information is not held centrally and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Travel
In BIS the criteria for booking travel should be value for money, staff travelling on official business must take advantage of any cheap facilities which maybe available including restricted non refundable tickets wherever practical.
The Department does not separately record details of unused tickets by Ministers, special advisers and civil servants.
For the period April 2008 to March 2009 the total amount of tickets booked through our travel booking agents and refunded was:
£ Rail including Eurostar 146,325.71 Air 772,877.29
Details for previous years are not centrally recorded due to the number of Government changes to the Department to provide this information would entail disproportionate cost.
All expenditure is incurred in accordance with the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.
The Cabinet Office has published a list of all overseas visits undertaken by Ministers costing £500 or more during the period 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009. The list provides details of the date, destination and purpose of all such visits and the cost of Ministers’ travel and accommodation where appropriate. Copies of the list have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
My right hon. and noble Friend the Secretary of State for Transport has published on 16 July 2009, Official Report, column 80WS, the number of and cost to Departments of the provision of allocated cars and drivers by the Government Car and Despatch Agency to Ministers during 2008-09.
All ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the Ministerial Code.
Draft Legislative Programme: Finance
My noble Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills discussed the Department's £50 million contribution to the housing policies announced in the Draft Legislative programme with the chief secretary to the Treasury, as part of the process of publishing “Building Britain's Future.”
East of England Development Agency: Consultants
Since May 2008, Fishburn Hedges have provided support to EEDA with specific public affairs services. This support includes legislative and policy updates, a parliamentary monitoring service, information and briefings, support on political visits and events, and parliamentary procedures. EEDA does not have sufficient capacity in house to manage all these areas of expertise.
Date Total payment1 Service May 2008 4,643.22 Public Affairs support June 2008 4,555.00 Public Affairs support July 2008 4,514.35 Public Affairs support August 2008 4,565.95 Public Affairs support September 2008 4,638.17 Public Affairs support November 2008 15,384.07 Public Affairs support + support for business event February 2009 18,629.25 Public Affairs support March 2009 9,513.84 Public Affairs support April 2009 9,471.47 Public Affairs support May 2009 10,340.00 Public Affairs support July 2009 5,421.35 Public Affairs support August 2009 10,307.02 Public Affairs support 1 These figures are inclusive of VAT.
The previous question asked how much EEDA has spent on ‘retaining external advice on public relations’.
By ‘retaining external advice on public relations’ EEDA interprets this as where a retainer contract is in place, with a monthly fee paid to an agency for public relations services. EEDA defines 'public relations services' as supporting EEDA's corporate communications. This is a function we manage in-house with a team of professionals. EEDA does not therefore 'retain' any agency to provide 'external advice on public relations’.
EEDA uses public relations agencies for specific projects where additional capacity is required.
Fishburn Hedges is a public affairs agency and EEDA uses them on a retainer basis to provide specific public affairs support services. This includes legislative and policy updates, a parliamentary monitoring service, information and briefings, support on political visits and events and support on parliamentary procedures. EEDA does not have sufficient capacity in house to provide all these areas of expertise.
Electrical Equipment: Waste Disposal
I am currently considering amendments to the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) regulations with a view to reducing the administrative burdens on business. The Department issued a consultation paper in December 2008, outlining proposals to streamline the data reporting requirements, approval process for prospective producer compliance schemes and the introduction of a simplified system for recording evidence of the levels of WEEE collected and the recycling and recovery targets achieved.
I am hoping to introduce the amending regulations before Parliament later in the autumn with the new systems coming into effect from 1 January 2010.
Employment Tribunals Service
The Department and its predecessors have defended 28 claims for the financial years 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09, some of which were for multiple reasons.
The reasons cited in the claims filed were:
Age discrimination
Breach of contract
Constructive dismissal
Disability discrimination
Equal pay
Gender
Race discrimination
Unfair dismissal
Unfair selection for redundancy.
Of the 28 claims:
Two claims are still outstanding
14 claims were withdrawn
Eight claims were found in favour of the Department
Four claims were upheld by the tribunal.
Information for 2005-06 and 2006-07 financial years could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Further details on the above cases are suppressed on grounds of confidentiality.
EU Membership
It is very difficult to provide precise figures for the annual regulatory cost to the economy arising from UK membership of the European Union.
The administrative burdens measurement exercise carried out by the Government in 2006 put the proportion of administrative burdens stemming from the EU at approximately one third of the annual total of £13.2 billion.
Export Credit Guarantees: Maldives
There are no outstanding debts to ECGD from the Malvides, and ECGD has not written off any Maldives debt.
I have not received any recent representations on this issue.
Exports: Government Assistance
UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) is the Government organisation that helps UK-based companies to succeed in an increasingly global economy and maximise their international success.
UKTI’s trade development services for exporters aim to help develop their international trade potential and provide access to international markets. Further details on these services can be found on UKTI’s website at:
www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk
Specific examples of the help made available by UKTI in the last 12 months include the 12 March 2009 announcement of the “Gateway to Global Growth” programme to provide specialist, tailored advice and support for British companies to help them improve and extend their exporting experience, and the 2009 Budget announcement of £10 million of the Strategic Investment Fund being channelled into UKTI, to be spent on events to promote UK sector expertise both in the UK and abroad. The funds are available to help UK businesses better showcase their strengths to overseas customers and markets and form part of the Government's New Industry New Jobs strategy.
A raft of wider Government assistance for UK business has been made available through BIS in various initiatives over the past year and details can be found at:
www.businesslink.gov.uk
My noble Friend the Secretary of State for BIS announced the creation of the Advisory Panel on New Industry, New Jobs, Universities and Skills on 31 July. Looking forward, this panel will help generate ideas across the whole of the Government’s New Industry, New Jobs agenda, challenging conventional policy thinking in these areas.
Forgemasters: Sheffield
The Government have received an application for investment by Sheffield Forgemasters International Limited, for the development of a production facility for ultra heavy forgings. This is being considered under the Industrial Development Act. As yet no decision has been taken.
Further Education
On 23 July we announced that student support would be made available for 10,000 additional places on science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses.
The 10,000 places were allocated to institutions by HEFCE according to their share of full-time undergraduates that entered in 2007-08 to priority subjects identified by Government. Where institutions indicated to HEFCE that they were unable to take up their share of places they were redistributed pro-rata across the sector.
More details on the final allocation of the 10,000 additional places are available on the HEFCE website at the following link:
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/circlets/2009/c117_09/
Further Education: Government Assistance
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: There is a range of financial assistance to learners entering further education. Learners on priority provision, as well as those in receipt of income-related benefits, are not required to pay a fee for learning.
Adult learners (aged 19 plus) can apply for the Adult Learning Grant which pays up to £30 per week to those on low incomes undertaking full-time learning for their first full Level 2 or first full Level 3 qualification. Education maintenance allowance (EMA) of up to £30 per week is available to eligible l6-19 year olds participating in learning that meets the EMA eligibility criteria.
Colleges are allocated discretionary funding to help students aged 20 and over meet childcare costs. Learners under the age of 20 can apply for help with childcare costs through Care to Learn. Discretionary Learner Support Funds are also available for learners over the age of 16 experiencing financial hardship.
Learners can also apply for loans. Since July 2009, students have been able to apply for Professional and Career Development Loans (P and CDLs). These build on the successful Career Development Loans programme and offer more generous terms for students with loans up to £10,000 and lower interest rates.
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: Expenditure by the former Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) on adult further education (FE) and skills for 2008-09 was £4.852 billion. This is based on expected outturn data as reported in the 2009 departmental report (July 2009).
The majority of funding is routed through the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and supports adult participation through the Adult Learner Responsive route, Employer Responsive route (Train to Gain and Apprenticeships), and Adult Safeguarded Learning.
Some of the resource expended by DIUS supported the wider FE sector including the pre 19 age group, in the role which DIUS had as sponsor of the FE service.
Haulage: Government Assistance
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills does not provide any specific support for the haulage sector. However, we have taken steps to help improve cash flow, to increase the availability of the credit businesses need, and to encourage investment so that businesses come through the recession ready to grow.
In particular, we obtained bank lending commitments from RBS and Lloyds to lend £27 billion additional lending to businesses this year. This includes lending guaranteed under the Working Capital Scheme.
In addition, we introduced a trade credit insurance top-up scheme which provides protections for firms suffering a reduction in cover.
We have also taken steps to assist small businesses to overcome short-term cash-flow problems—for example the enterprise finance guarantee and also measures to ensure prompt payment by both public and private sectors.
In October 2008, Business Link introduced a health check service from which 2,394 businesses in the transport, storage and communications sector have benefited.
Higher Education
In his letter of 6 May the then Secretary of State informed HEFCE that up to 10,000 additional student numbers (ASN) could be awarded in 2010-11, with that figure to be finally confirmed in the next annual grant letter. At this stage in the cycle of negotiations with institutions it is not possible to determine the breakdown of those places.
(2) what proportion of students from Cornwall who started a higher education course in each year since 1997 had parents in the (a) A, (b) B, (c) C1, (d) C2, (e) D and (f) E social grouping.
The latest information on socio-economic classification from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is shown in the table. Parental socio-economic classification information is self-reported by entrants aged under 21, therefore figures are restricted to this group of entrants. This information should be regarded with caution due to the high proportion of students who fail to report their parents’ occupations, or who provide incomplete or imprecise information. Figures prior to 2002/03 are not comparable due to the change from social class to socio-economic classification.
Figures for the 2008/09 academic year will be available in January 2010.
Academic year Local authority Higher managerial and professional occupations Lower managerial and professional occupations Intermediate occupations Small employers and own account workers Lower supervisory and technical occupations 2002/03 All entrants4 17 22 10 5 3 of which; Cornwall 14 24 9 8 4 2003/04 All entrants4 19 25 10 6 4 of which; Cornwall 15 24 11 9 5 2004/05 All entrants4 18 25 10 6 4 of which; Cornwall 14 24 9 8 5 2005/06 All entrants4 17 23 10 5 4 of which; Cornwall 13 23 9 8 5 2006/07 All entrants4 17 22 9 6 4 of which; Cornwall 12 25 10 9 5 2007/08 All entrants4 17 22 9 5 3 of which; Cornwall 14 24 9 10 5
Academic year Local authority Semi-routine occupations Routine occupations Never worked and long-term unemployed2 Missing/not classified Total 2002/03 All entrants4 7 4 0 31 100 of which; Cornwall 7 4 0 30 100 2003/04 All entrants4 8 4 0 25 100 of which; Cornwall 9 3 0 24 100 2004/05 All entrants4 8 4 0 26 100 of which; Cornwall 8 4 0 28 100 2005/06 All entrants4 8 4 0 30 100 of which; Cornwall 8 4 0 30 100 2006/07 All entrants4 8 4 0 32 100 of which; Cornwall 9 4 0 26 100 2007/08 All entrants4 8 4 0 31 100 of which; Cornwall 9 4 0 24 100 1 Excludes the Open university due to inconsistencies in their coding of entrants across the time series. 2 Information is not comprehensively collected on the ‘never worked and long-term unemployed’ category for students: Students who fit this group are usually classed as having missing information. 3 Covers students whose socio-economic classification was missing or not classified: not classified includes occupations which were inadequately described, not classifiable or unstated. 4 Covers entrants of all domiciles. Note: Figures are based on a HESA standard registration population. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).
Higher Education: Admissions
It is estimated that 6 per cent. of young people who were in English maintained schools and aged 15 at the start of academic year 2002/03, progressed to HE at a Russell group institution by the age of 19 (in 2006/07). Figures for 2007/08 will be available in 2010.
This figure has been calculated using matched data from the National Pupil Database, the Higher Education Statistics Agency student record and the Learning and Skills Council individualised learner record.
As of 27 August, one week after A-level results day, UCAS figures show that of those who applied for a university course this year, 151,280 UK domiciled students had not yet secured a place, though many more students will secure places before provisional acceptance figures are published on 21 October. Of these, 39,347 had a non-clearing outcome pending, 105,967 were eligible to enter clearing and 5,966 had withdrawn from the scheme completely.
For those who do not secure a place at university through the UCAS main scheme or in clearing there are several options available. For example, this year we expect there to be 250,000 young people starting an apprenticeship. We have recently announced an extra 47,000 youth jobs supported by the Future Jobs Fund for young people who are unable to find work or training within a year.
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: Information on the number of young people participating in further education is given in a statistical first release, the last version being published on 25 June 2009:
http://www. thedataservice.org.uk/statistics/sfriun09
In 2007-08, the latest year for which full-year figures are available, 1,055,600 learners aged under 19 participated in further education (excluding school sixth forms). Provisional figures for the 2008-09 academic year will be available in October 2009. In 2007-08, the latest year for which figures are available, 301,055 students aged under 21 entered English Higher Education Institutions. Figures for the 2008-09 academic year will be available in January 2010.
Notes for further education figure:
1. Source: FE, WBL, UFI and ACL ILR data—coverage: England.
2. This figure has been rounded to the nearest hundred.
3. This figure is based on age as at 31 August of the academic year. The common definition used for “young people” in further education is Under 19.
4. This figure includes participation in FE (General Further Education Colleges including Tertiary, Sixth Form Colleges, Special College—Agricultural and Horticultural Colleges and Art and Design Colleges, Specialist Colleges and External Institutions), UFI, ACL and Work-based Learning. It includes a small element of FE provision delivered in HE organisations where the organisations have submitted ILR data. Data regarding school sixth forms is not included.
5. This figure is a count of the number of learners that participated at any point during the year. Learners undertaking more than one course will appear only once for each data collection. However, learners that are included in different data collections (e.g. participating in FE and undertaking an apprenticeship) will be counted more than once. Information on the number of learners entering/starting a course in published for apprenticeships but not FE provision.
Notes for higher education figure:
1. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).
2. This figure is taken from the HESA student record which is collected annually, is based on a HESA standard registration population and has been rounded to the nearest five.
3. This figure covers students from all domiciles entering both full-time and part-time courses of all levels. This figure refers to students starting the first year of their course in the 2007-08 academic year and is based on age as at 31 August of the academic year. The common definition used for “young people” in higher education is Under 21.
Higher Education: Cornwall
The latest information from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is shown in the table. Figures for the 2008-09 academic year will be available in January 2010.
All entrants Of which: from Cornwall Academic year Full-time Part-time Full-time Part-time Percentage full-time from Cornwall Percentage part-time from Cornwall 1997-98 332,075 30,810 2,270 165 0.7 0.5 1998-99 320,730 34,275 2,240 310 0.7 0.9 1999-2000 318,340 33,630 2,245 290 0.7 0.9 2000-01 319,350 31,630 2,215 225 0.7 0.7 2001-02 334,235 34,080 2,130 265 0.6 0.8 2002-03 352,790 35,085 2,215 220 0.6 0.6 2003-04 361,525 35,920 2,255 310 0.6 0.9 2004-05 364,025 32,765 2,190 230 0.6 0.7 2005-06 384,775 33,625 2,435 385 0.6 1.1 2006-07 373,625 31,360 2,210 365 0.6 1.2 2007-08 390,180 30,305 2,330 295 0.6 1.0 1 Figures for all entrants covers students of all domiciles. 2 Local authority is defined by valid home postcodes. 3 Excludes the Open University due to inconsistencies in their coding of entrants across the time series. Notes: 1. Figures are based on a snapshot basis as at 1 December and have been rounded to the nearest five. 2. Percentages are based on un-rounded figures. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).
The Department does not hold information on the number of 18 to 21-year-olds resident in Cornwall, so cannot calculate the proportion who enter HE. The number of 18 to 21-year-old entrants from Cornwall has been provided as an alternative. Figures for the 2008/09 academic year will be available in January 2010.
Higher Education: Finance
This Government remain committed to ensuring that financial support should enable students to benefit from higher education, particularly for those who most need help to study, while at the same time being affordable overall.
Regulations for the academic year 2010-11 were laid on 1 July setting out the entitlements for students. Initial estimates indicate that the changes in the regulations, taken together, will reduce expenditure by some £60 million in grants and £130 million in loans1 in financial year 2010-11 compared to previous estimates.
1 Loans expenditure expressed in resource terms. These costs are made up of the interest rate subsidy of loans together with the costs that are never repaid, for example, loans that are written off after 25 years or death of the borrower.
In the current economic climate, we believe these tough decisions are in the interests of students, universities and taxpayers alike. The measures we have taken will help ensure the student support system is affordable and sustainable in the longer term but without damaging access to higher education.
Higher Education: Hertfordshire
The latest information from the Higher Education Statistics Agency is shown in the tables. Figures for 2008/09 will be available in January 2010.
2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 Socio-economic classification 21 and under Over 21 21 and under Over 21 21 and under Over 21 21 and under Over 21 21 and under Over 21 Higher managerial and professional occupations 160 5 235 10 265 25 255 30 270 25 Lower managerial and professional occupations 205 20 295 25 335 30 330 35 350 35 Intermediate occupations 110 10 150 20 155 20 145 25 150 20 Small employers and own account workers 40 5 55 5 65 5 60 10 70 5 Lower supervisory and technical occupations 30 5 45 5 50 10 50 5 45 5 Semi-routine occupations 75 15 85 15 100 20 95 25 110 30 Routine occupations 30 0 35 0 40 5 35 10 35 10 Never worked and long-term unemployed3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total known 650 55 900 80 1,000 125 970 145 1,035 130 Missing4 570 225 295 205 225 200 210 190 250 180 1 The table does not include enrolments where the parliamentary constituency of the student cannot be established due to missing or invalid home postcodes. 2 This field collects the socio-economic classification of students participating in HE if 21 or over at the start of their course or parental classification if under 21. 3 Information is not comprehensively collected on the “Never worked and long-term unemployed” category for students: Students who fit this group are usually classed as having missing information. 4 Covers students whose socio-economic classification was missing or not classified: not classified includes occupations which were inadequately described, not classifiable or unstated. Note: Figures are based on a HESA standard registration population and have been rounded up or down to the nearest five, therefore components may not sum to totals. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)
2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 Socio-economic classification 21 and under Over 21 21 and under Over 21 21 and under Over 21 21 and under Over 21 21 and under Over 21 Higher managerial and professional occupations 310 10 485 25 530 45 525 60 545 J 50 Lower managerial and professional occupations 335 30 485 45 550 50 560 55 605 55 Intermediate occupations 160 20 225 25 245 30 230 35 235 30 Small employers and own account workers 65 5 90 5 95 10 95 10 115 5 Lower supervisory and technical occupations 45 5 70 5 80 10 80 10 75 10 Semi-routine occupations 100 20 115 20 140 35 140 35 155 40 Routine occupations 40 5 50 5 55 15 50 15 50 15 Never worked and long-term unemployed3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total known 1,050 85 1,520 130 1,695 195 1,685 225 1,780 210 Missing4 920 340 445 305 360 275 360 260 430 250 1 The table does not include enrolments where the Census district of the student cannot be established due to missing or invalid home postcodes. 2 This field collects the socio-economic classification of students participating in HE if 21 or over at the start of their course or parental classification if under 21. 3 Information is not comprehensively collected on the “Never worked and long-term unemployed” category for students: Students who fit this group are usually classed as having missing information. 4 Covers students whose socio-economic classification was missing or not classified: not classified includes occupations which were inadequately described, not classifiable or unstated. Note: Figures are based on a HESA standard registration population and have been rounded up or down to the nearest five, therefore components may not sum to totals. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)
2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 Socio-economic classification 21 and under Over 21 21 and under Over 21 21 and under Over 21 21 and under Over 21 21 and under Over 21 Higher managerial and professional occupations 2,955 85 4,015 175 4,360 300 4,405 405 4,440 415 Lower managerial and professional occupations 3,035 190 3,915 335 4,240 415 4,345 510 4,350 505 Intermediate occupations 1,380 175 1,735 250 1,925 305 2,010 315 2,015 320 Small employers and own account workers 650 25 785 60 840 90 840 120 870 100 Lower supervisory and technical occupations 410 15 510 25 560 50 575 70 550 65 Semi-routine occupations 870 165 960 195 1,100 270 1,130 275 1,175 285 Routine occupations 335 50 360 65 390 100 425 100 430 95 Never worked and long-term unemployed3 0 0 0 0 5 0 5 0 10 0 Total known 9,640 700 12,275 1,105 13,415 1,525 13,740 1,795 13,845 1,790 Missing4 7,270 3,060 3,565 2,635 2,890 2,455 2,900 2,165 3,155 2,135 1 The table does not include enrolments where the Local Authority of the student cannot be established due to missing or invalid home postcodes. 2 This field collects the socio-economic classification of students participating in HE if 21 or over at the start of their course or parental classification if under 21. 3 Information is not comprehensively collected on the “Never worked and long-term unemployed” category for students: Students who fit this group are usually classed as having missing information. 4 Covers students whose socio-economic classification was missing or not classified: not classified includes occupations which were inadequately described, not classifiable or unstated. Notes: Figures are based on a HESA standard registration population and have been rounded up or down to the nearest five, therefore components may not sum to totals. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)
Higher Education: Maintenance Grants
The information requested is as follows:
Local authority Number of students awarded grants Average (£) Hertfordshire 8,530 2,090 1 Figures cover the Higher Education Grant, the Maintenance Grant and grants and allowances for children and dependents. Each of these grant types has a different maximum entitlement amount. Data at mid-November 2008. Figures may change as later applications are processed. Source: Student Loans Company
Reliable information is not available at district level.
Higher Education: Overseas Students
The information is in the following table. A further breakdown of each non-UK student's country of domicile or declared nationality is not available. Figures for academic year 2009-10 are not yet available.
2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 Applicants receiving offers 21 37 58 47 66 Accepted applicants 12 14 35 28 35 Notes: 1. ‘Offers’ covers students who were offered a place which was dependent on obtaining satisfactory exam results or on non-academic conditions. 2. Accepted applicants cover students who obtained specified results and were accepted for study on their chosen course. Source: UCAS
Higher Education: Tamworth
The Government do not make forward estimates of the number of students entering higher education disaggregated at a constituency level.
The numbers of 18-year-old undergraduate entrants to UK higher education institutions from Tamworth constituency, in each year since 1997, are shown in the table. Figures for the 2008/09 academic year will be available from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) in January 2010.
Academic year Number 1997/98 145 1998/99 210 1999/2000 220 2000/01 210 2001/02 215 2002/03 220 2003/04 240 2004/05 195 2005/06 215 2006/07 270 2007/08 235 1 Covers entrants to full-time and part-time courses. 2 The table does not include entrants where the parliamentary constituency of the student cannot be established due to missing or invalid home postcodes. 3 Excludes the Open university due inconsistencies in their coding of entrants across the time series. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).
Industrial Sector: Ownership
The following information is as follows:
Sector Foreign owned UK owned Manufacturing 35 65 Services1 18 82 Other1 25 75 Total1 22 78 1 The Annual Business Inquiry does not cover all parts of the services and other categories. Source: National Statistics (derived from Annual Business Inquiry regional data, published in Regional Economic Performance Indicators, 2009 (BERR))
Infrastructure UK
We are in the process of establishing the future work plan for Infrastructure UK. As detailed in “Building Britain’s Future”, full details of the new body will be announced and it is intended that a chair appointed in time for the pre-Budget report.
Infrastructure UK: Meetings
We have regular discussions with DECC on energy infrastructure.
Infrastructure UK: Ofgem
We are in the process of establishing the future work plan for Infrastructure UK. As detailed in “Building Britain’s Future”, full details of the new body will be announced and it is intended that a chair appointed in time for the pre-Budget report.
Insolvency
The disproportionate cost threshold for providing an answer to a parliamentary question is £750.
The area of the Department responsible for answering a parliamentary question assesses the costs involved, including staff and other resources, and whether this represents disproportionate cost.
To answer this question would involve examining some 202 separate reports. To determine which of those reports did not provide sufficient information regarding valuation and/or marketing would require significant staff resources, which would be in excess of the £750 disproportionate cost threshold.
The disproportionate cost threshold for providing an answer to a parliamentary question is £750.
The area of the Department responsible for answering a parliamentary question assesses the costs involved, including staff and other resources, and whether this represents disproportionate cost.
To answer this question would involve examining some 202 separate reports. Administration appointments are also often held by more than one insolvency practitioner acting on a joint and several basis.
To determine which insolvency practitioners provided information deemed non-compliant with SIP 16 by reference to their authorising body would therefore require significant staff resources, which would be in excess of the £750 disproportionate cost threshold.
The Insolvency Service considers that the information you have requested is exempt information under section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Section 40 (2) applies where the information sought is not the personal data of the applicant and either of the conditions in subsections 3 or 4 of that section is satisfied.
The Insolvency Service considers that subsection 3 applies, and disclosure of the personal data of the insolvency practitioners reporting to The Insolvency Service under the SIP 16 provisions to you would contravene the first data protection principle. The first data protection principle is defined in part 1 of schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act (DPA) and requires that data be processed fairly and lawfully and only processed if at least one of the conditions in schedule 2 is met.
The disclosure of personal information about the insolvency practitioners to you would amount to data processing as defined by the DPA in contravention of this principle as none of the conditions in schedule 2 apply.
The issuing of a report under the requirements of SIP 16 is in addition to the requirements of the Insolvency Act 1986 whereby the administrator must issue a full report on his proposals for the administration within eight weeks of his appointment. In the circumstances we have not requested further missing information be published as it should be contained within the administration proposals and sent to creditors. It is always open to creditors to seek further information from the administrator if they wish to do so.
The Insolvency Service will work with the Recognised Professional Bodies (which authorise the majority of insolvency practitioners) to strengthen SIP 16 where necessary and issue further guidance to practitioners to ensure that creditors are given a detailed explanation and justification of why a pre-packaged sale was undertaken, so that they can be satisfied that the administrator has acted with due regard for their interests.
If an order for costs is made against a disqualified director as a result of an application by the Secretary of State or official receiver under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986, then the Insolvency Service uses contract solicitors to recover those costs or to negotiate an appropriate sum.
If the company has entered voluntary liquidation, receivership or administration, the responsibility for the investigation and the bringing of legal proceedings for misfeasance, in an asset recovery context, is a matter for the insolvency practitioner. In compulsory winding up cases, it is the responsibility of the official receiver if the official receiver remains liquidator. In practice if there is a misfeasance case to answer, in an asset recovery context, the official receiver will write to the creditors to ask whether they are prepared to fund legal proceedings. If sufficient creditors are prepared to do so, the official receiver will seek the appointment of an insolvency practitioner as liquidator to take the matter forward. Without funding from the creditors it is not possible to take recovery proceedings unless there are already substantial asset realisations in the estate and the creditors have agreed to there monies being used for this purpose.
If misfeasance is alleged as a matter of unfitted conduct in a disqualification context, then in a voluntary liquidation, receivership or administration, the insolvency practitioner has a statutory duty to report the matter to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State then has discretion to decide whether it sufficiently serious to warrant further investigation and disqualification proceedings being taken in the public interest. In a compulsory liquidation, the official receiver must decide whether it is sufficiently serious to justify submitting a disqualification report to the Secretary of State and if a disqualification report is submitted, the Secretary of State must consider the report and decide whether to authorise disqualification proceedings.
Details of unfit conduct by a disqualified director are made available to creditors and other third parties via the Insolvency Service’s website and via press releases. Official Receivers may also provide an additional report to creditors on the unfit conduct.
Insolvency Service: Finance
The amounts held in the Insolvency Service's (a) Insolvency Services Accounts, (b) Insolvency Services Investment Account and (c) national insurance fund on the last day of each month for the last three years were:
Month (a) (b) (c) 2006 April 65,133 1,170,000 1,701 May 17,621 1,239,000 271 June 6,878 1,213,000 754 July 10,435 1,228,000 141 August 7,157 1,247,000 7,306 September 11,342 1,207,000 3,193 October 8,958 1,226,000 1,290 November 8,232 1,202,000 2,367 December 3,648 1,320,000 4,013 2007 January 12,657 1,275,000 3,124 February 7,650 1,358,000 5,837 March 7,503 1,399,000 3,411 April 9,922 1,340,000 2,354 May 7,801 1,344,000 1,807 June 9,240 1,341,000 3,317 July 7,567 1,435,000 1,945 August 7,423 1,366,000 838 September 5,960 1,372,000 5,440 October 7,449 1,398,000 4,123 November 9,388 1,404,000 6,584 December 5,632 1,391,000 4,476 2008 January 17,213 1,379,000 4,755 February 64,768 1,462,000 2,658 March 9,030 1,501,000 4,093 April 6,285 1,429,000 644 May 8,551 1,431,000 2,307 June 46,901 1,404,000 2,131 July 6,542 1,479,000 2,150 August 7,669 1,486,000 791 September 5,571 1,483,000 4,646 October 8,068 1,466,000 6,307 November 7,560 1,451,000 1,260 December 6,295 1,436,000 3,859 2009 January 9,423 1,427,000 2,259 February 7,233 1,407,000 586 March 3,516 1,386,000 1,568 April 8,104 1,360,000 5,154 May 6,916 1,331,000 8,410 June 6,204 1,294,000 7,634 July 27,506 1,244,000 4,031
Insolvency Service: Manpower
In each of the last three years, the number of people who were employed in the Insolvency Service's Investigation and Enforcement unit is:
As at 31 December 2006: 1288 (114 Investigations, 96 Enforcement, 78 CIB)
As at 31 December 2007: 1316 (135 Investigations, 102 Enforcement, 79 CIB)
As at 31 December 2008: 1314 (129 Investigations, 111 Enforcement, 74 CIB)
As at 31 August 2009: 1339
1 Investigations and Enforcement was extended on 1 January 2009 to include Companies Investigation Branch (CIB). For the preceding years, figures show how many people would have been in IES, had it been extended then. Figures in brackets show how the total figure is made up.
Insolvency: Birmingham
Statistics covering corporate insolvencies are not currently available at sub-national level within England and Wales.
Meetings
My noble Friend the Secretary of State undertook various internal and external engagements during this period.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Cotswold (Mr. Clifton-Brown) on 16 September 2009, Official Report, column 2199.
Members: Correspondence
The Permanent Secretary for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills responded to the hon. Member on 13 August.
My hon. Friend, the Minister for Further Education, Skills, Apprenticeships and Consumer Affairs (Kevin Brennan) responded to the hon. Member on 28 July.
The permanent secretary, Simon Fraser, responded to the hon. Member on 24 August. I apologise for the delay.
(2) when the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Economic Competitiveness, Small Business and Enterprise plans to reply to the letter of 21 April 2009 from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire, on Royal Worcester porcelain.
The Minister responded on 17 September. I apologise for the delay.
(2) pursuant to the answer of 1 June 2009, to the hon. Member for West Worcestershire, Official Report, column 61W, on Members: correspondence, when the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State plans to reply to the email of 13 February 2009 from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire, on dormant companies.
My noble Friend, the Minister for Economic Competitiveness, Small Business and Enterprise, responded on 22 September. I apologise for the delay.
Millennium Compliance
(2) whether his Department's predecessor undertook any review of its programme of preparation for the millennium date change.
[holding answer 9 September 2009]: The risk to the UK economy from the millennium bug was judged to lie predominantly with the 250,000 SME companies in the UK. The primary aim of the Action 2000 programme was therefore to communicate to this diverse group, and this strategy resulted in an overall readiness rate for the SME sector of 86 per cent.
This information is contained in a publication presented to Parliament in April 2000 entitled ‘Modernising Government in Action: Realising the Benefits of Y2K’ (Cm 4703), which also reviewed the Action 2000 programme more generally, in the context of learning lessons for future initiatives.
Ministerial Responsibility
I discharge my ministerial duties from my BIS or HMT offices or elsewhere, as appropriate.
Misconduct Claims
Insolvency legislation does not distinguish between “pre-pack” and other administrations. Disqualification claims against the directors of insolvent companies are not recorded by reference to specific insolvency procedures.
The Insolvency Service does not therefore hold the information requested.
Motor Vehicles: Manufacturing Industries
Using data based on the locations of dealerships and data for scrappage transactions which have been completed and cars delivered, there have been 1312 completed scrappage transactions in Merseyside. There have been 29 completed transactions in the Crosby constituency.
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: No loans or guarantees have been made under the AAP yet.
BIS has already been in direct contact with nearly two-thirds of all companies who qualify for AAP assistance. To date, BIS officials have worked with over 20 companies on their formal expressions of interest.
BIS officials are in advanced negotiations with companies for applications with a value of some £1 billion driving projects worth nearly £2 billion, and there are discussions in place that have the potential to lead to awards of a further £1 billion.
The AAP is a long-term investment programme and the pace is being dictated by the companies who ask for time to prepare their business cases and negotiate financing with potential lenders.
The details of support to companies are commercially sensitive and subject to agreement. As a general rule, the Government’s intention is to offer loan guarantees, though there is scope under the scheme to offer loans as well.
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: No applications for funding under the Vehicle Scrappage Scheme have been refused by BIS, provided British Forces Germany have been able to verify the date of registration of the vehicle on their registration database, and provided the other scheme criteria are met. This arrangement follows discussion and agreement between officials in my Department and the MOD.
BIS has been in regular contact with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders about the Automotive Assistance Programme (AAP) as well as direct contact with over 90 automotive companies (including Tata Motors European Technical Centre where a £10 million loan has been announced). We have been working with over 20 companies on their formal expressions of interest.
National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals Research
The Government established the National Centre for Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) in 2004 to accelerate the development and application of the 3Rs. The NC3Rs works with research funders, universities, industry, regulatory authorities and animal welfare organisations to advance the 3Rs.
Since its inception, the NC3Rs has worked with the UK's leading animal welfare organisations; the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (FRAME), the RSPCA and the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW).
This year, the NC3Rs held a joint meeting with FRAME to celebrate two important landmarks; FRAME's 40 anniversary and the 50 anniversary of the publication which first described the principles of the 3Rs. The NC3Rs, also in 2009, jointly published with the RSPCA guidance on the sharing and archiving of genetically altered mice. The centre is also a member of the UFAW 3Rs Liaison Group and over the last three years has provided £30,000 to support the group's goal of funding studentships to develop practical solutions that advance laboratory animal welfare.
National Skills Academy for Nuclear: Government Assistance
The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) manages the National Skills Academy (NSA) programme on behalf of BIS and leads the NSA selection and appraisal process. Once a NSA has been approved, and subject to LSC funding priorities, NSAs can draw on funding from the LSC for three years, matched by contributions from business. After this the NSA is expected to be self sustainable through financial investment from employers and income from the NSA’s activities.
The NSA for Nuclear was officially launched by Government on the 31 January 2008, following approval of their three year business plan to take the NSA to the end of its development period in 2011.
The total LSC funding to date (including £504,431 paid so far this year) is £6,718,904. In 2009/10 the total planned funding (including that already provided) is £1,419,200 with £43,288 planned funding for 2010-11.
The NSA has also submitted applications for capital funding to the LSC for 2009-10 and 2010-11, which are currently being assessed.
Non-Departmental Public Bodies
The NDPBs for which the Department is responsible in 2009-10 and their budget are set out in the following table. Where the budget figures and BIS funding are different, this is because the bodies receive funding from other sources such as other Government Departments.
Name of body Department funding Budget 2009-10 Executive NDPBs Learning and Skills Council 4525 12,158 Higher Education Funding Council for England 7809 7809 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council 814 814 Science and Technology Facilities Council 630 630 Medical Research Council 658 658 Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council 452 452 North West RDA 397 397 Advantage West Midlands (RDA) 295 295 Yorkshire Forward (RDA) 317 317 Natural Environment Research Council 408 408 Technology Strategy Board 254 323 One North East (RDA) 249 249 South West of England RDA 157 157 East Midlands RDA 160 160 South East England RDA 165 165 Economic and Social Research Council 170 170 East of England RDA 136 136 Arts and Humanities Research Council 104 104 UK CES (plus 23 SSCs) 89 89 Student Loans Company 81 81 Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) 52.3 57 Consumer Focus 17 17 Competition Commission 21 21 UK Atomic Energy Authority 7 7 Design Council 6 Investors in People UK (now part of UK CES) 5 5 Competition Service/Competition Appeals Tribunal 4 2009-10. Includes Competition Appeals Tribunal Local Better Regulation Office 4 4 Capital for Enterprise Ltd 2 2 Office for Fair Access 0.5 1 British Hallmarking Council 0 0 Construction Industry Training Board 0 Nil—funded from employer levy Engineering Construction Industry Training Board 0 Nil—funded from employer levy Film Industry Training Board for England and Wales 0 Nil—funded from employer levy Hearing Aid Council 0 £1.5 funded by user fees National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) 0 Nil—funded by endowment from National Lottery Simpler Trade Procedures Board (SITPRO) 0.76 0.76 Tribunal NDPBs Central Arbitration Committee 0.7 0.7 Copyright Tribunal 0.15 0.15 Insolvency Practitioners' Tribunal 0 0 Competition Appeals Tribunal/Competition Service See competition service See competition service Advisory NDPBs Council for Science and Technology 0.15 0.15 Industrial Development Advisory Board 0 0 Low Pay Commission 1 1 Regional Industrial Development Boards 0 0 Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property 0 0 Union Modernisation Fund Supervisory Board 0 0 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Advisory Board 0 0
The information is as follows.
Name of body Established (date) 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Aerospace Innovation and Growth Leadership Council November 2005 1 2 1 1— 1— Business Council for Britain June 2007 n/a n/a 1 3 3 Capital for Enterprise Advisory Board July 2005 5 12 11 3 1— Environmental Innovations Advisory Group July 2003 4 1 1 1— 1— Ethnic Minority Business Task Force June 2007 n/a n/a 2 3 3 Ministerial Advisory Group on Manufacturing January 2008 n/a n/a n/a 6 2 Motorsport Development UK Advisory Board November 2003 4 4 4 4 1 Risk and Regulation Advisory Council January 2008 n/a n/a n/a 11 6 Vulnerable Workers Pilot Practitioners’ Panel November 2006 n/a 1 2 1 1— Women’s Enterprise Task Force November 2006 n/a n/a 3 3 3 n/a = not applicable 1 Ended
Non-Departmental Public Bodies: Buildings
The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) have published central Government Department’s Display Energy Certificate (DEC) operational ratings on a building by building level. These can be found at:
www.ogc.gov.uk/government_delivery_display_energy_ certificate_data.asp
It should be noted that the Postal Services Commission shares Hercules house in London with the Cabinet Office and UK Trade and Investment shares Kingsgate house in London with this Department. The Office of Fair Trading occupies Fleetbank house and it is listed under its name.
The table that OGC has published also includes DEC reference numbers for each building. These can be used to view each building’s advisory report on the following website:
https://www.ndepcregister.com/home.html
Non-Departmental Public Bodies: Government Assistance
The Department has sponsorship responsibility for the non-departmental public bodies listed below. Information on staff numbers for the last five years can be found in their annual report which can be downloaded from the Internet.
The advisory NDPBs sponsored by the Department incur little or no expenditure and their administration is undertaken by Departmental officials, who have other responsibilities.
Executive Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs)
Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS)
British Hallmarking Council
Capital for Enterprise Ltd
Competition Commission
Competition Service
Consumer Focus
Construction Industry Training Board
Design Council
Engineering Construction Industry Training Board
Film Industry Training Board for England and Wales
Hearing Aid Council
Higher Education Funding Council for England
Investors in People UK
SITPRO (Simplifying International Trade)
Learning and Skills Council
Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO)
National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts
Office for Fair Access
Student Loans Company Ltd
Technology Strategy Board
UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA)
UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES)
Regional Development Agencies
Advantage West Midlands
South East England Development Agency
East of England Development Agency
South West of England Regional Development Agency
ONE North East
East Midlands Development Agency
Northwest Regional Development Agency
Yorkshire Forward
Research Councils
Arts and Humanities Research Council
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Economic and Social Research Council
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Medical Research Council
Natural Environment Research Council
Science and Technology Facilities Council
Advisory NDPB
Industrial Development Advisory Board
Low Pay Commission
Regional Industrial Development Boards
Union Modernisation Fund Supervisory Board
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Advisory Board
Council for Science and Technology
Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property
Tribunal NDPBs
Central Arbitration Committee
Competition Appeal Tribunal
Insolvency Practitioners Tribunal
Copyright Tribunal
North West Development Agency: Public Appointments
The decision to appoint Robert Hough as the chair of the North West Development Agency was made on 29 June. It was announced in Parliament on 9 July.
Robert Hough took up the position as chair of the North West Regional Development Agency on 17 August.
Official Hospitality
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Cotswold (Mr. Clifton-Brown) on 16 September 2009, Official Report, column 2197W.
Operational Management Support Contracts
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills does not have a classification called operational management support.
In 2008-09 the Department spent £18,526,935 on consultancy.
Overseas Trade: Kazakhstan
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) offers a full range of services for companies who wish to do business in Kazakhstan through trade and investment teams based in Astana and Atyrau. UKTI sponsored the Kazakh Growth Forum in June aimed at promoting business with Kazakhstan and contributed to the organisation of the visit by the lord mayor of London to Kazakhstan in late July this year. Next month my right hon. Friend the Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property (Mr. Lammy) will visit Kazakhstan to reinforce the UK’s position as a preferred partner of Kazakhstan on higher and vocational education co-operation and represent the UK at the annual Kazakhstan International Oil and Gas Exhibition.
UKTI also provides support for the Kazakh British Trade and Industrial Council. The council identifies new business opportunities and also focuses on ways to tackle barriers to trade and improve the environment for business. The last meeting was in Astana in July.
Overseas Trade: Maldives
Businesses from any country, including the Maldives, are provided with assistance to invest in the UK or take part in joint ventures with UK companies either by UK Trade and Investment or the English Regional Development Agencies or Devolved Administrations. Full details of these services are available publicly on UKTI’s website and the websites of the DAs and RDAs.
There are no specific funds for either investment or trade with any one market.
The information is as follows.
(i) Overseas Trade Statistics data for UK trade in goods with the Maldives are shown in the following table.
UK imports of goods from the Maldives UK exports of goods to the Maldives 1999 5.5 4.9 2000 6.8 5.1 2001 6.4 5.0 2002 7.2 3.0 2003 6.8 5.9 2004 10.5 7.7 2005 11.7 8.9 2006 14.3 6.2 2007 15.6 7.1 2008 13.0 8.5
(ii) Data on trade in services are not available for the full 10 years requested. Table 9.13 of the UK Balance of Payments “Pink Book 2009” gives the following figures for UK trade in services with the Maldives
UK imports of services from the Maldives UK exports of services to the Maldives 2007 121 12 2008 127 9
The UK trade and investment team in Colombo which is responsible for trade and investment relations with the Maldives has undertaken a scoping mission to the Maldives and maintains regular contact with the Maldivian Ministry of Commerce. This scoping mission cost approximately £300. No other expenditure has been incurred in the last 12 months.
In the coming 12 months UKTI has arranged for the Maldivian high commissioner in London to give a presentation on opportunities in the market to its regional trade advisers.
UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) does not deliver official services in the Maldives, but lobbying on behalf of British companies may be carried out on a case by case basis by the high commission in Colombo. It is not therefore possible to give a precise breakdown of staff time spent on trade promotion in the Maldives.
Due to the difficulty of differentiating between the impact of trade and other factors on growth, it is not possible to quantify precisely the impact of trade with another country on GDP. The value of UK exports of goods and services to the Maldives in each of 2007 and 2008 corresponded to about 0.001 per cent. of the value of UK GDP, and UK imports from the Maldives to about 0.01 per cent.
No formal discussions regarding increased bilateral trade have taken place. However my officials are in regular contact with the Maldives high commission and the UK trade and investment team in Colombo maintains regular contact with the Maldives Ministry of Commerce.
Overseas Trade: Sanctions
I have been asked to reply.
The UK is in discussion with its international partners to decide how to address Iran's failure, so far, to indicate a willingness to negotiate over its nuclear programme. Discussions on further measures, including trade sanctions, are in their early stages and form part of a confidential dialogue with close allies. It would not be appropriate to publicly disclose the precise details at this stage. Details will however be made available as soon as possible.
Parental Leave: Hertfordshire
The most recent estimates of take-up of maternity leave are based on Maternity Rights and Mother’s Employment Decisions (published 2007). The survey is based on a random sample of mothers who had a baby between February and May 2006.
Of mothers in paid work, all took at least some of their entitlement to maternity leave.
Up-to-date estimates of fathers taking paternity leave are from the Maternity and Paternity Rights and Benefits in Britain: Survey of Parents, conducted in 2005. 93 per cent. of fathers took some time off around the time of the birth. Of the 93 per cent. who took some time off, 79 per cent. took paternity leave (The survey is based on a random sample of mothers who had a baby in December 2003 and their partners).
The Department does not collect data on take-up of maternity and paternity leave at constituency level.
Patents
A number of applicants file similar patent applications at both the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO). In cases where both applications result in granted patents valid in the UK, the IPO carries out a check to determine whether there is a conflict, that is whether both applications relate to the same invention. It will revoke a GB patent if an EP patent for the same invention is granted designating the UK. Over the past nine years, 1,148 GB patents were considered by the IPO for revocation in these circumstances (the data for the tenth year are not available). Many applicants amend one or other to remove any conflict, therefore avoiding revocation. There are over 500 cases where an application has been granted by one office and not the other, which is well below 1 per cent. of the total number of patents granted by the two offices. In many cases these applications are still pending before the other office. Determining precisely the outcome of the remainder, many of which will have been withdrawn for the applicant’s own reasons, would involve information which is not held centrally and which could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Polly Toynbee
[holding answer 14 September 2009]: In the last five years the Economic and Social Research Council has made the following payments to Ms Polly Toynbee:
2004-05—£587.50 for an Evaluation Review of an ESRC Research Centre, involving three days work;
2005-06—£881.25 for an article for ESRC Society Today, the ESRC website. The article was 1,800 words long and involved two days work;
2009-10—£400 for chairing an ESRC lecture on Recession and the Green Economy.
Post Office Horizon System
The Department has received no such reports. Any issues relating to the Horizon system are operational matters for Post Office Ltd. I have therefore asked Alan Cook, managing director of Post Office Ltd., to respond directly to the hon. Member and a copy of his reply will be placed in the House Libraries.
Post Office Ltd.
The Government are keen for Post Office Ltd. to develop its range of products and services and the shareholder executive in this Department is working with the company to examine the scope and opportunities for this. However, it is for the company to determine a business and commercial strategy to increase its profitability.
The Government recognise that there will be a continuing need for subsidy payments to support the non-commercial part of the post office network beyond March 2011 when the present funding package comes to an end.
Post Office Ltd.: Royal Mail
Post Office Ltd. prepares a statutory report and accounts annually and these are publicly available through Companies House. As these indicate, Post Office Ltd. meets the full costs of employment of its staff who are all seconded from Royal Mail Group. In 2008-09 these costs totalled £293 million. In addition, Post Office Ltd. pays its share of the Royal Mail Group’s central costs to its parent company.
Post Offices
Government policy is to maintain a sustainable nationwide network of around 11,500 post offices and in 2007 committed funding to 2011 in support of this policy. Decisions on the opening or re-opening of individual post office branches are an operational matter for Post Office Ltd. The company has an established framework for dialogue with local authorities and community groups interested in funding continued service provision where a branch has closed. In such circumstances, Post Office Ltd will need to ensure that this does not adversely affect the viability of the local network of post offices.
Post Office Ltd. estimates that the minimum size of network necessary to meet the access criteria is around 7,500 offices but it is Government policy to maintain a sustainable network of around 11,500 post offices. The £1.7 billion funding package announced in May 2007 supports the network at that level to 2011 and the Government recognise that there will be a continuing need for network subsidy payments beyond 2011.
Ministers have regular discussions with Post Office Ltd. about a wide range of issues including network size. Government policy is to maintain a sustainable nationwide network of around 11,500 post offices and the Government have stated that they will not support a future programme of closures.
The Government are keen for the Post Office to develop their Government Services work and have an established mechanism for aiding this through a cross-Whitehall committee chaired by the Secretary of State for Business. The Government have shown their commitment to using the Post Office to provide services for Government through the award of the Post Office Card Account contract in November 2008, as well as the deal in March 2009 with the DVLA to allow the capture of biometric data (photographs and signatures) for the 10-year renewal of driving licences at 750 Post Offices around the country.
I have asked Alan Cook, managing director of Post Office Ltd., to respond directly to the right hon. Member and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
The Department does not hold the information requested. I have therefore asked Alan Cook, managing director of Post Office Ltd., to respond directly to the right hon. Member and a copy of his reply will be placed in the House Libraries.
I have asked Alan Cook, managing director of Post Office Ltd., to respond directly to the right hon. Member and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Post Offices: Bank Services
The idea of a state-owned Post Bank as proposed by, among others, the Post Bank Coalition, is an interesting contribution to the debate on Post Office financial services. The Government's priorities with respect to Post Office personal financial services are that the Post Office grows this important part of its business and continues to increase the range of products available across the network. This is an aim that the Business and Enterprise Select Committee report on ‘Post Offices—Securing Their Future’ supports. Post Office Ltd is working hard on this and has recently announced that it aims to launch a current account next year.
Post Offices: Birmingham
The Department does not hold the information requested. I have therefore asked Alan Cook, Managing Director of Post Office Ltd, to respond directly to the hon. Friend and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Post Offices: Hertfordshire
This is an operational matter for Post Office Ltd. (POL).
I have therefore asked Alan Cook, Managing Director of POL, to reply direct to the hon. Member with the information requested and a copy of his reply will be placed in the House Libraries.
Regional Development Agencies: Finance
Changes to budgets, resulting from new legislation, would normally be made once the Bills are enacted. We do not envisage any likely changes to RDA budgets as a consequence of the policies announced in the Draft Legislative programme 2009-10.
Regional Development Agencies: Manpower
Details of the number of women and black and minority ethnic people on the Regional Development Boards since 2001 and shown as a percentage of the Board.
For new appointments up to April 2009 BIS have 33.5 per cent. women and 4. per cent. black and ethnic minorities on their boards overall. BIS targets by 2011 are 50 per cent. board members to be women and 11 per cent. ethnic minority.
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 RDA No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % AWM 3 23 2 13 3 20 4 27 3 20 3 20 3 20 3 20 3 20 EEDA 3 25 5 33 5 33 6 40 6 40 4 27 3 20 4 27 5 33 EMDA 4 29 6 40 6 40 3 20 3 20 4 27 3 20 4 27 4 27 NWDA 4 31 4 27 4 27 4 27 5 33 5 33 5 33 5 33 4 27 One NE 3 23 5 33 6 40 6 40 6 40 5 33 5 33 5 33 5 33 SEEDA 5 33 4 27 4 27 3 20 3 20 3 20 4 27 3 20 4 27 SWRDA 3 23 4 27 4 27 5 33 5 33 5 33 6 40 5 33 5 33 YF 4 31 6 40 5 33 6 40 6 40 6 40 6 40 6 40 5 33 Total 29 27 36 30 37 31 37 31 37 31 35 29 35 29 35 29 35 29
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 RDA No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % AWIW 2 15 3 20 2 13 2 13 1 7 1 7 1 7 0 0 0 0 EEDA 0 0 2 13 2 13 1 7 1 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 EM DA 0 0 2 13 2 13 1 7 2 13 2 13 1 7 1 7 1 7 NWDA 0 0 1 7 1 7 1 7 1 7 1 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 One NE 1 8 2 13 2 13 1 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 SEEDA 0 0 1 7 1 7 2 13 2 13 2 13 2 13 2 13 2 13 SWRDA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 YF 1 8 1 7 1 7 1 7 1 7 1 7 1 7 1 7 2 13 Total 4 4 12 10 11 9 9 8 8 7 7 6 5 4 4 3 6 5
The London Development Agency is not included in the above statistics as it is the responsibility of the Mayor of London and not the Minister.
Regional Development Agencies: Pay
[holding answer 4 June 2009]: The break down of the total financial value of the remuneration made to (a) RDA chief executives; and (b) the board members of each RDA, including benefits in kind, in each of the last three years is detailed by RDA in the tables (the information excludes London, which is the responsibility of the Mayor). The RDA chairs details are identified separately to the other board members as their remuneration entitlements are different.
The figures have been collected by each RDA and show:
For the chief executive and RDA chairs:
the total cash remuneration = basic salary (before tax) + performance related bonus (bonuses are awarded based on performance against objectives delivered in the previous year); and
total remuneration package = total cash remuneration + pension + benefits in kind (where the RDA has benefits in kind in place).
For the board members:
the total remuneration = basic remuneration paid. Board members are only paid a remuneration figure agreed by the SoS in accordance with the RDA Act 1998. These posts do not attract bonuses, pensions or benefits in kind.
Copies of the tables will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Regional Development Agency: Finance
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: The RDA total budget for 2009-10 is £2.253 billion and the budget for 2010-11 is £1.762 billion. RDAs are in the process of producing revised corporate plans showing how this will be spent in each region. The amount of money spent by each agency on Solutions for Business products and on other types of intervention will vary according to local and regional need for particular forms of business support and the wider economic context.
Renewable Energy: Government Assistance
(2) how much funding his Department has provided to developers of marine renewable energy technology in the last five years.
In the last five years, the Department’s funding to developers of marine renewable energy technology has primarily been delivered through the Technology Strategy Board (TSB). Support for collaborative R and D provided by the TSB to developers of wave and tidal renewable energy technologies in the last five years is as follows:
£000 2003-04 5,019 2004-05 1,235 2005-06 1,655 2006-07 2,258 2007-08 2,560 2008-09 5,131
BIS also supports developers indirectly through investments via the Energy Technologies Institute and the research councils:
In January the ETI announced £11 million for ReDAPT, to demonstrate the viability of a 1 MW tidal turbine, and expects to announce further marine projects with a potential value of £10 million during the next quarter.
The Department’s support to developers of marine renewable energy technology is delivered through its delivery partners.
Tidal energy projects funded by the Technology Strategy Board are monitored by a dedicated monitoring officer who is technically qualified to work in this specialist area and monitoring is carried out against:
Stated project outputs, deliverables and milestones.
The original and revised project plans, and
Budgeted expenditure versus total grant.
Projects are monitored monthly with formal reports furnished on a quarterly basis.
Projects supported by the Energy Technologies Institute involve:
Monthly reporting of progress (financial and non financial)
Payment against deliverables only (not effort) with clear acceptance criteria
Variations approved only as contract variation
Projects reviewed at significant key stages (stage gates; go/no go) checking technology, financial progress and integrity of business case, and
Annual reports on project progress.
Royal Mail
During the last five financial years, this Department and its predecessors spent the following on Royal Mail services provided to buildings on its central London estate:
£000 2004-05 215.5 2005-06 194.1 2006-07 119.2 2007-08 118.5 2008-09 137.9
The Government consider that the implementation of the Hooper review recommendations as a package is the best way forward to secure Royal Mail's future. We will return to this package once market conditions are right to secure a suitable partner for Royal Mail Group Limited. In the meantime, the Government are looking to the management and the unions to take forward the modernisation of the company. We encourage both the management and the unions to work together to achieve this.
Royal Mail: Meetings
The Secretary of State has met the Chair of the Royal Mail Pension Fund Trustees once since 1 July.
Skillfast-UK
Skillfast-UK is an independent skills body that is currently licensed as a sector skills council. Skillfast-UK was recently assessed by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills against the standards set out in the relicensing framework for sector skills councils. The UK Commission recommended to Government that Skillfast-UK had not met the standard required of an SSC, with a proposal for consultation with the industry to identify options for future coverage of the sector. Government are in the process of considering the UK Commission's recommendation for Skillfast-UK. In the event that an SSC did not have its licence renewed by Government, it would be asked to work with the UK Commission to ensure that the skills needs of the sector in question continue to be met. This would include access for employers to high quality labour market information about skills, and the continued development of national occupational standards that underpin qualifications that meet both employer and individual needs.
Skillset: Yorkshire and the Humber
Since taking up post as Minister for State for Skills I have not had any discussions with Skillset about the future of the creative industries in Yorkshire and the Humber. Skillset is the Sector Skills Council for the broadcasting, photo imaging, audio visual and publishing sector. In a recent assessment by the National Audit Office, Skillset was recognised for its commitment to working across the regions in England.
Strategic Investment Fund
It has not been possible to estimate the impact of projects supported by the Strategic Investment Fund on future carbon dioxide emissions.
The Strategic Investment Fund is supporting the research, development and demonstration of key low carbon technologies in areas including wind and marine energy and electric vehicles, which if viable will support delivery of the carbon reduction targets to which the UK is committed. Wherever possible their potential to contribute to long-term abatement was taken into account.
The Strategic Investment Fund was established to support advanced industrial projects of strategic importance, consistent with the vision set out in “New Industry, New Jobs”, and the UK low-carbon industrial strategy. The latter, published on 15 July 2009, set out the first investments from the £250 million of funding allocated for low carbon economic development.
Over £700 million of the £750 million within the Strategic Investment Fund has already been allocated, or is earmarked for specific projects and investments. While such allocations have been made, the money has not in itself been drawn down as claims as they will either be paid in arrears, or on the basis of future calls.
Over £700 million of the £750 million within the Strategic Investment Fund has already been allocated, or is earmarked for specific projects in support of the vision set out in “New Industry, New Jobs” framework document. The remaining £50 million will be allocated to projects by the end of October.
While commitments to fund investments have been made, the money has not in itself been drawn down as claims as they will either be paid in arrears, or on the basis of future calls. There is no average monetary value of such payments at this stage due to the differing values and timing of individual calls on the SIF. No businesses have received specific payments for life sciences, at this stage.
Students: Fees and Charges
The information is not held by the Department.
In the academic year 2009-10 students from the UK and EU will pay up to £3,225 in tuition fees to study veterinary science degree courses. Total expenditure over the length of their course will depend on whether their institution charges the maximum fee, and on the length of the course. Loans are available to eligible students to cover the full cost of tuition fees.
Tuition fees for international students from outside of the EU are unregulated and therefore HEIs are free to set fee levels as they see fit.
Students: Loans
Borrowers become liable to repay their loans in the April after they leave their course (the Statutory Repayment Due Date). After that date those with earnings of over £15,000 will repay, usually by deductions from salary. Those liable to repay who have not yet made a repayment will include borrowers whose earnings are below the repayment threshold, have gone on to further study or are doing voluntary work.
Age2 Numbers who have not yet made a repayment Numbers who have made a repayment Total Less than 20 20 10 30 20 to 24 2,180 4,790 6,970 25 to 29 1,910 11,780 13,690 30 to 39 530 1,200 1,730 40 to 49 260 480 750 50 and over 100 190 290 Total 5,000 18,450 23,440 1 Table covers income-contingent loan borrowers past SRDD with known repayment status, the local authority in which the borrower was resident at the time of application for student finance; this does not indicate current residence. Figures rounded to the nearest 10. 2 Age at the end of the last tax year for which repayment/non-repayment information has been posted, mainly end of tax year 2007/08. Source: Student Loans Company
Reliable information is not available at constituency or district level.
The information requested is as follows:
Earnings in tax year 2007-08 Numbers who have had a deduction from earnings under PAYE Amount deducted from earnings under PAYE Average amount deducted Less than £15,000 3,210 430,000 130 £15,000 to £20,000 3,200 970,000 300 £20,000 to £25,000 3,720 2,470,000 660 £25,000 to £30,000 2,710 2,880,000 1,060 £30,000 to £35,000 1,420 2,060,000 1,450 £35,000 to £40,000 740 1,340,000 1,800 Over £40,000 1,060 3,110,000 2,920 Total 16,070 13,250,000 820 1 Tables cover deductions by PAYE from income-contingent loans. Excludes Self Assessment deductions. Tables cover deductions which HMRC has notified to SLC by 31 March 2009. There will be further deductions notified for tax year 2007-08. The table shows the local authority where the borrower was resident at the time of application for student finance; this does not indicate current residence. Source: Student Loans Company
Deductions from salaries are made when the borrowers’ income is above £15,000 per year, £1,250 per month or £288 per week.
Reliable information is not available at constituency or district level.
Temporary Employment: EC Law
The Department’s forthcoming response to the consultation, which closed on 31 July, will include a list of the businesses and other organisations who responded publicly.
We are committed to ensuring that the implementing regulations are on the statute book in the current Parliament.
The Government’s forthcoming response to the Consultation, which closed on 31 July, will be published shortly.
Tesco: Meetings
The Minister met Sir Terry Leahy on 18 June and has communicated with him through the Business Council for Britain.
Textiles: Government Assistance
The Government are committed to supporting skills development in the fashion and textile sector. Skillfast-UK, which is the Sector Skills Council for the sector, sets the overall strategy for skills and engages directly with employers about their skill needs. Skillfast-UK provides labour market information for employers, and is engaged in the development of qualifications. Skillfast-UK is also running a Women and Work Sector Pathways Initiative project to develop the skills of 600 women in 2009-10 in relation to the fashion and textile sector. The Fashion Retail Academy promotes fashion retail as a career, and delivers a flow of young people to the industry with the fundamental skills required to work in the sector. Government are also providing funding through Sector Compacts to tackle skills shortages in key sectors, including fashion and textiles.
Trade Unions
The Labour Party's policy making structures are a matter for the Labour Party.
The Labour party's policy making structures are a matter for the Labour party.
Train to Gain Programme
Initial Train to Gain targets were set out in the Learning and Skills Council's 2006 Annual Statement of Priorities. They were based on contributing to the PSA—public service agreement—target to reduce by at least 40 per cent. the number of adults in the workplace without a Level 2 or equivalent qualification by 2010, and an assessment of the Employer Training Pilots that preceded the start of the programme in April 2006. The assessment included the expected annual cost of the programme and the planned number of employers taking part per annum.
These targets have subsequently been updated in the LSC's 2007 Annual Statement of Priorities, and reflect the broader skills aim set out in the 2006 Leitch Review: to increase the proportion of adults holding Level 2 qualifications to 90 per cent. by 2020.
As Train to Gain is a demand-led programme, learner volumes and annual spend may differ from initial projections, depending on levels of employer demand. Regular reports are received from the LSC—Learning and Skills Council—in order to enable the Department to monitor ongoing levels of performance.
The Department has regular and ongoing contact with the Learning and Skills Council regarding all aspects of Train to Gain delivery, and receive monthly performance reports and updated financial information.
The Department also receives frequent correspondence and other representations from colleges, employers, members of the public and other interested parties on a variety of skills policies including Train to Gain.
Train to Gain Programme: Finance
Train to Gain is a service to help employers improve the skills of their existing employees. It is not a programme that is designed to create jobs.
Training: Construction
[holding answer 21 July 2009]: No capital funding has been allocated to either of the National Construction Colleges for 2009-10, and as such, no funding has since been withdrawn.
Initial approval for funding from the FE capital funding stream had been granted to the Birchen Newton proposal in autumn last year. However, following the Learning and Skills Council's recent FE capital prioritisation process, the proposal was unsuccessful, and has not been granted final approval.
As with every college, the LSC will discuss with the college on how the project can move forward.
UK Innovation Investment Fund
The UK Innovation Investment Fund is a 10-year Fund of Funds. The Government are committing £150 million of tax payers' investment to the UK Innovation Investment Fund and we expect to leverage significant investment from the private sector.
We aim to appoint an experienced Fund of Funds manager in December to manage the fund and make investments in underlying technology funds with the expertise and track record to invest directly in technology businesses. The Government and Capital for Enterprise Limited issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) from prospective Fund of Funds manager(s) on 3 August. The RFP sets out the Government's expectation that private and public funding should be invested on a pari-passu basis and that private investors should not receive advantageous terms. Bidders are asked to set out their investment strategies and demonstrate how they will raise money from private sector investors.
It will not possible to say any more about the nature or terms of investments into underlying funds until an investment mandate is awarded.
The fund will operate on a Fund of Funds structure which means it will not invest directly in companies, but rather invest in a small number of specialist technology funds that have the expertise and track record to invest directly in companies. The fund will only invest in those companies that have strong survival and growth prospects.
We hope to announce the appointment of a Fund of Funds Manager by Christmas 2009 and anticipate that the Fund will start investing soon after that.
There have been a number of events to promote the fund to all interested parties and there will be further events during autumn 2009 and beyond.
The Department wishes to see the fund supporting firms as soon as possible.
However, it will be down to the Fund of Funds Manager(s) to allocate funding in the most appropriate manner.
Unemployment: Young People
Table 1 and table 2 as follows show the number and percentage of people aged 16 to 24 not in education, employment or training by Government Office Region. These estimates are from quarterly Labour Force survey (LFS) data and are rounded to the nearest 1000.
Table 3 shows the number and percentage of people aged1 16 to 24 not in education, employment or training by local education authority (LEA). These estimates are from the Annual Population survey (APS) which covers the period January to December. Due to the small populations of local authority areas, we have used the APS (which has a larger sample) to breakdown the estimates by LEA (larger geographical area). This enables us to provide more robust estimates.
Please note that even for regions, sample sizes can be small and these estimates are subject to sampling variability. Confidence intervals, which indicate how accurate estimates are, are between 2 and 3 percentage points for these regional estimates, and between 3 and 10 percentage points for these local education authority estimates. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest thousand and estimates denoted with a ‘*’ means less than 1000 young people are estimated to be NEET in that area.
1Age used is the respondents academic age, which is their age at the preceding 31 August.
Q3 2006 Q4 2006 Q1 2007 Q2 2007 Q3 2007 Q4 2007 Q1 2008 Q2 2008 Q3 2008 Q4 2008 Q1 2009 Q2 2009 England 970,000 808,000 828,000 833,000 909,000 782,000 810,000 840,000 973,000 857,000 935,000 959,000 North East 53,000 45,000 48,000 47,000 52,000 49,000 52,000 56,000 65,000 54,000 57,000 69,000 North West 140,000 120,000 127,000 134,000 144,000 120,000 136,000 139,000 151,000 142,000 156,000 155,000 Yorks and Humber 118,000 95,000 97,000 92,000 105,000 82,000 75,000 101,000 119,000 92,000 107,000 121,000 East Midlands 81,000 65,000 72,000 66,000 81,000 70,000 69,000 71,000 86,000 68,000 69,000 75,000 West Midlands 112,000 96,000 111,000 107,000 111,000 93,000 95,000 98,000 119,000 105,000 126,000 131,000 East of England 92,000 77,000 76,000 84,000 92,000 74,000 87,000 77,000 82,000 79,000 83,000 82,000 London 184,000 148,000 119,000 130,000 136,000 123,000 129,000 132,000 149,000 131,000 127,000 120,000 South East 115,000 93,000 107,000 112,000 125,000 116,000 104,000 111,000 131,000 122,000 130,000 142,000 South West 74,000 68,000 70,000 61,000 63,000 56,000 63,000 55,000 71,000 63,000 78,000 66,000
Q3 2006 Q4 2006 Q1 2007 Q2 2007 Q3 2007 Q4 2007 Q1 2008 Q2 2008 Q3 2008 Q4 2008 Q1 2009 Q2 2009 England 17 14 14 14 15 13 14 14 16 14 16 16 North East 17 14 15 15 16 15 16 17 20 17 18 21 North West 17 14 15 16 17 14 16 16 18 17 18 18 Yorks and Humber 18 14 14 14 16 12 11 15 18 14 16 19 East Midlands 16 12 14 13 15 13 13 13 16 13 13 14 West Midlands 18 15 18 17 18 15 15 16 19 16 20 21 East of England 16 13 13 14 15 12 14 13 13 13 14 13 London 21 17 14 15 16 14 15 15 16 15 14 13 South East 13 11 12 12 14 13 12 12 14 13 14 15 South West 14 12 13 11 11 10 11 10 13 11 14 12
2006 2007 2008 NEET Percentage NEET Percentage NEET Percentage England 849,000 15 850,000 14 857,000 14 Barking and Dagenham 6,000 25 4,000 20 4,000 20 Barnet 3,000 7 1,000 4 7,000 19 Barnsley 5,000 19 6,000 23 5,000 19 Bath and North East Somerset 3,000 10 2,000 9 2,000 9 Bedfordshire 7,000 15 7,000 16 4,000 8 Bexley 4,000 17 3,000 12 3,000 14 Birmingham 30,000 19 30,000 20 29,000 20 Blackburn with Darwen 3,000 19 3,000 21 2,000 16 Blackpool 4,000 22 3,000 20 2,000 12 Bolton 5,000 14 5,000 14 4,000 12 Bournemouth 2,000 7 2,000 11 3,000 14 Bracknell Forest 1,000 11 1,000 11 2,000 13 Bradford 12,000 18 12,000 18 9,000 14 Brent 7,000 22 5,000 17 4,000 14 Brighton and Hove 4,000 11 5,000 13 4,000 12 Bristol 7,000 13 8,000 15 9,000 14 Bromley 5,000 18 5,000 16 5,000 16 Buckinghamshire 5,000 11 4,000 10 5,000 11 Bury 3,000 17 3,000 19 3,000 14 Calderdale 4,000 17 3,000 13 4,000 18 Cambridgeshire 5,000 8 6,000 9 8,000 11 Camden 4,000 16 3,000 12 3,000 10 Cheshire 6,000 8 7,000 9 9,000 13 Cornwall 5,000 10 7,000 13 5,000 10 Coventry 6,000 14 6,000 15 9,000 19 Croydon 2,000 7 6,000 15 6,000 16 Cumbria 7,000 16 6,000 12 2,000 5 Darlington 2,000 20 3,000 24 1,000 12 Derby 4,000 16 5,000 16 4,000 13 Derbyshire 14,000 19 13,000 16 10,000 14 Devon 9,000 12 11,000 13 5,000 6 Doncaster 6,000 20 5,000 14 8,000 22 Dorset 2,000 5 4,000 11 3,000 8 Dudley 4,000 11 4,000 14 8,000 19 Durham 13,000 21 8,000 13 11,000 17 Ealing 5,000 15 6,000 16 5,000 13 East Riding of Yorkshire 5,000 14 4,000 11 5,000 14 East Sussex 4,000 9 7,000 15 8,000 17 Enfield 5,000 19 4,000 14 3,000 12 Essex 16,000 11 19,000 13 21,000 14 Gateshead 4,000 18 3,000 15 4,000 21 Gloucestershire 9,000 16 6,000 10 6,000 10 Greenwich 6,000 22 6,000 26 4,000 16 Hackney 5,000 22 4,000 17 5,000 20 Halton 2,000 15 2,000 16 3,000 23 Hammersmith and Fulham 3,000 14 2,000 11 2,000 12 Hampshire 14,000 11 19,000 14 16,000 11 Haringey 8,000 26 4,000 15 6,000 20 Harrow * * 2,000 11 3,000 13 Hartlepool 2,000 23 2,000 26 3,000 27 Havering 2,000 9 3,000 12 2,000 7 Herefordshire 2,000 10 2,000 12 2,000 12 Hertfordshire 15,000 14 13,000 12 14,000 13 Hillingdon 4,000 15 6,000 18 4,000 15 Hounslow 5,000 16 5,000 16 6,000 22 Isle of Wight 2,000 17 2,000 13 2,000 18 Islington 4,000 20 4,000 15 3,000 14 Kensington and Chelsea 3,000 21 2,000 9 3,000 16 Kent 23,000 16 24,000 17 25,000 17 Kingston upon Hull 6,000 18 8,000 20 8,000 18 Kingston upon Thames 3,000 17 2,000 11 2,000 11 Kirklees 9,000 19 9,000 19 8,000 19 Knowsley 4,000 20 4,000 22 5,000 20 Lambeth 5,000 17 5,000 15 4,000 12 Lancashire 19,000 14 17,000 12 21,000 14 Leeds 11,000 10 16,000 13 20,000 15 Leicester 7,000 14 7,000 15 9,000 18 Leicestershire 6,000 9 6,000 9 9,000 14 Lewisham 5,000 18 6,000 20 5,000 19 Lincolnshire 11,000 16 10,000 14 10,000 13 Liverpool 10,000 16 11,000 17 10,000 15 Luton 4,000 18 4,000 17 4,000 16 Manchester 10,000 13 12,000 15 13,000 16 Medway 5,000 16 4,000 12 5,000 18 Merton 3,000 13 3,000 14 3,000 15 Middlesbrough 4,000 22 4,000 21 5,000 24 Milton Keynes 3,000 16 4,000 14 2,000 9 Newcastle upon Tyne 5,000 10 5,000 11 6,000 10 Newham 6,000 18 7,000 18 4,000 12 Norfolk 11,000 14 12,000 14 15,000 17 North East Lincolnshire 4,000 23 3,000 17 4,000 21 North Lincolnshire 3,000 15 3,000 18 2,000 15 North Somerset 1,000 7 * * 2,000 7 North Tyneside 4,000 18 4,000 17 4,000 20 North Yorkshire 6,000 11 6,000 9 7,000 12 Northamptonshire 11,000 14 11,000 13 12,000 14 Northumberland 4,000 14 6,000 17 4,000 11 Nottingham 8,000 15 8,000 14 7,000 12 Nottinghamshire 12,000 13 10,000 11 12,000 14 Oldham 7,000 24 6,000 25 7,000 25 Oxfordshire 7,000 9 11,000 14 6,000 8 Peterborough 4,000 20 5,000 22 4,000 20 Plymouth 5,000 13 5,000 15 3,000 8 Poole 2,000 15 1,000 10 2,000 12 Portsmouth 4,000 15 3,000 9 3,000 8 Reading 2,000 15 2,000 11 2,000 11 Redbridge 6,000 22 4,000 16 4,000 14 Redcar and Cleveland 3,000 17 3,000 19 4,000 27 Richmond upon Thames 3,000 22 2,000 14 2,000 12 Rochdale 6,000 22 3,000 14 3,000 14 Rotherham 7,000 21 5,000 19 7,000 24 Rutland * * * * * * Salford 5,000 20 4,000 16 6,000 22 Sandwell 8,000 23 8,000 24 9,000 26 Sefton 5,000 15 5,000 16 7,000 19 Sheffield 12,000 16 12,000 15 13,000 16 Shropshire 3,000 11 4,000 15 3,000 10 Slough 3,000 18 2,000 15 2,000 14 Solihull 2,000 12 3,000 16 4,000 18 Somerset 8,000 15 8,000 13 7,000 13 South Gloucestershire 2,000 7 2,000 9 2,000 7 South Tyneside 4,000 24 3,000 15 3,000 16 Southampton 6,000 14 6,000 18 4,000 10 Southend on Sea 2,000 17 3,000 20 3,000 20 Southwark 7,000 21 6,000 18 6,000 16 St Helens 4,000 19 5,000 26 4,000 21 Staffordshire 8,000 10 10,000 12 11,000 11 Stockport 4,000 11 4,000 10 4,000 13 Stockton-on-Tees 4,000 19 5,000 18 4,000 18 Stoke-on-Trent 7,000 20 7,000 20 5,000 19 Suffolk 10,000 15 8,000 11 11,000 16 Sunderland 5,000 14 5,000 14 6,000 15 Surrey 9,000 9 12,000 11 8,000 8 Sutton 3,000 17 4,000 23 1,000 8 Swindon 2,000 13 1,000 8 3,000 16 Tameside 5,000 18 6,000 20 6,000 23 Telford and Wrekin 4,000 20 3,000 15 3,000 15 Thurrock 2,000 17 2,000 12 3,000 17 Torbay 2,000 18 2,000 14 2,000 12 Tower Hamlets 10,000 24 9,000 25 7,000 22 Trafford 4,000 16 3,000 12 3,000 13 Wakefield 7,000 19 8,000 17 7,000 16 Walsall 7,000 21 8,000 24 5,000 17 Waltham Forest 4,000 14 5,000 16 6,000 18 Wandsworth 2,000 8 3,000 13 3,000 12 Warrington 2,000 10 2,000 13 3,000 14 Warwickshire 8,000 13 7,000 12 6,000 13 West Berkshire 3,000 19 2,000 11 1,000 9 West Sussex 9,000 13 8,000 11 8,000 11 Westminster 4,000 11 5,000 14 5,000 15 Wigan 7,000 21 6,000 17 5,000 13 Wiltshire 5,000 13 3,000 9 7,000 15 Windsor and Maidenhead 1,000 12 2,000 15 1,000 10 Wirral 6,000 18 6,000 17 6,000 20 Wokingham 2,000 9 * * 2,000 11 Wolverhampton 6,000 21 7,000 23 9,000 29 Worcestershire 6,000 12 4,000 8 5,000 8 York 5,000 17 4,000 15 1,000 4
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: I have been asked to reply.
Estimates of participation in education, training and employment for those aged 16 to 18 are published by the Department in a Statistical First Release (SFR) each June and can be found on the Department's website
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000792/index.shtml
These estimates cannot be broken down to constituency level. However, Connexions Services collect information on the number and proportion of 16 to 18-year-olds NEET in each local authority area. Figures for Cambridgeshire are shown in the following table. As the Connexions data set is calculated in a different way to the Department's official estimates set out above, comparative figures for England are also shown. Figures for Cambridgeshire are not available prior to 2006.
2006 2007 2008 Cambridgeshire Number 900 840 900 Proportion (percentage) 5.4 5.0 5.2 England Number 126,500 109,300 110,890 Proportion (percentage) 7.7 6.7 6.7
Through the September Guarantee, we are providing every young person aged 16 to 17 with a suitable offer of a place in learning. This has helped us to make excellent progress on participation, with a record level of 88 per cent. of 16 to 17-year-olds in education and training at the end of 2008, and the third consecutive fall in the proportion of 16 to 17-year-olds NEET. Connexions services provide advice and support to all young people and since April 2009, 18-year-old jobseekers who have been NEET for 26 weeks have received early entry to the additional support available through the new deal.
Visits Abroad: Maldives
There were no visits to the Maldives by officials of the Department, either during 2008 or during 2009 to date.
All travel is undertaken in accordance with the Civil Service Code and Civil Service Management Code. In BIS the criteria for booking travel is value for money based on cost and convenience.
Work of the Sector Skills Councils
All 25 sector skills councils are currently undergoing a robust and rigorous re-licensing assessment, in order to ensure they are as effective as possible. For each SSC there will be a detailed report by the National Audit Office and an overall assessment by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. The assessment tests the performance of SSCs against four key themes: that the organisation is well run; is able to deliver core products and services; is able to deliver sector-specific solutions in line with employer demand; and, is making progress in achieving results and impacts. Eight of the initial 10 SSCs assessed have achieved the standard to be re-licensed by Government. Further announcements on the performance of SSCs are taking place before the end of the year. All of these SSC reports and assessments are in the public domain on the UK Commission website. In addition, the UK Commission is implementing a new performance framework for SSCs.
Written Questions: Government Responses
[holding answer 1 April 2009]: Questions 252243 and 252245 were answered by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Regional Economic Development and Co-ordination on 3 July 2009, Official Report, column 430W.
Question 252242 was answered by my hon. Friend, the then Minister for Economics and Business on 27 April 2009, Official Report, column 1060W.
Question 252241 was answered by my hon. Friend, the then Minister for Economics and Business on 28 April 2009, Official Report, column 1271W.
Question 261653 was answered by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Regional Economic Development and Co-ordination on 16 September 2009, Official Report, column 2192W.
Question 261624 was answered by my hon. Friend, the then Minister for Economics and Business on 2 April 2009, Official Report, column 1446W.
I answered question 261512 on 2 April 2009, Official Report, column 1447W, and question 261487 on 8 June 2009, Official Report, column 762W.
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by the Minister for Further Education, Skills, Apprenticeships and Consumer Affairs on 16 September 2009, Official Report, column 2199W.
I apologise for the delay in replying to the hon. Member, which was due to administrative error in the Department.
To help defend against electronic attack, it is standard good information security practice for corporate IT systems, not to publish internal IP addresses. When accessing internet websites, the IP addresses of all of the computers on the Department internal office IT system are hidden behind the following IP addresses which are publicly available: 164.36.50.240, 164.36.50.240 and 164.36.50.217.
I replied to the hon. Member on 21 September. I apologise for the delay in responding.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to question 279301 on 20 July 2009, Official Report, column 1104W.
I refer the hon. Member to the answers my hon. Friend the Minister for Further Education, Skills, Apprenticeships and Consumer Affairs gave to questions 279302 and 279303 on 9 September 2009, Official Report, column 2059W.
Health
Abortions
This information is not collected centrally. The Department currently has no plans to use national health service numbers as a unique patient identifier in respect of abortion operations.
The information requested has been placed in the Library.
Allergies
The Department cannot find any record of receiving e-mails from the National Allergy Strategy Group (NASG) on 28 May, 4 June or 6 July, although we are aware that the group have requested a meeting. The private office of the Under-Secretary of State for Health has previously attempted to contact Mandy East, chair of the NASG and been unsuccessful. However, contact has recently been made and a meeting has been organised for 15 October 2009.
Arthritis
We have made no estimate of the number, and cost, of primary and secondary consultations for rheumatoid arthritis.
We have made no estimate of the cost of rheumatoid arthritis to the national health service and social care system.
Breast Cancer: Males
I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated August 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what the incidence of male breast cancer is in each primary care trust area [290207].
The latest available figures for newly diagnosed cases of cancer (incidence) are for the year 2006. There were 275 newly diagnosed cases of breast cancer in males in England in 2006.
Figures are not released for all individual primary care trust areas due to small numbers. Table 1 shows primary care trust areas with three or more newly diagnosed cases of male breast cancer in 2006. There were fewer than three cases in each of the remaining 108 primary care trust areas.
2006 North East Newcastle 3 Sunderland Teaching 3 North West Bury 3 Central and Eastern Cheshire 7 Cumbria Teaching 7 Halton and St. Helens 3 Salford 4 Yorkshire and the Humber Kirklees 4 Leeds 5 North Yorkshire and York 3 Sheffield 3 Wakefield District 3 East Midlands Lincolnshire Teaching 4 Northamptonshire Teaching 6 Nottinghamshire County Teaching 3 West Midlands Birmingham East and North 6 Coventry Teaching 3 Stoke on Trent 3 Warwickshire 3 East of England Bedfordshire 3 East and North Hertfordshire 3 Norfolk 4 North East Essex 5 South East Essex 6 Suffolk 8 West Hertfordshire 6 London Barnet 3 Bexley 3 Brent Teaching 4 South East Coast Brighton and Hove City 3 East Sussex Downs and Weald 3 Medway 3 Surrey 8 West Sussex 3 South Central Berkshire West 3 Buckinghamshire 3 Hampshire 4 Oxfordshire 4 South West Bath and North East Somerset 3 Cornwall and Isles of Scilly 5 Devon 8 Gloucestershire 4 Somerset 4 South Gloucestershire 3 1 Breast cancer is coded to C50 in the International Classification of Diseases Tenth Revision (ICD-10). 2 Based on boundaries as of 2008. Due to small numbers only primary care trusts with three or more newly diagnosed cases are included. Source: Office for National Statistics.
Burns: Health Services
Tables which provide a breakdown of burn injury by strategic health authority, for the years 2005-06 to 2007-08 for adults and children have been placed in the Library.
Cancer: Health Services
We have no current plans to extend the exemption arrangements for national health service dental charges or the eligibility criteria for free NHS sight tests.
Patients do not have to pay for NHS dental treatment if they receive treatment from a hospital dentist as an in-patient or attend as a hospital dental service outpatient, although they may have to pay for any dentures or bridges supplied. Children, pregnant and nursing mothers, adults on certain income-related benefits, and adults who qualify for full assistance under the NHS low income scheme may also receive free treatment if attending an NHS primary care dentist.
No NHS charges apply to patients attending a hospital eye department for the investigation or management of an eye condition. In addition, free NHS sight tests are available from primary care optometrists to a wide range of patients. These include children, people aged 60 and over, people with glaucoma or diabetes or who are at risk of glaucoma, people registered as sight-impaired or blind or who need complex lenses, and adults on certain income-related benefits or who qualify for full assistance under the NHS low income scheme. Private sight tests are widely available for other adults not eligible for an NHS sight test.
Cardiovascular System: Screening
Information in the form requested is not collected centrally. However, we expect that around one million people will be offered an NHS health check by the end of March 2010.
Care Homes
The Government accepted each of the royal commission on long term care’s recommendations except the recommendation to provide free personal care. Making personal care free for everyone carries a very substantial cost: the estimated cost is some £1.5 billion in 2003-04 rising to £2.65 billion in 2010-11.
The NHS Information Centre for health and social care publishes annually data on councils’ expenditure on residential care for older people. The latest data are £4,740 million gross or £3,340 million net of user charges for 2007-08.
The Department commissioned the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at the London School of Economics to make projections of expenditure on long-term care for older people in England. In a joint study with the Universities of Essex and Birmingham, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, they estimated that the introduction of free personal care could cost between £1.3 billion and £1.8 billion or more in 2002—PSSRU Research Summary 40, available at:
www.pssru.ac.uk/researchsummaries.php
The response to the ordinary residence guidance consultation is expected to be published in the winter.
Care Homes: Learning Disability
The quality or “star” rating system for social care providers was introduced by the then regulator of social care, the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) in May 2008. For this reason, the information requested is not available for each of the last five years.
Information on average quality ratings of care homes for younger adults with provision for people with learning disabilities, as at 8 August 2008 and 28 July 2009, has been provided by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which took over the responsibilities of CSCI on 1 April 2009. This information has been placed in the Library.
Carers
The Government have no current plans to change the arrangements for carers attending general practitioner (GP) consultations with, or speaking to GPs on behalf of, those for whom they care.
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 enshrines in statute a presumption that every adult has the capacity to make his or her own decisions. It is for individuals with capacity, who have carers, to decide whether they want their carer to attend a GP consultation or to speak to a GP on their behalf.
Where a person does not have capacity to make such a decision, the Mental Capacity Act will come into effect. Those caring for the person may need to attend the GP consultation and/or speak to the GP on behalf of the person lacking capacity. Where they do so, the GP has no new obligation to share confidential information with the carer so will need to exercise his or her judgment as to what information they need to share if any about the health care needs of the person they are caring for.
Cervical Cancer
(2) if he will make it his policy to lower the cervical cancer screening age to 20 years.
Through the national awareness and early diagnosis initiative, we are making the public and health care professionals more aware of the signs and symptoms of cancer, including cervical cancer and encouraging those who may have symptoms to seek advice earlier. We have allocated £5 million to the national health service to support cancer networks and primary care trusts in implementing services that will improve awareness of cancers and promote early diagnosis.
A national audit in primary care of all patients diagnosed with cancer is being undertaken in collaboration with the Royal College of Practitioners and the National Patient Safety Agency. Findings from the audit will be used to make decisions about how best to provide more support to general practitioners and other primary care professionals to ensure early diagnosis of cancer.
We have set up a working group to produce a new guideline to assist general practitioners in the management of young women who present in primary care with gynaecological symptoms. The aim is to issue the guideline before the end of the year.
We are also preparing key messages on cervical cancer for members of the public. The first draft is currently being reviewed by an expert group of stakeholders, and our plans are to launch these before the end of the year. These will go on to NHS Choices and stakeholder websites, and stakeholders will be encouraged to use them in a variety of ways to raise awareness.
The independent Advisory Committee on Cervical Screening (ACCS) at its formal review in May agreed unanimously that there should be no change in the current policy in England of starting cervical screening at 25 years. However, the cervical screening age range will be a standing item on the agenda of meetings of the ACCS, which reviews all new research to assess its significance to the cervical screening programme.
NHS cancer screening programmes maintain an on-line database of literature relating to cervical screening, and publish ‘Cervical Screening: Literature Update’ twice a year. If further evidence is published that warrants another formal review of the screening age range, this will be done.
Children: Health Services
This information is not collected centrally.
Coeliac Disease
(2) on how many occasions the NHS has taken a biopsy from a patient in order to confirm a suspected diagnosis of coeliac disease in the last five years.
The information requested is not collected centrally.
Complementary Medicine
The Department is currently considering the findings of the complementary and alternative medicine pilot study which took place in Northern Ireland. It is for local practitioners to decide whether to refer patients for specific therapies. One factor that they will wish to take account of is clinical and cost-effectiveness. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence is responsible for assessing clinical and cost-effectiveness and can look at this in relation to specific complementary and alternative therapies, which have an evidence base, in the context of specific clinical guidelines.
Continuing Care
The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) began in March 2002, funded jointly by Her Majesty's Government and the United States National Institute of Ageing. The Government hope shortly to finalise arrangements to extend the survey for a further five years. The ELSA data can be used to estimate health expectancy in England at older ages.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) regularly produce and publish national estimates of health expectancy at birth and at age 65, using data from the General Household Survey. The most recent estimates are published in Health Statistics Quarterly), winter 2008 (p77), available on the ONS website:
www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=6725
Contraceptives
A total of £26.8 million has been allocated this year to strategic health authorities (SHAs) and primary care trusts (PCTs) to improve women’s knowledge of, and access to, the full range of contraception, to help reduce the number of teenage pregnancies and abortions.
It is for SHAs and PCTs to determine how to use this funding most effectively to meet the needs of their local populations. However, officials are working with SHAs to provide advice and spread good practice. Priority areas include encouraging innovation and providing sustainable services to ensure equitable access to all methods of contraception including long acting reversible (LARC) methods. Guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence highlighted that the national health service could save around £100 million through reducing unintended pregnancies if women switched to LARC.
In addition, each SHA will also receive an additional £250,000 to pump-prime the provision of information technology in community contraception services.
Dementia
The review of the use of anti-psychotic medicine for dementia treatment will be published shortly.
Dental Services
In 2008-09, the Department spent an estimated £125,000 on commissioning specialist consultancy to support the new dental access programme. Precise costs and headcount figures are not available because some of the consultants supported a range of activities in which the dental access programme was only one element. Input from departmental staff to support the programme has been provided from within existing departmental resources at no additional cost to the Department.
The dental access programme is providing on-going support to strategic health authorities and primary care trusts to help them improve access to NHS dental services and make the most effective use of the extra national health service funding, now totalling more than £2.25 billion, made available for primary dental care services. Information on expenditure on the dental access programme in 2009-10 will be available after the year end.
(2) with reference to page 88 of Chapter 7 of the independent review of NHS dental services in England, what recent estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of implementing the four longer-term aims identified by the Review;
(3) with reference to page 84 of chapter 7 of the Independent Review of NHS dental services in England, whether he has estimated the cost of implementing the seven immediate priorities identified by the Review.
Work has begun to estimate these costs. Funding has been identified for the implementation of the seven immediate priorities and to determine the costs of the medium and longer term priorities.
We have had no such discussions.
As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government’s practice to provide details of all such meetings. Professor Steele met a wide range of stakeholders as part of his independent review and these are listed in an annex to his review. This has been placed in the Library and is also available on the Department’s website at:
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_101137
Officials with policy responsibilities for oral health and dental education within the chief dental officer’s team are leading on the review with the help of an external consultant. As at July 2009, the consultant’s fees and the costs of providing accommodation and services for meetings amounted to a total of approximately £43,000. Estimating and costing the proportion of the time, which officials have devoted to the review within their other duties, could be undertaken only at disproportionate cost.
We hope to publish the report of the review by the end of the year. It has taken longer than expected because of the need to take account of helpful recommendations in the report of the independent review of national health service dental services in England led by Professor Jimmy Steele. The continuing development of the world class commissioning initiative, which is intended to ensure that the health and care services provided by the NHS effectively meet the needs of the population, is also relevant to this review.
(2) which of the medium-term actions identified by the review his Department has accepted; and what mechanism his Department has put in place for implementation in each such case;
(3) with reference to page 87 of the independent review of NHS dental services in England, which of the seven immediate priorities identified by the review his Department has accepted; and what steps his Department has taken towards implementation in each such case.
The Government have accepted all the recommendations of the review in principle, subject to working through the detail of their financial implications and the outcome of piloting. The report recognises the more difficult future fiscal environment, and rightly puts an emphasis on piloting, cost containment and more efficient ways of working.
Work has begun to implement the seven immediate priorities identified, and a programme is being developed to take forward the implementation of the other recommendations, and the contract pilots.
Funding has been identified for this year for the immediate priorities. Budget plans for 2010-11 are still being finalised.
Dental Services: Information and Communications Technology
The report of the independent review of NHS dental services in England, led by Professor Jimmy Steele, recommend that there should be a formal national information technology (IT) strategy for NHS dentistry, aiming to link all dentists to the wider NHS within five years. We have accepted the recommendations of the report in principle, but any decision on an IT plan would need to be subject to a full appraisal of cost and the wider financial context.
Departmental Advertising
The following table provides a breakdown of the Department’s expenditure through the Central Office of Information (COI) on advertising in each national newspaper for the 2008-09 financial year.
To identify the amount of expenditure by the Department in each regional newspaper would incur a disproportionate cost.
National press 1 April 2008-31 March 2009 (£) The Sun 1,697,736 News of the World 1,048,402 Daily Mirror 1,255,682 Sunday Mirror 474,998 Sunday People 233,186 Daily Star 230,934 Daily Star Sunday 75,490 Daily Mail 353,794 Mail on Sunday 243,750 Daily Express 197,952 Sunday Express 119,896 The Times 69,500 The Sunday Times 29,970 The Daily Telegraph 100,548 The Sunday Telegraph 23,712 The Guardian 59,604 The Observer 10,500 The Independent 16,677 The Independent on Sunday 3,400 Metro (National) 140,244 The London Paper 39,854 London Lite 20,010
Ethnic press 1 April 2008-31 March 2009 Daily Ausaf 1,000 Eastern Eye 1,300 The Muslim Weekly 1,200 Pride 1,890 The Trumpet 1,500 The Voice 2,000 Weekly Gleaner 1,200 Asian Age 1,300 Emel 2,000 Asian Leader 1,000 Asian Voice 1,400 Asiana 2,500 African Voice 1,500 Notes: 1. All figures above exclude VAT. All figures exclude advertising rebates and audit adjustments and therefore may differ from COI official turnover figures. 2. Advertising spend is defined as covering only media spend (inclusive of agency commissions but excluding production costs, COI commission and VAT). 3. These figures do not include the Department’s recruitment/classified advertising costs. 4. These figures may include occasional minor spend through COI by national health service organisations, to supplement national campaigns in their area. While this expenditure has been excluded as far as possible, it would incur disproportionate cost to validate that every item of NHS expenditure has been removed.
The following table shows the Department's advertising expenditure over the last five completed financial years. A further breakdown of these figures is available in the Library.
All departmental advertising listed as follows was carried out via the Central Office of Information (COI), with the exception of those initiatives highlighted with an asterisk. To identify other ad hoc expenditure not carried out via the COI would incur disproportionate cost.
£ million Campaign 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-092 Alcohol3 0.00 0.00 0.56 0.61 4.77 Antibiotics 0.00 0.38 0.00 0.39 1.15 Change4Life 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 7.69 Drugs4 0.91 0.18 1.34 0.67 1.45 Flu (Immunisation) 1.45 1.83 1.11 0.98 1.42 Hepatitis C 0.00 0.00 0.52 1.34 1.30 HPV Vaccination 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2.80 Immunisation 0.00 0.00 1.66 0.00 0.32 National Health Service including nurse recruitment 5.96 0.22 0.00 0.00 0.00 NHS Injury Benefits Scheme 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.40 0.00 NHS Choices* 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.03 0.55 Patient Choice* 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.53 Respiratory and Hand Hygiene 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.32 1.53 Sexual health/teenage pregnancy 1.40 0.00 2.88 3.11 2.83 Social care/worker recruitment 1.80 L2.42 2.31 2.22 2.03 Smoking—Tobacco Control 20.05 20.80 13.17 10.79 23.38 Stroke 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 4.52 Tobacco Legislation 0.00 0.00 0.32 5.38 0.00 Winter (Get the right treatment/ask about medicines day) 0.54 0.59 0.00 0.00 0.00 5 a Day 0.06 0.05 0.05 0.00 0.00 E111/EHIC 0.24 1.00 0.00 0.00 0.16 Department of Health outdoor campaign 0.32 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Totals 32.73 27.47 23.92 26.24 56.43 1 Advertising spend is defined as covering only media spend (inclusive of agency commissions but excluding production costs, COI commission and VAT). All figures exclude advertising rebates and audit adjustments and therefore may differ from COI official turnover figures. All figures are rounded to the nearest £10,000. These figures do not include departmental recruitment/classified advertising costs and ad hoc spend under £10,000. These figures may include occasional minor spend through COI by NHS organisations, to supplement national campaigns in their area. While this expenditure has been excluded as far as possible so that this chart reflects central departmental spend, it would incur disproportionate cost to validate that every item of NHS expenditure has been removed. 2 Provisional figures. 3 From 2006-07 Department of Health contribution to campaign run jointly with Home Office. 4 Department of Health contribution to campaign run jointly with Home Office
Departmental Dismissal
In each of the last five years, less than five individuals have been dismissed from the core Department.
In each of the last five years, less than five non-permanent workers have been terminated for reasons other than the completion of the work under their contract.
Exact figures are not provided and related information suppressed on confidentiality grounds.
Departmental Flexible Working
The Department recognises that flexible working allows staff to combine employment and a career with other responsibilities as well as meeting personal needs. The Department encourages staff to work flexibly through providing opportunities such as part-time working, job sharing, term-time only working and the use of flexitime. It also provides the technology to allow staff to work at home on occasions and has in place specific arrangements to allow parents, adopters, guardians and foster carers of children under 16 (or disabled children under 18) to apply to work flexibly.
Most staff participate in the flexitime work arrangement. The Department also encourages other flexible arrangements such as spreading working hours over nine days within a fortnight or four days within a week.
Managers have the discretion to agree flexible working arrangements locally, without making contractual changes. These local arrangements are not recorded centrally so the numbers of staff working flexibly is not available, but is likely to be a large proportion of the work force.
In our last submission to Office for National Statistics (1 April 2009) we had 201 staff working part-time, based on those arrangements where contractual changes were agreed centrally. Of those, six had job-share arrangements and five were working term-time. Prior to July 2008 this information was not held centrally.
At the website
www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=2899
There are details of full- and part-time employees in the Department.
From 16 June 2009 civil servants hoping to find a job-share partner can now use a new online job-sharing board to help match them with a suitable person. This can be found at:
www.civilservice.gov.uk/news/2009/june/job-share.aspx
Departmental Information and Communications Technology
This information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Manpower
The average length of employment in the Department for each grade are presented in the following table.
Grade Average length of service (years) Administrative Officer 8.6 Executive Officer 9.0 Higher Executive Officer 8.7 Senior Executive Officer 10.7 Grade 7 9.0 Grade 6 10.2 Senior Civil Service 1 9.6 Senior Civil Service 2 11.1 Senior Civil Service 3 8.6 Fast Stream 1.5 All Grades 8.9
Departmental Marketing
In the 2008-09 budget year three staff were employed to work on branding.
The cost of employing branding staff during this period was £141,752.
Departmental Motor Vehicles
Figures for car hire expenditure booked through our car hire contract company Arval are only available for the last two years.
Car hire expenditure (£) 2007-08 22,815 2008-09 31,118
The previous car hire contract expired in May 2006 and figures for previous years are not easily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Non-domestic Rates
The information requested is provided as follows.
The Department has occupied two freehold properties for which business rates are paid during the five-year period.
Information in relation to empty business rates is not readily available other than for the last two years.
Number of Properties Cost (£) Number of Properties Cost (£) 2004-05 2 2,765,930 n/a 2005-06 2 601,350 n/a 2006-07 2 2,017,780 n/a 2007-08 2 2,108,180 3 15,817 2008-09 2 2,193,200 3 45,842
Departmental Paternity Leave
The figures for the number of staff taking paternity leave are only available from the implementation of the Department's business management system on 1 July 2008. Prior to that date information is only be available from hard-copy files and so it would incur disproportionate costs to establish that information. Our records show that the number of staff taking paternity leave in 2008 was nine, and so far this year (2009) the number has been five. The average length of paternity leave taken was 14 days.
Departmental Public Consultation
The Green Paper consultation closes on 13 November 2009. The Government’s response to the consultation will be published after this date.
Departmental Public Consultations
The Department and Ministers engage continuously with key stakeholders across all policy areas and through this process can identify key issues and develop proposals to address them.
Such engagement and consultation with individuals and groups with an interest in these proposals will continue as we work with them towards their implementation.
Departmental Public Expenditure
I am the Department of Health Minister with responsibility for overseeing the delivery of value for money. The Department has not created a new single public sector reform team because directorates within the Department lead on different elements of service reform.
The Secretary of State for Health discussed the Department of Health’s contribution to the housing policies announced in the Draft Legislative Programme with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, as part of the process of publishing “Building Britain’s Future”.
I have been asked to reply.
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave on 21 July 2009, Official Report, column 1352W.
I am told that the time taken to publish the 2007-08 programme budgeting data was due to a new data collection mechanism for both the reference cost data (which are used as part of the programme budgeting calculations) and the programme budgeting data. In addition, due to a change in the programme budgeting data collection methodology, additional validation work was undertaken to estimate expenditure levels per programme without methodological changes.
Departmental Publications
The Appointments Commission had planned to include an article on the remuneration of chairs in the first edition of the ‘Westminster’ bulletin. During discussions on the draft, departmental officials suggested that the article might raise expectations of chairs of national health service organisations about the Secretary of State's discretion when deciding remuneration increases, within the framework of the Public Sector Pay Committee's decisions, which were not correct. The Appointments Commission, who have editorial control, made a decision to replace the article.
The planned article was about chairs' remuneration in general. It did not refer to the remuneration of the chair of the Appointments Commission specifically, and no such reference was removed from Westminster Bulletin.
Remuneration for the chair of the Appointments Commission is in the range of £45,000-50,000 as published in the Appointments Commission's latest annual report and accounts (2008-09). This can be found on their website:
www.appointments.org.uk/publications.asp
The production cost of the Green Paper “Shaping the Future of Care Together” was £68,451. The cost of obtaining pictures for the publication, which will also be used for The Big Care Debate, was £6,580. These were sourced from the national health service photo library, as well as from private image library banks.
Research commissioned by the Department and carried out by the personal social services research unit (PSSRU) “Analysing the costs and benefits of social care funding arrangements in England: technical report, Julien Forder and José-Luis Fernández, 2009, PSSRU Discussion Paper 2644” looks at the lifetime probability of needing care and the cost of this care. This includes residential home care.
At present, local authorities that choose to can offer individuals to pay for their care through a deferred payments scheme. However, this option is not currently available to all—approximately 30 local authorities do not offer deferred payments to people entering residential care. The Green Paper proposes making the scheme available to all who wish to use it. Further detail on the assumptions made underpinning this proposal can be found in the impact assessment. The detailed design of the system, exactly how it would operate and the precise costs will be finalised once there is consensus about the preferred funding option, since the choice of funding option is likely to influence the cost of the deferred payment scheme.
A summary of the costs and benefits for the comprehensive and partnership funding models are available in the regulatory impact assessment for the Green Paper, “Shaping the Future of Care Together”. This has been placed in the Library, and can be seen at:
http://careandsupport.direct.gov.uk/greenpaper/the-green-paper-and-supporting-documents/
A summary of the model from which these costs are derived has been placed in the Library, and can be seen at:
http://www.pssru.ac.uk/pdf/dp2644.pdf
All of the funding options cover the costs of care. The costs of care include services in both domiciliary and residential care.
The Green Paper “Shaping the Future of Care Together” does not make any commitments about the level of state funding for adult social care in the future. This will be a matter for future spending reviews.
The net cost to the state of each of the Green Paper funding options has been estimated for 2014 and 2026. This is given in the regulatory impact assessment (RIA) for the Care and Support Green Paper which is has already been placed in the Library, or can be seen at:
http://careandsupport.direct.gov.uk/greenpaper/the-green-paper-and-supporting-documents/
In order to produce these projections of likely cost it was necessary to make a series of assumptions for modelling purposes, including illustrative assumptions around levels of funding. The purpose of these projections is to provide early indicative costs to allow comparison between funding options: they are not intended to be a projection of actual future funding. The actual costs of the different models could alter substantially following decisions about precisely how the funding options are implemented, as well as by future public spending and prioritisation decisions.
The new National Care Service will affect every adult in England, whether people use the system themselves, have family members who need support, or are taxpayers. It is vital that everybody gets involved in the Big Care Debate to have their say on the future direction of the new care and support system.
The Big Care Debate is one of the biggest consultations ever conducted by Government to find out the views of the public. We are reaching out to people in an unprecedented number of ways, through stakeholder events in every region in England, public road shows, leaflets, questionnaires and postcards, a dedicated website, outreach in general practitioner surgeries, universities and other locations and using new digital media including Facebook and Twitter.
The consultation closes on 13 November 2009 and we will be looking closely at all the responses to identify what national consensus has formed around the options in “Shaping the Future of Care Together”, a copy of which is available in the Library.
We do not have an exact estimate of the number of people born with care and support needs who would qualify for free care under the partnership funding option outlined in the Green Paper “Shaping the Future of Care Together”. However, it is likely to be very similar to the number of people born with a disability who receive entirely free care under the present system of care and support.
This is because currently, the majority of individuals who are born with a disability and who are entitled to state support receive their care free of charge because they tend not to have the opportunity to accumulate assets and they tend not to be in employment. This would also be the case under the partnership system.
The personal social services research unit estimates that cost of providing care for people who would qualify for all their care free under the partnership funding option in 2009 would be £9.8 billion.
From the modelling results, the total cost of providing care to those who would qualify for all their care free under the partnership system can be approximated as the sum of the care costs for younger adults, since most will receive it for free, and the cost for the minority of older people who would receive their care entirely for free.
Currently, this would amount to £4.7 billion for younger disabled people (younger physically disabled and people with learning disability) and £5.1 billion for older people, giving a total cost of £9.8 billion.
Robust evidence that specifically examines the cost effectiveness of prevention interventions is limited. This is owing to the long time scales involved—the impact of an intervention may not be felt for many years—and the difficulty of establishing causality. In “Securing Good Care for Older People”, Derek Wanless found that it can be difficult to make quantitative assessments due to the complex nature of prevention. This is because
“even when using a very narrow specific target such as reducing the number of falls in a locality, determining cost-effectiveness is not straightforward...[as] there may be numerous factors at play (for example new transport facilities).”
The Department is funding 29 local authority-led partnerships to take part in Partnership for Older People Projects (POPPs) across England. These partnerships include social care, health and third sector members, and aim to create a sustainable shift in resources and culture, moving away from institutional and hospital-based crisis care towards earlier and better-targeted interventions for older people within community settings. The pilots cover a wide range of activity to meet low to high levels of need. The final evaluation for these projects is expected in autumn 2009.
The relative lack of quantitative evidence should not stop prevention pilots being trialled. There is a great deal of qualitative evidence for the value placed on lower-level services by older people in helping them to maintain their independence. That is why existing and new prevention and early intervention schemes funded by the Government build evaluations into their projects.
HM Treasury’s long-term fiscal projections show that the costs of long term care are set to increase by 17 per cent. by 2027-28, from 1.2 per cent. of gross domestic product in 2007-08 to 1.4 per cent. in 2027-28. These projections are contained in the published “Long-term public finance report”, HM Treasury, March 2008.
The increase in life expectancy for people with Down’s syndrome quoted in the Green Paper “Shaping the Future of Care Together”, Cm 7673, page 38 is based on American research.
The information on the lifetime costs of care for those aged over 65 sited on page 14 of the Green Paper “Shaping the Future of Care Together” is taken from section 5.1.2 Lifetime risks and costs in the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) technical report into analysing the costs and benefits of social care funding arrangements in England.
A copy of the report has been placed in the Library, and is available on PSSRU's website at:
www.pssru.ac.uk/pdf/dp2644.pdf
The Department is currently working closely with our key partners in the social care sector to develop an action plan for the development of the adult social care workforce of the future.
The Department aims to publish this plan this autumn.
The consultation on the Green Paper will last until 13 November 2009. Once the consultation has been completed, these responses will be used to inform and finalise our proposals. We will then publish a White Paper on care and support in 2010.
Work on many of the areas highlighted in the Green Paper is already underway through the Putting People First programme.
“The Case for Change—Why England needs a new care and support system: Engagement Findings” has already been placed in the Library.
The Care Support Independence engagement process took place between May and November 2008 to give a cross-section of the public and key stakeholders the opportunity to debate the principles that should underpin the future of the care and support system for all adults.
Over the course of the engagement, a total of 1,092 stakeholders and citizens attended 15 deliberative events held across all English regions. A further 97 people were interviewed either individually or in mini-groups. 1,449 separate communications were received through the dedicated website and by letter and email. Inclusivity research with 11 specific groups of citizens engaged in an appropriate and accessible way with people for whom the deliberative events might not be suitable. These included young adults and people with learning disabilities, physical impairments, those living in rural areas, Gypsies and Travellers, ex-offenders and people for whom English was not their first language.
On publication of the Green Paper on 14 July 2009, a wide ranging consultation process was launched to encourage people to give their views on the proposals and join the Big Care Debate. This consultation closes on 13 November 2009.
While re-ablement is, hour for hour, more expensive than home care, many people do not need an ongoing home care package after a few weeks of re-ablement. A re-ablement package would typically pay for itself if a re-ablement user continued not to need ongoing care for around five to seven months, where they would otherwise have required a typical care package.
Using a high estimate that it would cost £1,000 per re-ablement package, we believe it would be possible to offer re-ablement to people leaving hospital who would qualify for care and support from the state for the first time, subject to future funding decisions.
The consultation on the Green Paper will last until 13 November 2009. Once the consultation has been completed, these responses will be used to inform and finalise our proposals, including those on the promotion of telecare and making information available about prevention and early intervention. We will then publish a White Paper on care and support in 2010.
No estimate has been made of the level of personal cost at which paying for costs is fundamentally unfair since this is likely to differ from one individual to another. However, the Government believe that a system which leaves everyone to pay for themselves with no state support—what is called in the Green Paper the “Pay for Yourself” option—would be fundamentally unfair because:
Care would be unaffordable for many people. Many people would not be able to afford the costs of private insurance. For those without insurance, the costs of care can be very high: someone who develops dementia could need 10 years of high-level, skilled care in a residential care home, which could carry a price tag of over£250,000;
This option would have a large negative impact on people on low incomes and with high levels of need, as the group of people who would previously have been eligible for state support and also who are unable to afford the costs of care or insurance themselves; and
Those individuals unable to afford the cost of care would be left without the care they need. This could result in high levels of unmet need in the future, or pressure on friends/families to provide informal care.
Departmental Recruitment
The requested diversity information for previous years can be found in the civil service statistics tables, available from the civil service statistics website at:
www.civilservice.gov.uk/about/who/statistics/index.aspx
or
www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=2899&Pos=&ColRank=l&Rank=422
The Department monitors diversity data at all stages of the recruitment process to ensure fairness at every point. The Department has a range of measures in place to encourage applicants from under-represented groups, including operating the Guaranteed Interview Scheme for people with disabilities and offering a broad range of flexible working options to all staff.
Departmental Recycling
For 2008-09, 83.47 per cent. of the Department’s waste was recycled.
The information covers the Department’s central administrative estate of Richmond House, Wellington House and Skipton House. The Department is a minor occupier in New Kings Beam House (HM Revenue and Customs) and Quarry House in Leeds (Department for Work and Pensions) and the data for these sites is reported by them.
Departmental Sick Leave
The following table presents the average working days lost per person in the Department for the years available and the associated cost estimates for sickness. The cost estimates for 2007-08 and 2008-09 are not available.
Average working days lost per person Cost estimate (£ million) 2008-09 5.6 n/a 2007-08 5.3 n/a 2006-07 6.5 2.1 2005 7.0 2.2 2004 3.8 5.3 n/a = not available Note: Cost estimates given are based on information published in the annual civil service sickness absence reports, available on the Cabinet Office website.
The figure for 2004 includes both the core Department and its Agencies: the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency and the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency.
Reporting periods changed from calendar years to financial years between 2005 and 2006.
Departmental Training
Decisions on external training courses for staff are made locally. The Department does not therefore hold central records of course attendance or the costs involved. To collect such information would incur disproportionate cost.
Departmental Travel
Travel by Ministers and civil servants is undertaken in accordance with the ministerial code and the civil service management code respectively and all expenditure on air and rail travel has to be incurred in accordance with the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.
The amount spent on these expenses is not easily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
The Cabinet Office publishes an annual list of overseas visits made by Cabinet Ministers costing in excess of £500 dating from 1997 onwards. Details on all Health Ministers overseas travel for 2008-09 can be found on the Cabinet Office website.
www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/propriety_and_ethics/ministers/travel_gifts.aspx
Details of business expenses and hospitality received by departmental senior officials on a quarterly basis will be published in October 2009.
Travel by Ministers is undertaken in accordance with the ministerial code and all expenditure on rail travel has to be incurred in accordance with the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.
The amount spent on rail travel is not easily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Diabetes
(2) what assessment he has made of the effects of diabetes networks, as defined in the national service framework for diabetes, on patient outcomes for people with diabetes.
Diabetes networks, as defined in the diabetes national service framework, can play an important role in driving the delivery of quality of diabetes services, and improving patient outcomes. We are working with NHS Diabetes and Diabetes UK to expand networks across England.
We have not undertaken any formal assessment of the effects on the quality of diabetes in primary care trusts of diabetes networks or the effects of diabetes networks on patient outcomes for people with diabetes.
Diabetes: Health Services
The White Paper, “Pharmacy in England: Building on strengths - delivering the future”, published in April 2008, is closely aligned with the Government's strategy for primary and community care, developed as part of the NHS Next Stage Review, and set out in our vision for primary and community care. It sets out the contribution that community pharmacy can make to reducing health inequalities by identifying and managing chronic disease, such as diabetes, especially in the most deprived areas as community pharmacy services are well placed to reach groups and individuals who do not routinely use primary care or general practice. Copies of both publications have already been placed in the Library.
Diabetes: Screening
(2) what steps his Department plans to take to encourage commissioning by primary care trusts of services provided by community pharmacies for (a) screening for and (b) treating Type 2 diabetes;
(3) what steps his Department plans to take to provide screening and treatment services for Type 2 diabetes in community pharmacies for hard-to-reach groups.
The Government take its advice on screening matters from the National Screening Committee. It has advised that, while whole population screening for diabetes would not be clinically nor cost effective, targeted screening in a wider context of cardiovascular risk assessment would be effective. We do not have any plans for the introduction and provision of screening for diabetes alone.
However, we have introduced the NHS Health Check programme which will assess people's risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and diabetes and will support people to reduce or manage that risk through individually tailored advice. This programme is for the whole population between 40-74 that is not already on a disease register for cardiovascular disease, diabetes or kidney disease.
To ensure that it contributes to tackle health inequalities, the programme has been designed so that the risk assessment element can be undertaken in a variety of settings, including community pharmacy. Phased implementation of the programme began in April and some primary care trusts (PCTs) have commissioned services from community pharmacies.
To help PCTs commission the NHS Health Check programme from community pharmacies, we have been working with a number of organisations, including those representing pharmacy, to develop a number of tools. With the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, a national template has been designed to help PCTs commission the programme from community pharmacy and is available at
www.pcc.nhs.uk/302
In association with Primary Care Contracting, a Primary Care Service Framework has been developed to assist PCTs in commissioning the NHS Health Check programme from a number of providers including community pharmacy and is available at:
www.pcc.nhs.uk/news/531
Community pharmacists are well placed to support people diagnosed with diabetes to manage their condition effectively and many are doing so. Community pharmacy can provide a range of services from blood glucose testing, blood pressure management, safe use of medicines to providing healthy lifestyle advice.
Drugs: Counterfeit Manufacturing
Since 2004, there have been 15 incidents of counterfeit medicines and 13 of counterfeit medical devices discovered in the United Kingdom supply chain. 10 incidents of counterfeit medicines reached pharmacy and patient level and led to the products being recalled. All 13 incidents of counterfeit medical devices reached patient level and action was taken to remove the products from the supply chain and inform the public.
2004-05 2005-0 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 Total Medicines (reaching patient level) 2 1 2 4 0 1 10 Medicines (discovered in supply chain before reaching patient) 0 3 1 1 0 0 5 Total medicines 2 4 3 5 0 1 15 Devices 0 3 1 5 2 2 13
No fatalities or serious adverse reactions have been attributed to counterfeit medicines in the UK.
Although this represents a fraction of the 850 million prescriptions dispensed annually in the UK, or over 93,000 different types of medical devices on the market, the Government take the issue of counterfeit medical products very seriously.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has implemented a comprehensive anti-counterfeiting strategy which focuses on reducing the availability of counterfeit medical products in the UK.
Electromagnetic Fields: Health Hazards
The Department has received advice from the Stakeholder Advisory Group on Extremely Low Frequency Electromagnetic Fields (SAGE). SAGE is a group of stakeholders representing sectors engaged with electricity transmission, regulation, property valuation, academic research and public concern campaigning. The remit of SAGE is to explore the implications for a precautionary approach to extremely low frequency electric and magnetic fields (ELF/EMF) and to make practical recommendations to Government. SAGE’s First Interim Assessment: Power Lines and Property, Wiring in Homes and Electrical Equipment in Homes considered two sources of EMF: high voltage overhead power lines and electrical wiring and equipment inside the home and was published in April 2007.
The Health Protection Agency (HPA) advised Government on the SAGE First Interim Assessment in October 2007. The HPA’s advice is available at:
www.hpa.org.uk/webw/HPAweb&HPAwebStandard/HPAweb_C/1204276682532?p=1207897920036.
The reply from the former Minister of State can be found at:
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Healthprotection/DH_4089500.
I will be issuing a written statement on the Government’s response to the SAGE First Interim Assessment very shortly on behalf of myself and my hon. Friends the Minister of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath), and the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr. Austin).
Employment Tribunals Service
As detailed in the following table, in the last five years the Department has been taken to an employment tribunal twice.
The case in 2007-08 reason was one of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, found in favour of the Department.
The case in 2005-06 reason was one of discrimination on the grounds of disability, found in favour of the claimant.
Number of cases Reason cited Found in favour of 2009-10 10 n/a n/a 2008-09 0 n/a n/a 2007-08 1 Discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation Department of Health 2006-07 0 n/a n/a 2005-06 1 Discrimination on the grounds of disability Claimant 1 No cases from the current financial year have proceeded to tribunal to date.
Epilepsy
(2) what information his Department has on the number of people with epilepsy who have been diagnosed by an epilepsy specialist in (a) the general population and (b) the prison population.
Information on the number of people diagnosed by an epilepsy specialist is not collected centrally.
Information on the level of misdiagnosis for epilepsy is not collected.
In July, I wrote to all strategic health authorities drawing their attention to the report “Epilepsy in England: Time for Change”, which was published by Epilepsy Action earlier this year. In my letter, I also reinforced the importance of implementing the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence’s guidance and the National Service Framework for Long-term neurological Conditions in delivering high quality, accessible services for those living with epilepsy.
(2) what information his Department has on the number of people with epilepsy who have uncontrolled seizures in (a) the general population and (b) the prison population.
Information on the number of people with epilepsy who have uncontrolled seizures is not collected.
Information on the number of people with epilepsy who have had a medical review in the last 12 months is not collected.
In July, I wrote to all strategic health authorities drawing their attention to the report “Epilepsy in England: Time for Change”, which was published by Epilepsy Action earlier this year. In my letter, I also reinforced the importance of implementing the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence’s guidance and the National Service Framework for Long-term neurological Conditions in delivering high quality, accessible services for those living with epilepsy.
Following consultation, the Care Quality Commission published in June 2009 their forthcoming programme of special reviews. A review of the care of people in prison with epilepsy is not currently within the agreed list of topics to start in 2009-10.
The Commission has informed us that it is considering what topics should be undertaken as special reviews and studies from 2010-11 and what consultation process would help inform its final decisions. A special review on the health and social care needs of offenders is one of many potential topics under consideration.
(2) how many people in (a) prisons and (b) young offender institutions have epilepsy;
(3) what guidance his Department provides to staff in (a) prisons and (b) young offender institutions on the care of people with epilepsy;
(4) what recent assessment he has made of the extent to which the care of people in prison with epilepsy is in accordance with the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence clinical guidelines of 2004.
There has been no centrally commissioned research or audit on this matter. Local primary care trusts (PCTs) are responsible for assuring the quality of care provided in primary care settings to their local population, which includes all publicly run prisons.
All clinical staff are regulated and subject to the same standards of practice including those providing care in prisons. The standards of care are found in the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance CG20. The standards of care expressed in the New General Medical Services Quality Outcomes Framework will be monitored, as they are in general practice, across the prison estate following the roll out of a general practitioner clinical IT system.
The Department of Health and the Prison Reform Trust have recently published two new information books for prisoners with a disability. Copies have been placed in the Library. The first book is a short, easy-read version for prisoners with learning difficulties, the second book contains more in depth detail for prisoners on their health, daily life, and how to get help in prison and on release this includes information on epilepsy.
Since 2006, PCTs have been responsible for commissioning health services for their offender health population. In commissioning these services, the NICE guidelines for epilepsy provides the benchmark for providers of these services.
The Department does not collect information on the number of people in prisons and young offender institutions that have epilepsy.
Offenders are now all screened on arrival in prison by a trained nurse or trained officer to find out what their health needs are and get them the right treatment. All new offenders entering prison reception either on remand or sentenced, have an initial health assessment undertaken to ensure that any immediate health needs are identified on the first night with a fuller comprehensive health assessment completed within five days of admission into custody.
Information on incorrect prescribing of medication for those with epilepsy is not collected.
In July, I wrote to all strategic health authorities drawing their attention to the report “Epilepsy in England: Time for Change”, which was published by Epilepsy Action earlier this year. In my letter, I also reinforced the importance of implementing the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence’s guidance and the National Service Framework for Long-term neurological Conditions in delivering high quality, accessible services for those living with epilepsy.
Food Standards Agency: Energy
The display energy certificate for the Food Standards Agency can be found on the Office of Government Commerce website:
www.ogc.gov.uk/government_delivery_display_energy_certificate_data.asp
From the table one can obtain the relevant record number which allows viewing of the buildings advisory report which can be found on the following website:
www.ndepcregister.com
This response only covers the agency's property in England where it is the major occupier, that is Aviation House in Holborn.
Food: Infant Milk
The marketing of breast-milk substitutes must comply with the European directive on infant formula and follow on formula 2006/141/EC, which reflects the principles of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. This sets out rules about the composition, labelling and advertising of formula.
The Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula (England) Regulations 2007 implement the provisions of this directive and prohibit the advertising of infant formula to the general public. The impact of these measures on the way follow-on formula is advertised and presented is currently being reviewed by an independent panel of experts.
Gambling
The information requested is a matter for Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust. We have written to Dame Ruth Runciman, Chair of Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, informing her of the hon. Member's inquiry. She will reply shortly and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Library.
General Practitioners
Information on general practitioner practices’ opening hours is not collected centrally. Practices are required to include in their practice leaflets the opening hours of practice premises and the method of obtaining access to services throughout core hours. Practices can also place this information on the NHS Choices website.
General Practitioners: Hertfordshire
The number of doctors employed by West Hertfordshire primary care trust (PCT) for 2002 when PCTs were first established and for 2008 which is the latest data available, is shown in the following table.
Numbers (headcount) Of which: As at 30 September each year All Doctors Medical staff General practitioners 2008 West Hertfordshire PCT 456 21 435 2002 Dacorum PCT 102 3 99 Hertsmere PCT 69 3 66 St. Albans and Harpenden PCT 97 3 94 Watford and Three Rivers PCT 122 1 121 Notes: 1. Excludes medical Hospital Practitioners and medical Clinical Assistants, most of whom are GPs working part time in hospitals. 2. Data quality Workforce statistics are compiled from data sent by more than 300 National Health Service trusts and PCTs in England. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data. Processing methods and procedures are continually being updated to improve data quality. Where this happens any impact on figures already published will be assessed but unless this is significant at national level they will not be changed. Where there is impact only at detailed or local level this will be footnoted in relevant analyses. Source: The Information Centre for health and social care Medical and Dental Workforce Census The Information Centre for health and social care General and Personal Medical Services Statistics
Genetics
The information requested is shown in the following table.
Departmental funding stream Start date End date Expenditure to date (£ million) Planned expenditure (£ million) Genetics White Paper: gene therapy research programme 2004 2010 3 — National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centres 2007 2009 2.3 n/a NIHR Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research Care 2007 2010 — 0.05 NIHR Health Technology Assessment 2005 2013 1.4 1.8 NIHR New and Emerging Applications of Technology 2006 2009 0.3 — NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research 2009 2014 — 2 NIHR Research for Patient Benefit 2010 2012 — 0.2 Policy Research Programme 2006 2010 — 15.8 n/a = not available 1 This figure includes the total funding allocated by the Department to the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit. Only one of the Unit's five work streams is relevant to SGD but we do not have the means separately to identify the cost of that work stream. Note: Planned expenditure figures are a snapshot of the position at September 2009. Actual expenditure in future years will depend on a number of presently unknown factors, including the possible allocation of funds to new studies.
The NIHR Clinical Research Network is additionally providing national health service research infrastructure support to 16 SGD-related studies.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) also invests in genomic research and genomic medicine. The MRC receives its grant in aid from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Haemophilia
Work is under way with NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency to tender for new national contracts for blood clotting factors, which will commence from April 2010.
As part of the consultation process the Haemophilia Society (which represents patients affected by haemophilia) have been intensively involved in the planning stages of this contract and are also facilitating patient representation in the evaluation of products which will form part of the decision-making process.
In addition, a series of workshops are currently being rolled out across the national health service to ensure as wide as possible consultation is carried out prior to commencing these contacts this will representation of patients through their clinicians and directly through the Haemophilia Society.
Health Visitors
The Department does not collect this information.
Data about lapsed registered health visiting qualifications in England are held by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
Strategic health authorities in partnership with the Department are considering currently the feasibility of developing a Return to Practice programme for their areas.
The numbers are given in the following table.
headcount and percentage headcount All staff Male Female Unknown % Male % Female 1997 12,410 140 12,270 0 1.1 98.9 1998 12,572 164 12,071 337 1.3 98.7 1999 12,800 189 12,260 351 1.5 98.5 2000 12,827 185 12,179 463 1.5 98.5 2001 13,053 180 12,310 563 1.4 98.6 2002 12,774 165 12,149 460 1.3 98.7 2003 12,984 151 12,309 524 1.2 98.8 2004 13,303 173 12,517 613 1.4 98.6 2005 12,818 173 12,191 454 1.4 98.6 2006 12,034 176 11,507 351 1.5 98.5 2007 11,569 139 11,140 290 1.2 98.8 2008 11,190 127 10,704 359 1.2 98.8 Note: Percentages are based on the numbers of staff whose gender is known. The gender of bank staff is not collected. Source: The NHS Information Centre for health and social care Non-Medical Workforce census.
The numbers are given in the following table.
Old ethnic codes White Black Asian Other Unknown 1997 9,802 535 155 443 1,475 1998 10,184 601 178 278 1,331 1999 10,511 624 208 268 1,216 2000 10,511 624 208 268 1,216 2001 6,754 391 147 134 512 2002 3,929 154 49 79 317 2003 2,381 149 32 38 112 2004 348 14 5 4 13 2005 214 80 4 5 10 2006 108 29 7 1 16 20072 32 14 7 0 8 2008 23 11 4 0 4
White Mixed Asian or Asian British Black or black British Chinese Other Unknown Total ethnic minority groups1(%) All groups 1997 — — — — — — — 10.4 12,410 1998 — — — — — — — 9.4 12,572 1999 — — — — — — — 10.2 12,800 2000 — — — — — — — 9.5 12,827 2001 3,750 16 53 224 28 45 999 9.0% 13,053 2002 6,390 41 157 339 53 48 1,218 8.2% 12,774 2003 8,229 55 119 467 64 57 1,281 8.5% 12,984 2004 10,680 75 170 699 79 86 1,130 9.3% 13,303 2005 10,579 72 170 685 76 74 849 9.7% 12,818 2006 10,027 81 164 705 73 70 753 10.0% 12,034 20072 9,449 70 169 983 71 59 707 12.6% 11,569 2008 9,156 68 178 728 68 57 893 10.8% 11,190 1 "Unknown" includes unstated and unrecorded ethnic group. The ethnic group of all bank staff is not recorded. 2 We are aware of the apparent increase in the numbers of black/black British health visitors in 2007 then subsequent decrease in 2008. We have analysed this data from a number of different perspectives and have concluded that there is not a single cause for this. Data is now extracted from Electronic Staff Record and this has improved on data quality from previous years. Percentages are calculated on the numbers of staff whose ethnic group is known. Source: The NHS Information Centre for health and social care Non-Medical Workforce census.
I have been asked to reply
The Department does not hold information down to the level of health visitor students. Higher Education Statistics Agency information on the number of students who qualified from nursing courses, the category within which health visitor students are included, has been provided as an alternative.
The proportion of nursing students who became qualified is not available.
Health Visitors: Manpower
The vacancy rate for health visitors by primary care trust has been placed in the Library.
Home Care Services
(2) if he will publish the results of the 2008 home help returns for each (a) region, (b) shire county, (c) unitary authority and (d) metropolitan district.
Information on the number of people receiving home care/home help services during a sample week in September each year is collected on the HHl return and published by the NHS Information Centre for health and social care.
The following table shows the percentage of home help contact hours in each region provided by councils with adult social services responsibilities (CASSRs) and the independent sector during the sample week in September 2008.
Region All sectors CASSR Independent North East 242,300 18.7 81.3 North West 848,900 21.9 78.1 Yorkshire and The Humber 391,300 30.4 69.6 East Midlands 352,900 22.2 77.8 West Midlands 426,200 17.8 82.2 South West 352,000 19.6 80.4 Eastern 442,800 14.6 85.4 London 506,700 11.9 88.1 South East 519,800 12.6 87.4 England 4,082,900 18.7 81.3 Source: HHl return, table 1.1.
The full HHl data for 2008—the latest available—has been published and is available on the NHS Information Centre website at:
www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/social-care/adult-social-care-information/community-care-statistics-2008:-help-care-services-for-adults-england
A copy has been placed in the Library.
Hospices: Finance
Funding for hospices comes from primary care trusts (PCTs), not from the Department. It is for individual PCTs to decide the level of funding they allocate to hospices, based on assessments of local needs and priorities. The level of funding a hospice receives is a matter for negotiation between the local PCT and the hospice.
Hospital Wards
Annually, the national adult in-patient survey conducted by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is used to measure patient experience relating to mixed sex accommodation and privacy and dignity. Nationally, there is no requirement to monitor occurrences of mixed sex accommodation.
The 2009-10 NHS Standard Contract for Acute Hospital Services states:
“The Provider shall have a Mixed Sex Accommodation Reduction Plan, and shall comply with its obligations under that plan.”
The definition of such a plan is:
“The plan agreed in accordance with the Law and Guidance between the provider and the co-ordinating commissioner which sets out obligations, timescales and performance monitoring mechanisms to deliver substantial reductions in the number of patients sharing with members of the opposite sex sleeping or sanitary accommodation owned or controlled by the provider or a sub-contractor.”
Because the Department is committed to keep patient experience at the heart of delivery, ahead of the next (2009) CQC annual in-patient survey outcome, it is currently exploring with strategic health authorities, arrangements that would provide indications of progress by the local national health service in delivering same-sex accommodation.
Hospitals: Energy
(2) what energy efficiency standards his Department has stipulated for circulator pumps in its guidance on private finance initiative projects.
The Department does not collect data centrally on the number of A-rated circulator pumps installed in national health service hospitals in England.
All capital development schemes, whether private finance initiative or publicly funded projects, are expected to comply with energy efficiency standards of 35 to 55 gigajoules per one hundred metres squared (Gj/100m2), and also with BREEAM Healthcare requirements (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) to ensure healthcare facilities are constructed with sustainability and energy efficiency in mind. The Department provides guidance to assist the NHS and their partners in meeting this criteria.
This information is contained in the guidance document “Health Technical Memorandum 07-02: Encode—making energy work in healthcare”, a copy of which has been placed in the Library, and which provides general energy efficiency standards within health-care facilities. This guidance covers new build and refurbishment as well as the energy management of existing operational facilities and provides advice about pumps, fans and boilers. Capital project teams will make their own decisions about specific items of equipment, such as circulator pumps, to ensure they are appropriate to meet the needs, circumstances and efficiency of their particular schemes.
Hospitals: Waiting Lists
Median time waited (days) for hip replacement operations for Sunderland Primary Care Trust and England are shown in the following table:
Sunderland Primary Care Trust England 2001-02 337 220 2002-03 283 229 2003-04 223 217 2004-05 227 182 2005-06 167 158 2006-07 165 148 2007-08 147 107 Notes: 1. Time waited data has been provided where the main operation was a hip replacement operation. 2. Operative procedure codes were revised for 2006-07 and 2007-08. The 2008-09 and 2007-08 data uses OPCS 4.4 codes, 2006-07 data uses OPCS 4.3 codes, data prior to 2006-07 uses OPCS 4.2 codes. All codes that were in OPCS 4.2 remain in later OPCS 4 versions, however the introduction of OPCS 4.3 codes enable the recording of interventions and procedures which were not possible in OPCS 4.2. In particular, OPCS 4.3 and OPCS 4.4 codes include high cost drugs and diagnostic imaging, testing and rehabilitation. Some activity may have been coded under different codes in OPCS 4.2. These changes need to be borne in mind when analysing time series and may explain some apparent variations over time. Please note that care needs to be taken in using the newer codes as some providers of data were unable to start using the new codes at the beginning of each data year. 3. The quality and coverage of HES data have improved over time. The improvements in information submitted by the national health service have been particularly marked in the earlier years and need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. Some of the increase in figures for later years (particularly 2006-07 onwards) may be due to the improvement in the coverage of independent sector activity. Changes in NHS practice also need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. For example, a number of procedures may now be undertaken in out-patient settings and may no longer be accounted for in the HES data. This may account for any reductions in activity over time. 4. Time waited statistics from HES are not the same as the published waiting list statistics. HES provides counts and time waited for all patients admitted to hospital within a given period, whereas the published waiting list statistics count those waiting for treatment on a specific date and how long they have been on the waiting list. Also, HES calculates the time waited as the difference between the admission and decision to admit dates. Unlike published waiting list statistics, this is not adjusted for self-deferrals or periods of medical/social suspension. Source: Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES), The NHS Information Centre for health and social care.
Incontinence
This information is not collected centrally. For pre-registration education, the United Kingdom regulatory body, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, sets standards of proficiency for all nursing courses. Although continence is not identified separately, its management is implicit within several of the essential nursing skills which are required to be demonstrated.
Post-registration training is the responsibility of employers, who are best placed to understand the roles and responsibilities—and hence the training needs—of their staff. Specific post-registration training courses in continence and continence care are available and these are accessed according to local need.
Infant Mortality
I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked it to reply.
Letter from Jil Matheson, dated September 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking what the most common cause of infant mortality is. (291646)
Infant mortality is defined as death under one year after live birth, and can be divided into neonatal deaths (less than 28. days after live birth) and postneonatal deaths (28 days but under one year). In England and Wales, neonatal deaths are registered using a special perinatal death certificate which enables reporting of relevant diseases or conditions in both the infant and the mother. For postneonatal deaths, a single underlying cause of death can be reported as for adults. ONS has developed a classification system producing broad cause groups to enable direct comparison of neonatal and postneonatal deaths.
Using this ONS classification, the most common cause of infant deaths is ‘Immaturity related conditions’. This includes certain respiratory, cardiovascular and other conditions related primarily to the prematurity or low birthweight of the infant. In 2007 (the latest year for which figures are available), there were 1,346 infant deaths coded to ‘Immaturity related conditions’, 42 per cent of all infant deaths in England and Wales in that year.
Learning Disability
(2) how many practising GPs have (a) had training and (b) been accredited to provide health checks to people with a learning disability.
This information is held at local level and is not available centrally.
(2) how many people with a learning disability have had a health check in the last 12 months.
We have commissioned an extraction of data from a sample of general practitioner (GP) practice clinical systems. This information will be used to inform the continued commissioning of this Directed Enhanced Service through the GP contract arrangements.
We will also collect information to support a newly agreed Vital Sign indicator on the number of health checks completed in 2008-09. This will begin in October. This exercise will be repeated in May 2010 to collect retrospective information on the number of checks completed in 2009-10.
Liver Diseases
(2) how many patients were admitted to hospital as a consequence of (a) alcoholic liver disease and (b) cirrhosis of the liver in each of the last 10 years.
Data on the number of patients admitted for alcoholic liver disease and cirrhosis of the liver for the last 10 years to each hospital in the East of England are not available. However, the following tables provide the number of admissions to hospital for alcoholic liver disease and cirrhosis of the liver for the last 10 years in England and for each hospital provider for the East of England strategic health authority.
When considering this data, it is important to note the following:
that data for 2008-09 is provisional;
to protect patient confidentiality, figures between 1 and 5 have been suppressed and replaced with “*” (an asterisk) and where it was possible to identify numbers from the total due to a single suppressed number in a row or column, an additional number (the next smallest) has been also been suppressed;
that admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year; and
K70, the ICD-10 code for alcoholic liver disease, was used to identify admissions due to alcoholic liver disease, while K70.3, K71.7, K74.3-K74.6 and A52.7 with K77.0 were the ICD-10 codes used to identify admissions due to cirrhosis of the liver.
Table 1: Number of finished admission episodes for alcoholic liver disease and cirrhosis of the liver for 1999-2000 to 2008-09 for each hospital provider for the East of England strategic health authority has been placed in the Library.
Admission for alcoholic liver disease Admission for cirrhosis of the liver 2008-091 14,239 8,773 2007-08 14,461 8,549 2006-07 14,668 8,511 2005-06 13,930 7,834 2004-05 13,201 6,979 2003-04 12,336 6,482 2002-03 11,560 6,056 2001-02 10,802 5,859 2000-01 10,311 5,655 1999-2000 10,098 5,716 1 Provisional data. Notes: 1. Finished admission episodes: A finished admission episode is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one health care provider. Finished admission episodes are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Please note that admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. 2. Primary diagnosis: The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and seven prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital. 3. Provisional data: The 2008-09 data is provisional and may be incomplete or contain errors for which no adjustments have yet been made. Counts produced from provisional data are likely to be lower than those generated for the same period in the final dataset. This shortfall will be most pronounced in the final month of the latest period i.e. November from the (month 9) April to November extract. It is also probable that clinical data are not complete, which may in particular affect the last two months of any given period. There may also be a variety of errors due to coding inconsistencies that have not yet been investigated and corrected. 4. Secondary diagnosis: As well as the primary diagnosis, there are up to 19 (13 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and six prior to 2002-03) secondary diagnosis fields in HES that show other diagnoses relevant to the episode of care. 5. Data quality: HES are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and primary care trusts in England. Data is also received from a number of independent sector organisations for activity commissioned by the English NHS. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data via HES processes. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain. 6. Assessing growth through time: HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. The quality and coverage of the data have improved over time. These improvements in information submitted by the NHS have been particularly marked in the earlier years and need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. Some of the increase in figures for later years (particularly 2006-07 onwards) may be due to the improvement in the coverage of independent sector activity. Changes in NHS practice also need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. For example, a number of procedures may now be undertaken in out-patient settings and may no longer be accounted for in the HES data. This may account for any reductions in activity over time. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), the NHS Information Centre for health and social care.
Maternity Services
Information is not collected in the format requested. In the following table we show information on maternity expenditure by the primary care trusts (PCT) that cover the York and North Yorkshire area. In 2006-07, the Selby and York, Hambleton and Richmond, Craven, Harrowgate and Rural District, Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale PCTs amalgamated to form the North Yorkshire and York PCT.
£000 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 North Yorkshire and York PCT — — 22,434 27,100 Selby and York PCT 5,228 5,562 — — Hambleton and Richmond PCT 3,241 3,195 — — Craven, Harrowgate and Rural District PCT 6,126 6,167 — — Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale PCT 1,341 1,450 — — Total 15,936 16,374 22,434 27,100 England 1,544,838 1,677,204 1,616,777 1,786,896 Note: Where possible any inter PCT expenditure is eliminated to avoid double counting in the England figures. Source: Primary care trust audited summarisation schedules
Information is not collected centrally on the number of maternity unit closures.
Patients from the Vale of York and North Yorkshire access obstetric care at the Friarage hospital, but there are also women who receive their obstetric care from the James Cook University hospital in Middlesbrough. There has been one occasion when maternity services have closed for a significant amount of time. This is the closure of the Friarage hospital between the 17 July 2009 and the 26 October 2009.
Members: Correspondence
A reply was sent to Sir Gerald Kaufman, the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton on 27 July 2009.
Mental Health Services
(2) how many serious untoward incidents where treatment or medication adherence was a contributing factor there have been in the last 12 months.
The information requested about serious untoward incidents and treatment or medication adherence is not held centrally.
There are no national systems in place that are specific to addressing non-adherence to treatment or medication. However, non-adherence is a key issue in mental health risk assessment and as such should, where appropriate, form part of a service user’s care plan. The introduction of supervised community treatment helps to ensure that service users get the right treatment at the right time and will help with adherence.
This represents a 52 per cent. decrease between the first quarter of 2006 and the first quarter of 2009.
There are no high secure beds in the independent sector. High secure services can only be provided under licence by the Secretary of State, and such licences can only be granted to national health service trusts approved for this purpose.
Information is not collected centrally on the availability of low and medium secure beds in the independent sector.
Mental Health Services: Hertfordshire
Funding is allocated to primary care trusts and they are responsible for commissioning services, including mental health services to meet the needs of the communities that they serve.
It is for primary care trusts to commission services in order to ensure that Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) services are available to the children and young people for which they are responsible, taking into account the needs and wishes of the patients and their carers.
The Department provided £2.5 million capital funding to enable Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to recently refurbish a facility for children and young people being treated for mental health problems, specifically designed to eliminate the inappropriate use of adult psychiatric wards by children and young people.
The East of England Strategic Health Authority has advised that on 17 September 2009 the £7 million redevelopment of Hertfordshire Primary Care Trust was officially re-opened. This newly expanded and upgraded unit will accommodate 16 young people (up to the age of 18); with several of the beds earmarked for young people with eating disorders. This extra capacity means the trust will be able to care for the most vulnerable young people who need in-patient care within the county, and in easy reach of their families.
Mental Health Services: Prisons
Lord Bradley made 82 recommendations, many of which Lord Bradley himself recognised needed further work to ensure that all implications are considered for children, young people and adults. The Government have accepted all recommendations and the direction set out in the report and has committed to publish a cross-departmental Health and Criminal Justice Strategic Delivery Plan by the end of October 2009.
A Health and Criminal Justice National Programme Board has been fully operational since June 2009 bringing together senior officials in the key departments (Department of Health, Ministry of Justice, Home Office, Department for Children, Schools and Families). The Programme Board has been meeting monthly to pull together the national delivery plan and ensure appropriate cross-government representation and engagement as actions are being developed.
The Delivery Plan will set out our shared vision for improving health and social care services for all those in touch with the criminal justice system and the newly established Health and Criminal Justice Programme Board are working hard to ensure that all the Bradley recommendations are fully incorporated into this cross-government plan.
National data on prison transfers for the current 12-week waiting standard are collected on a quarterly basis with transfer rates compared against a 2005-06 baseline. The data indicate a downward trend in prisoners waiting in excess of 12-weeks for transfers; since 2005-06, these numbers have reduced by 33 per cent.
Date Number of prisoners April—June 2005 62 September 2005 58 October—December 2005 40 January—March 2006 43 April—June 2006 44 July—September 2006 43 October—December 2006 38 January—March 2007 44 April—June 2007 46 July—September 2007 51 October—December 2007 41 January—March 2008 24 April—June 2008 36 July—September 2008 34 October—December 2008 26 January—March 2009 40 April—June 2009 27
(2) whether the Government have accepted in full the recommendation to establish a national advisory group, made in Lord Bradley's review of people with mental health problems or learning disabilities in the criminal justice system.
The membership of the national health and criminal justice programme board is as follows:
Name Organisation David Behan Department of Health Anita Barucha HM Courts Service Andrew Campbell Department for Communities and Local Government Gary Cann Association of Chief Police Officers Helen Edwards Ministry of Justice Anne Jackson Department for Children, Schools and Families David Lamberti HM Treasury Peter Lewis Crown Prosecution Service Peter Makeham Home Office Ian Cumming West Midlands Strategic Health Authority Harvey Redgrave Prime Minister's Strategy Unit Phil Wheatley National Offender Management Service Naomi Eisenstadt Social Exclusion Unit Paul Williams NHS Wales To be confirmed Chair, Advisory Group
The Government have fully accepted Lord Bradley’s recommendation that a national advisory group be established to support Ministers and the health and criminal justice programme board in their development of this agenda. The cross-departmental national health and criminal justice programme board has been fully operational since June 2009 and alongside officials, has been developing arrangements for the set up of the national advisory group. The membership of the national advisory group is currently being agreed by Ministers and will be confirmed shortly.
The Government recognise the importance of ensuring that prisoners with severe mental illness who require treatment in hospital have timely access to that treatment. The Government’s response of 30 April 2009 to Lord Bradley’s Report accepted in principle the direction in respect of 14-day prison transfers.
The Government are considering the feasibility of introducing a 14-day transfer standard. A specific project to address prison transfers has been established, this is focusing on the provision of guidance and support to the national health service and criminal justice system to ensure transfers happen both smoothly and as quickly as possible. The Government will make a further report to Parliament in the autumn.
Mental Health Services: Young People
It is not possible to disaggregate the figures for 16 and 17-year-olds but the following table gives the number of 16 to 17-year olds in England who were treated on adult psychiatric wards in each quarter for the past three years.
Quarter Bed days—16/17s on psychiatric adult ward 2006-07 1 4,697 2 4,780 3 4.679 4 4,511 2007-08 1 3,954 2 3,893 3 4,255 4 4,926 2008-09 1 4.019 2 3,713 3 2,854 4 3,101 2009-10 1 2,260
This represents a 52 per cent. decrease between the first quarter of 2006 and the first quarter of 2009.
Mental Health: Prisoners
Although there are no officially recognised data on prisoners with severe mental illness, we are aware that there is a significant number of people in custody suffering from serious mental illness. A review of mental health in reach teams for the National Institute for Health Research in 2008 suggested that around 23 per cent., of the prison population suffer from severe mental illness.
The Government will be publishing its response to Lord Bradley’s review of people with mental health problems and learning disabilities in the criminal justice system in the autumn as part of a wider ranging offender health strategic delivery plan. This response will include the Government’s plans for improving mental health care for prisoners.
Methadone: Prisoners
No. In line with the National Treatment Agency guidance, when matching treatment to individual need, both treatment (such as methadone prescription) and drug rehabilitation programmes might be appropriate depending on the needs of the individual at a given time and it would not be appropriate therefore to exclude one form of treatment at the expense of another.
Since at least 1995 methadone has been recommended as one of a number of possible treatments for the management of drug dependence in prison.
The current clinical guidelines are “Clinical Management of Drug Dependence in the Adult Prison Setting” which was published in December 2006, a copy of which has been placed in the Library. The document aimed to address the current challenges facing the care and treatment of substance misusers in prisons including: the need to provide clinical interventions that harmonise with practice in community and other criminal justice settings, meet the individual’s need and address the vulnerability of drug-using prisoners to suicide and self-harm in prison, and to death upon release from custody due to accidental opiate overdose.
The document was developed in consultation with key Government Departments, professional organisations, commissioning organisations and service providers including:
HM Prison Service;
Department of Health;
Home Office;
National Treatment Agency;
National Addiction Centre;
National Offender Management Service Drug Strategy Unit;
Prison Officers Association;
Royal College of Psychiatrists; and
Royal College of General Practitioners.
The 2007 “Drug Misuse and Dependence: UK guidelines on clinical management” a copy of which has already been placed in the Library, contains specific information on the clinical management of drug dependence in prisons as a specific setting and is in line with the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines “Drug misuse: psychosocial interventions” (NICE clinical guideline 51) and “Drug misuse: opioid detoxification” (NICE clinical guideline 52).
Midwives: Manpower
The numbers of midwives employed in the national health service in York Hospitals NHS Trust, North Yorkshire Primary Care Trusts and NHS Trusts, and England in 2005-2008 are shown in the following table:
Headcount as at 30 September each specified year 2005 2006 2007 2008 England 24,808 24,469 25,093 25,664 Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority 2,539 2,445 2,449 2,472 Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust 62 65 70 71 Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Health Care NHS Trust 74 76 75 71 Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale PCT 1 — — — York Hospitals NHS Trust 129 125 131 130 Source: The NHS Information Centre for health and social care Non-Medical Workforce census.
MMR Vaccine
The Health Protection Agency collect and publish quarterly provisional data on the proportion of the population who are vaccinated at five years of age with a second dose of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR).
Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4 1999-2000 77.5 77.1 75.6 75.7 2000-01 74.5 73.9 74.7 75.5 2001-02 73.8 73.0 73.6 73.8 2002-03 74.3 74.4 73.7 73.9 2003-04 75.0 75.1 75.6 75.1 2004-05 74.4 73.5 72.9 73.9 2005-061 74.5 n/a n/a n/a 2006-071 n/a 72.9 73.0 73.2 2007-08 73.5 73.1 72.8 74.3 2008-09 75.2 76.3 77.4 80.0 1 2005-06—last three quarters and 2006-07 first quarter—national data not estimated due to missing data for 10 of the 31 London primary care trusts (PCTs) due to problems relating to the implementation of new child health IT system. Coverage estimates are always significantly lower in London compared to all other regions in England therefore to calculate an England estimate without these PCTs would have given a spurious increase in coverage.
Muscular Dystrophy
There are no plans to change the usual practice of the Department’s National Institute for Health Research and of the Medical Research Council, not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics: research proposals in all areas compete for the funding available. Future levels of expenditure on Duchenne muscular dystrophy research will be determined by the success of relevant bids for funding.
Muscular Dystrophy: Continuing Care
A revised “National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care” was published in August 2009. This framework covers those with Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy and other single-gene disorders as the eligibility criteria for continuing care is not disease specific. A copy of the framework has been placed in the Library.
National School for Social Care Research
The National Institute of Health Research’s School for Social Care Research became operational on 1 April 2009 and published its first call for research proposals in July. The school has begun a small number of preliminary studies, but none has reached the publication stage.
More information about the school and its research activities can be found on-line at:
www.lse.ac.uk/collections/NIHRSSCR/.
NHS Litigation Authority
The information requested can only be provided at disproportionate cost, as it would involve the NHS Litigation Authority working through each and every claim received within the five-year period.
NHS: Complaints
The Department’s current contract with The Carers Federation started in April 2006. A yearly breakdown of funding from the Department to the Carers Federation to administer the independent complaints advocacy service in the East Midlands from September 2003 is as follows:
Financial year Amount paid (£) 2003-04 353,470 2004-05 836,478 2005-06 771,404 2006-07 1,117,657 2007-08 1,073,847 2008-09 1,102,167
NHS: Correspondence
The Department does not collect information on the annual cost of copying letters to patients or on the numbers of patients that choose to opt out of receiving copies of their letters.
NHS: Cost Effectiveness
The report McKinsey provided on how to deliver efficiency savings in the national health service was commissioned by officials in February 2009. Neither the Prime Minister or Ministers were informed of the commission or sighted on the advice. Ministers were informed following initial media inquires in September 2009. Ministers rejected the main proposals in the report. The information has been commissioned for internal NHS management consideration and is not intended for publication. It is therefore not appropriate for a copy of the report to be placed in the Library.
NHS: Costs
The information McKinsey provided on national health service productivity was commissioned by officials in February. Neither my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Health or his predecessor were informed of the commission or sighted on the advice. Ministers were informed following initial media inquiries in September. Ministers rejected the main proposal in the report. The information had been commissioned for internal NHS management consideration and is not intended for publication.
NHS: Crimes of Violence
Information on the number of incidents of bullying, harassment or abuse against national health service staff is not collected centrally. This could be collected only at disproportionate cost. However, the 2008 survey of national health service staff undertaken by the Healthcare Commission provided information on staff views about working in the national health service, including experience of harassment, bullying or abuse. The relevant findings are presented in the following table.
Percentage staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from patients/relatives in last 12 months Percentage staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from staff in last 12 months All Health Visitors 19 19 All NHS Staff 21 17
NHS: Drugs
(2) when he plans to launch his consultation on the implementation of generic substitution.
The Department is currently refining its proposals for the implementation of generic substitution and plans to formally consult in the autumn. An impact assessment will be published alongside the consultation document.
We have had reports from pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesalers and pharmacy contractors of problems with the supply of medicines attributed to increased exports of medicines with the decline in value of the sterling. The Department is watching the situation with care.
NHS: Finance
Although total income received from chargeable overseas patients is recorded, national health service trusts do not routinely record the immigration status of patients that are treated either free or on a chargeable basis. Hence, no estimate is available of the savings accrued to the NHS from charging those refused asylum in the United Kingdom.
NHS: Negligence
The information requested was provided by the NHS Litigation Authority and a copy has been placed in the Library.
The NHS Litigation Authority does not record data specifically on legal costs, but records global costs paid by defendants and claimants, which will include legal costs, medical expert witnesses and other disbursements. To provide data specifically on legal costs would be at disproportionate cost.
The NHS Litigation Authority has provided data in the following tables that cover overall claimant costs and damages as an alternative to the information requested.
Year of closure Damages paid (£) Claimant costs paid (£) Proportion of costs to damages (percentage) 2004-05 3,000.00 34,000.00 1133 2005-06 1,750.00 102,334.00 5848 2006-07 5,000.00 101,082.85 2022 2007-08 2,500.00 62,500.00 2500 2008-09 1,000.00 10,500.00 1050
Year of closure Damages paid (£) Claimant costs paid (£) 2004-05 9,824,545 17,135,815 2005-06 10,946,714 19,786,927 2006-07 11,852,076 20,681,500 2007-08 18,309,285 31,968,752 2008-09 16,923,244 31,569,368 Total 67,855,864 121,142,363
NHS: Pay
The number of the Department's staff receiving a salary of more than £100,000 in each year, expressed in prices as at 1 April 2009, is presented in the following table.
In post date as at 1 April each year Number of staff 2008 76 2007 83 2006 89 2005 96 2004 99 2003 105
Salaries have been recalculated based on the changes in the consumer price index (CPI), averaged over the whole of each year and include all pay-related allowances.
Information prior to 2003 is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost as recalculation before that date would involve searching individual paper files.
The number of staff receiving a salary of more than £100,000 on 1 April 2009 was 74.
The number of the Department's staff receiving a salary of more than £100,000 in each year, expressed in prices as at 1 April 2009, is presented in the following table.
In post date Number of staff 1 April 2008 76 1 April 2007 83 1 April 2006 89 1 April 2005 96 1 April 2004 99 1 April 2003 105
Salaries have been recalculated based on the changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), averaged over the whole of each year and include all pay-related allowances.
Information prior to 2003 is not held centrally and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost as recalculation before that date would involve searching individual paper files.
The number of staff receiving a salary of more than £100,000 on 1 April 2009 was 74.
(2) what (a) pay and (b) other benefits each board member of each NHS (i) trust and (ii) foundation has received in each year since 2001.
This information is not collected centrally. National health service trusts and NHS foundation trusts are public bodies, and the remuneration of their senior executive teams is a matter of public record and published in their annual accounts.
NHS trusts and foundation trusts have full responsibility for determining the rates of remuneration for their senior executive board members. Foundation trusts have full responsibility for determining the remuneration of their non-executive directors (that is, of their board members).
Pay rates for non-executive board members in NHS trusts are set centrally by the Department. The rates for all years since 2001-02 are as follows:
Chair—scale minimum Chair—scale maximum Non-executive director Percentage increase 2001-02 16,017 20,420 5,294 n/a 2002-03 16,017 20,420 5,294 0 2003-04 16,827 21,453 5,562 5.1 2004-05 17,164 21,882 5,673 2.0 2005-06 17,164 21,882 5,673 0 2006-07 (from 1 April 2006) 17,335 22,100 5,730 1.0 2006-07 (from 1 November 2006) 17,545 22,235 5,800 1.2 2007-08 17,773 22,524 5,875 1.3 2008-09 18,164 23,020 6,005 2.2 2009-10 18,436 23,365 6,095 1.5
NHS: Per Capita Costs
The following table shows the 2009-10 revenue allocations made to North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT), the sum of the allocations made to the PCTs within Yorkshire and Humber Strategic Health Authority (SHA) and the England total. Over 80 per cent. of national health service revenue funding was allocated directly to PCTs for 2009-10 in this way. The table also shows the 2009-10 allocation per head and the total responsible population that each of these areas covers.
SHAs also receive funding, some of which is passed to PCTs. Yorkshire and Humber SHA received £703 million for 2009-10 or £133 per head of responsible population. PCTs also receive some funding through other, smaller, allocations.
2009-10 allocation (£000) 2009-10 allocation per head (£) 2009-10 responsible population1 North Yorkshire and York PCT 1,076,587 1,347 799,426 Yorkshire and the Humber SHA2 8,120,633 1,532 5,301,734 England 80,030,703 1,540 51,961,577 1 The responsible population is the number of people permanently registered with general practitioner (GP) practices within the PCT boundary, irrespective of where the people are resident. It also includes people not registered with a GP such as prisoners, armed forces including their dependants and asylum seekers. To reconcile ‘list variation’ between the GP registered population and Office for National Statistics (ONS) populations for PCTs, the GP registered populations were constrained to the 2006 based ONS population projections published on 12 June 2008. 2 SHAs do not receive allocations and the allocation shown here represents the sum of the allocations to PCTs within Yorkshire and the Humber SHA.
NHS: Procurement
(2) what criteria the Purchasing and Supply Agency uses in deciding whether to use a reverse e-auction to procure medicines or services for patients;
(3) what guidance his Department has issued to the Purchasing and Supply Agency on the use of e-auctions.
The NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (NHS PASA) has undertaken one reverse e-auction in the last 12 months for water coolers. Information on what medicines and patient services are procured through reverse e-auctions in the national health service is not collected centrally.
The NHS PASA consider the following criteria before deciding on whether to undertake an e-auction:
an accurate and unambiguous specification of the buyer's requirement to ensure that suppliers are clear on what is required, and are bidding against the same criteria. The regulations state that the specification must be established with precision. Where your requirements cannot be established with precision, or where some elements of your requirements are negotiable, it will not be appropriate to use an e Auction;
a sufficient (proposed) spend to encourage competition and supplier participation;
a large enough pool of suppliers to ensure competition during the e Auction (and a willingness and aptitude of such suppliers to participate in electronic bidding—this can be driven by spend or the strategic importance of the contract);
availability of the goods/services - there should be no known market distortions such as shortages or surpluses as these may have an impact on e Auctions which is not beneficial to the buyer; and
there must be a credible “switching threat” —i.e. a willingness by stakeholders to switch to an alternative supplier if this is the result of the e Auction because any contract offer must be made to the winning tenderer.
No guidance has been provided to NHS PASA regarding the use of e-auctions. NHS PASA led the way in the NHS on e Tendering, e Auctions and e Sourcing. As early as 2003-04 NHS PASA instigated a pilot project on the use of e auctions in the NHS. The e Auctions managed by the Agency delivered substantial savings and the NHS continues to benefits by the appropriate use of e auctions.
NHS: Surveys
The results of national health service staff surveys, such as the 2008 Healthcare Commission survey, are in the public domain and so are available to the NHS Security Management Service.
NHS: Telephone Services
The results of the Department's public consultation on the use of 084 numbers in the national health service were announced on 14 September 2009. The Department's response to the consultation is available on the ‘consultations’ section of the Department's website at:
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Responsestoconsultations/index.htm
A copy has been placed in the Library.
NHS: Working Hours
It is expected that information will be published following receipt of the European Commission's response to the Secretary of State's original notification to the Commission of our intention to derogate and our response in accordance with the directive.
Nurses
Calderdale primary care trust has been running a Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) since September 2008. Kirklees primary care trust, which encompasses most of Huddersfield, started to test FNP in July this year.
Nutrition
The information requested has been placed in the Library.
Osteopathy
(2) what procedures have been put in place to ensure primary care trusts are informed of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines on low back pain of June 2009, with particular reference to the recommendation that GPs consider referral of patients to a course of manual therapy such as osteopathy.
Decisions on which treatments to provide in the best interests of patients are the responsibility of the national health service at local level taking into account the differing health needs of different communities.
To aid implementation of National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance such as that on lower back pain, NICE also develop tools, available on their website alongside the guidance, which offer advice on costings and commissioning. The guidance and tools can be accessed at
http://guidance.nice.org.uk/CG88
Paediatrics: Hospital Beds
We continue to base our planning work with the national health service for the H1N1 pandemic on independent expert advice. The latest assumptions that we published on 3 September, assume that 1 per cent. of people who become ill with H1N1 will require hospitalisation. This would be above normal winter levels of flu activity and all NHS organisations have been planning to handle this if necessary, for both adult and paediatric services.
Measures that may be taken include the cancellation of out-patient services and elective admissions in order to free up staff and capacity to care for an increase in children admitted with H1N1.
In April this year, the Department also published guidance on “Managing Demand and Capacity in Health Care Organisations (Surge)”. The document gives guidance on measures the NHS can take to handle the pressures it will face, including in providing paediatric care during a pandemic. A copy of the guidance has already been placed in the Library.
To further support local planning, on 10 September, a strategy for critical care services was published that in part set out how the NHS would work to substantially increase availability of paediatric intensive care beds should this be required at the peak of the pandemic. A copy has been placed in the Library.
This information is not collected centrally.
Parkinson's Disease: Medical Treatments
We have no plans to strengthen mechanisms to improve the implementation of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence's clinical guidelines on Parkinson's disease. It is the responsibility of individual health professionals to ensure they comply with all existing clinical guidelines when providing health and social care.
From April 2009, the Care Quality Commission took over from the Healthcare Commission and will consider, in discussion with stakeholders including NICE, how to take account of NICE guidance as it develops its compliance criteria.
Prescriptions
I am told that the Department has received one report of automatic ordering of repeat prescriptions by pharmacies. The terms of service of pharmacists (Schedule 1 of the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2005) include a number of provisions relevant to this issue. For example, paragraph 10 (a) and (c) of the terms of service makes provision for pharmacists to ensure that appropriate advice is given to patients, in particular with regards to the request of repeatable prescriptions.
This is supported by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain’s (RPSGB) professional standards and guidance for patient consent, which makes clear that patients have a basic right to be involved in decisions about their health care and the process of obtaining consent is fundamental for patient autonomy. Obtaining consent is an on-going process and not a single event.
It is for primary care trusts to take action in relation to any breach of pharmacists’ terms of service and for the RPSGB to take action in relation to any breach of professional standards.
Prescriptions: Fees and Charges
(2) pursuant to the answer of 3 July 2009, Official Report, column 486W, on prescription: fees and charges, for what reason the preparations for prescription charge income do not take into account his Department's proposals in relation to the exemption from prescription charges of people with long-term illnesses.
Forecasts for 2009-10 and 2010-11 in the departmental report 2009 (Cm 7593) take no account of the effect of the Government's decision to exempt patients with long term conditions from prescription charges because the cost and timeframe for the phasing in of the long term conditions exemption will depend on the recommendations set out in Professor Ian Gilmore's review, which is due to report in the autumn.
I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Mr. Dhanda) on 14 September 2009, Official Report, column 2167W.
Prescriptions: Tamworth
This information is not held centrally.
The Department does not know the number of people for whom prescription items are dispensed because the information collected is based on the number of prescription items dispensed in the community. These data are not available at a constituency level. The latest data for England (for 2008) show that around 93 per cent. of prescription items were not charged for at the point of dispensing, either because the patient was not liable to pay a charge, or because they held a valid prescription pre-payment certificate.
Primary Care Trusts: Hertfordshire
Revenue allocations are made to primary care trusts (PCTs) on the basis of the relative needs of the populations they serve. The following table provides the revenue allocations made to East and North Hertfordshire PCT and West Hertfordshire PCT for 2009-10 and 2010-11.
No changes have been made to revenue allocations during the course of 2009-10. There are no plans to change the revenue allocations for 2010-11.
Revenue allocation PCT 2009-10 2010-11 East and North Hertfordshire PCT 759,311 803,338 West Hertfordshire PCT 773,604 813,380
Information published in the Director General for NHS Finance, Performance and Operations report “The Quarter” show that neither East and North Hertfordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) nor West Hertfordshire PCT is forecasting a deficit in the 2009-10 financial year. The following table shows that both PCTs are forecasting a surplus.
2009-10 quarter 1 forecast outturn (£000) East and North Hertfordshire PCT 2,855 West Hertfordshire PCT 576
The 2009-10 and 2010-11 PCT revenue allocations represent £164 billion investment in the national health service, £80 billion in 2009-10 and £84 billion in 2010-11. PCTs received an average increase in funding of 5.5 per cent. in 2009-10 and will receive an average increase in funding of 5.5 per cent. in 2010-11, a total increase in funding of £8.6 billion.
The following table provides the two year revenue allocations made to PCTs in Hertfordshire for 2009-10 and 2010-11 along with the cash and percentage increases. East and North Hertfordshire PCT will be 0.6 per cent. under target in 2010-11, West Hertfordshire PCT will be 5.3 per cent. above target in 2010-11.
PCT 2009-10 allocation (£000) 2010-11 allocation (£000) Two-year cash increase (£000) Two-year cash increase (percentage) East and North Hertfordshire PCT 759,311 803,338 83,612 11.6 West Hertfordshire PCT 773,604 813,380 78,190 10.6
Respiratory System
The following table shows hospital episodes and admission episodes for diseases of the respiratory system by age group. Data have been provided for the hospitals referred to in the answer of 20 April 2009, Official Report, column 479W.
Finished consultant episode Finished admission episode Provider Provider code age on admission 2007-2008 2006-2007 2005-2006 2004-2005 2003-2004 2007-2008 2006-2007 2005-2006 2004-2005 2003-2004 England 0-4 166.834 158,687 160,414 145,440 151,275 159,767 152,598 155,488 140,894 146,920 5-14 88,979 353,433 91,257 85,227 82,492 86,104 303,515 88,909 83,223 80,651 15-44 371,268 407,415 331,310 294,025 266,354 319,752 311,264 285,875 255,202 233,088 45-64 437,064 88,955 368,283 329,234 297,838 335,215 86,183 283,516 253,918 231,791 65-74 384,229 364,437 337,372 311,341 288,567 270,674 256,448 238.312 220,632 205.615 75-84 474,390 452,019 426,243 397,711 364,725 303,678 290,360 275,833 260,636 241,755 85-120 268,279 242,555 224,093 195,762 179,883 156,279 144,382 135,189 120,915 113,351 Age not known 2,963 1,699 1,184 1,213 1,479 2,139 1,206 866 930 1,148 Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust RTK 0-4 745 639 597 631 585 744 639 596 619 585 5-14 401 368 385 473 350 401 368 385 473 350 15-44 1,355 1,154 1,323 1,216 847 1,276 1,119 1,214 1,111 762 45-64 1,523 1,224 1,405 1,197 1,017 1,372 1,125 1,205 973 811 65-74 1,394 1,119 1,459 1,386 1,237 1,211 994 1,225 1,088 930 75-84 2,174 1,853 2,085 2,078 1,746 1,737 1,571 1,663 1,557 1,258 85-120 1,594 1,473 1,502 1,290 1,088 1,202 1,227 1,180 958 747 Age not known 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ealing Hospital NHS Trust RC3 0-4 524 536 564 570 5,17 524 531 564 569 514 5-14 348 276 352 407 2,55 346 275 352 407 255 15-44 1,859 1,646 1,459 1,446 1,241 1,635 1,456 1,337 1,347 1,169 45-64 1,603 1,384 1,179 1,018 976 1,208 1,088 1,028 881 871 65-74 1,454 1,198 929 962 809 1,017 869 768 809 697 75-84 1,650 1,444 1,147 1,040 984 1,088 928 887 881 621 85-120 910 722 654 579 494 521 417 519 478 422 Age not known 3 2 0 1 1 2 1 0 1 1 The Hillingdon Hospital NHS Trust RAS 0-4 344 277 293 275 246 344 276 284 275 244 5-14 174 161 160 104 87 173 158 155 104 87 15-44 1,487 1,005 954 674 599 1,386 905 868 565 553 45-64 1,440 1,308 1,096 849 634 1,298 1,148 945 686 563 65-74 1,234 1,129 1,002 848 673 1,058 984 849 639 572 75-84 1,563 1,457 1,411 1,314 883 1,233 1,154 1,097 935 746 85-120 1,055 882 973 803 568 777 613 709 523 470 Age not known 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 Richmond and Twickenham PCT SM6 0-4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5-14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 15-44 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 45-64 0 0 * * 0 0 0 * * 0 65-74 0 * * * * * * * * * 75-84 0 * 24 25 * * * 24 25 * 85-120 0 10 46 28 31 10 10 46 28 31 Age not known 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust RFW 0-4 582 386 568 566 481 581 386 568 565 481 5-14 346 185 343 312 315 344 184 341 311 315 15-44 1,763 720 1,446 903 705 1,382 529 1,105 732 684 45-64 1,612 666 1,447 873 623 954 384 906 612 547 65-74 1,459 700 1,321 902 568 704 373 685 567 467 75-84 1,888 833 1,833 1,174 705 850 411 890 674 572 85-120 1,412 603 1,112 760 506 593 265 506 408 388 Age not known 49 29 25 12 0 28 16 11 4 0 Notes: Ungrossed data Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (ie the data are ungrossed). Finished Consultant Episode (FCE) A finished consultant episode (FCE) is defined as a continuous period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FCEs are counted against the year in which they end. Please note that the figures do not represent the number of different patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the same stay in hospital or in different stays in the same year. Finished admission episodes A finished admission episode is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Finished admission episodes are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Please note that admissions do not represent the number of inpatients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. Number of episodes in which the patient had a (named) primary or secondary diagnosis These figures represent the number of episodes where the diagnosis was recorded in any of the 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and 7 prior to 2002-03) primary and secondary diagnosis fields in a Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) record. Each episode is only counted once in each count, even if the diagnosis is recorded in more than one diagnosis field of the record. 1 The following ICD-10 codes have been used: J00-J99—‘Diseases of the respiratory disease’. Please see the following table for J00-J99 sheet for ICD-code descriptions. Data quality HES are compiled from data sent by more than 300 National Health Service trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) in England. Data are also received from a number of independent sector organisations for activity commissioned by the English NHS. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data via HES processes. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain. Assessing growth through time HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. The quality and coverage of the data have improved over time. These improvements in information submitted by the NHS have been particularly marked in the earlier years and need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. Some of the increase in figures for later years (particularly 2006-07 onwards) may be due to the improvement in the coverage of independent sector activity. Changes in NHS practice also need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. For example, a number of procedures may now be undertaken in outpatient settings and may no longer be accounted for in the HES data. This may account for any reductions in activity over time. Small numbers To protect patient confidentiality, figures between 1 and 5 have been suppressed and replaced with “*” (an asterisk). Where it was possible to identify numbers from the total due to a single suppressed number in a row or column, an additional number (the next smallest) has been suppressed. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics HES. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care.
Diagnosis code Primary description J00 Acute nasopharyngitis (common cold) J01 Acute sinusitis J02 Acute pharyngitis J03 Acute tonsillitis J04 Acute laryngitis and tracheitis J05 Acute obstructive laryngitis (croup) and epiglottitis J06 Acute upper respiratory infections of multiple and unspecified sites J10 Influenza due to identified influenza virus J11 Influenzavirus not identified J12 Viral pneumonia, not elsewhere classified J13 Pneumonia due to Streptococcus pneumoniae J14 Pneumonia due to Haemophilus influenzae J15 Bacterial pneumonianot elsewhere classified J16 Pneumonia due to other infectious organisms NEC J17 Pneumonia in diseases classified elsewhere J18 Pneumoniaorganism unspecified J20 Acute bronchitis J21 Acute bronchiolitis J22 Unspecified acute lower respiratory infection J30 Vasomotor and allergic rhinitis J31 Chronic rhinitisnasopharyngitis and pharyngitis J32 Chronic sinusitis J33 Nasal polyp J34 Other disorders of nose and nasal sinuses J35 Chronic diseases of tonsils and adenoids J36 Peritonsillar abscess J37 Chronic laryngitis and laryngotracheitis J38 Diseases of vocal cords and larynx not elsewhere class J39 Other diseases of upper respiratory tract J40 Bronchitis not specified as acute or chronic J41 Simple and mucopurulent chronic bronchitis J42 Unspecified chronic bronchitis J43 Emphysema J44 Other chronic obstructive pulmonary disease J45 Asthma J46 Status asthmaticus J47 Bronchiectasis J60 Coalworker’s pneumoconiosis J61 Pneumoconiosis due to asbestos and other mineral fibres J62 Pneumoconiosis due to dust containing silica J63 Pneumoconiosis due to other inorganic dusts J64 Unspecified pneumoconiosis J65 Pneumoconiosis associated with tuberculosis J66 Airway disease due to specific organic dust J67 Hypersensitivity pneumonitis due to organic dust J68 Respiratory conditions due to inhalation of chemicals, gases, fumes and vapours J69 Pneumonitis due to solids and liquids J70 Respiratory conditions due to other external agents J80 Adult respiratory distress syndrome J81 Pulmonary oedema J82 Pulmonary eosinophilia, not elsewhere classified J84 Other interstitial pulmonary diseases J85 Abscess of lung and mediastinum J86 Pyothorax J90 Pleural effusionnot elsewhere classified J91 Pleural effusion in conditions classified elsewhere J92 Pleural plaque J93 Pneumothorax J94 Other pleural conditions J95 Postprocedural respiratory disorders NEC J96 Respiratory failure not elsewhere classified J98 Other respiratory disorders J99 Respiratory disorders in diseases classified elsewhere
Rheumatology
We have made no estimate of the number, or cost, of in-patient and out-patient attendances for rheumatology.
However, the total number of ordinary, and day case admissions, to hospital where the main consultant specialty is recorded as rheumatology is given in the following table.
Day case Ordinary 2006-07 62,707 31,577 2005-06 56,938 32,277 2004-05 53,183 31,530 2003-04 49,003 31,440 2002-03 41,003 32,279 2001-02 33,041 34,056 2000-01 30,331 35,524 1999-2000 27,275 37,033 1998-99 24,045 36,968 1997-98 20,496 38,976 1996-97 17,538 40,053 Note: A finished admission episode is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one health care provider. Finished admission episodes are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year.
Schizophrenia
(2) what steps he is taking to (a) publicise and (b) implement the recommendations of the updated National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence clinical guideline update for schizophrenia;
(3) what (a) support and (b) guidance has been made available to healthcare professionals to facilitate adherence to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence clinical guideline update on schizophrenia; and whether he has put in place ongoing monitoring to assess the implementation of the guidance by healthcare professionals.
We welcome the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence’s (NICE’s) updated guidance on schizophrenia and expect it to help further improve the quality of treatment and care for people with schizophrenia.
It is for NICE to publicise the release of its guidance to the national health service and it is for the NHS to implement it. NICE publishes implementation tools to help the NHS implement its guidance locally.
Clinicians are responsible for deciding on the most appropriate form of treatment for their patients, and in doing so they are expected to take NICE guidance fully into account. The Department does not become involved in clinical decisions, nor does it collect data on implementation levels of this NICE guidance among NHS organisations.
NICE issues both technology appraisals (TAs) and clinical guidelines (CGs) and the schizophrenia guidance issued this March is a CG. Clinicians are expected to consider treatments outlined in CGs when considering prescribing options, but are not obliged to prescribe these. As CGs are very broad in approach and can contain 100 or more recommendations, health bodies should implement the guidance as and when resources permit.
There are no plans for the Care Quality Commission to monitor adherence with the clinical guideline on schizophrenia published by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
NICE clinical guidelines support national health service commissioning and best practice in service provision, but compliance with these are not direct indicators of levels of safety and quality. The Department expects NHS organisations to work towards full implementation of NICE clinical guidelines over a reasonable period of time using available resources.
Schools: Nurses
There are about 3,000 secondary schools. The 2008 NHS Workforce Census shows there were 3,643 qualified nurses in school nursing areas (2,634 full time equivalent), an increase of 63 per cent. since 2004. Of these, there were 1,447 (headcount) school nurses with a post registration school nurse qualification (1,062 full time equivalent), an increase of 69 per cent. since 2004.
It is for individual primary care trusts to determine how to use the funding allocated to them to commission services to meet the health care needs of their local populations over the next 12 months.
The overall number of professionals within community services for children and families has increased. School nurses are able to access more resources than was traditionally the case.
Smoking: Greater Manchester
The information is not available in the format requested. The following table shows the number of people setting a quit date and the number of those who successfully quit smoking through national health service stop smoking services in the Bolton primary care trust (PCT) and Greater Manchester, 2004-05 to 2008-09.
Bolton PCT1 Greater Manchester strategic health authority (SHA)2'3 2004-05 Number setting a quit date3 2,336 39,131 Number of successful quitters4 1,749 18,973 2005-06 Number setting a quit date3 3,846 45,282 Number of successful quitters4 2,158 21,383 2006-07 Number setting a quit date3 4,742 44,177 Number of successful quitters4 2,206 21,174 2007-08 Number setting a quit date3 5,724 52,405 Number of successful quitters4 2,320 22,838 2008-09 Number setting a quit date3 3,934 49,100 Number of successful quitters4 1,718 20,153 1 Bolton PCT was unaffected by the PCT restructuring which took place in October 2006. 2 Figures for Greater Manchester SHA were calculated using the constituent PCTs for 2004-05 to 2006-07. Although this SHA did not exist in subsequent years as a result of restructuring, the new PCTs which the constituent old PCTs mapped to have been identified in order to produce figures on the same basis for comparability in 2007-08. 3 These data are based on figures collected through the quarterly stop smoking services data collection return. If a person sets more than one quit date in the quarter, the details of each attempt should be recorded on the form. 4 A client is counted as having successfully quit smoking at the four week follow-up if he/she has not smoked at all since two weeks after the quit date. Notes: 1. The figures provided for 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07 have been extracted from the corresponding annual Statistics on NHS stop smoking services in England report for each of these years. These publications have already been placed in the Library. 2. Bolton PCT figures provided for 2007-08 and 2008-09 have been extracted from the corresponding annual Statistics on NHS stop smoking services in England report for each of these years. Greater Manchester SHA figures were not published in these later reports2. These publications have already been placed in the Library. 3. On the basis that the clinical viewpoint tends to be that a client should not be counted as a ‘failure’ if he/she has smoked in the difficult first days after the quit date, a client is counted as having successfully quit smoking if he/she has not smoked at all since two weeks after the quit date. The four week follow-up (and Carbon Monoxide (CO) validation, if appropriate) must be completed within six weeks of the quit date. Persons not contacted within this time are treated as lost to follow-up for evaluation purposes. 4. Only people who set a quit date through the NHS stop smoking services are included in the quarterly monitoring returns, those who attend the service but do not set a quit date are not included. 5. NHS stop smoking services data are based on the PCTs which provide the service. People using their services are not necessarily resident in that PCT. 6. The information centre for health and social care collects data from the NHS stop smoking services as part of the NHS stop smoking services quarterly monitoring returns forms, undertaken since 2005 on behalf of the Department. Source: The Information Centre for health and social care
Social Services
The direction of travel for adult social care is set out in “Putting People First”, the shared vision and commitment to the transformation of adult social care, published in December 2007. It is confirmed in the Green Paper, “Shaping the Future of Care Together”, which was published in July this year.
“Putting People First” commits to significant change by April 2011. It confirms that reform of social care can only be delivered through partnership across central and local government. It is holistic in its approach to delivering social care services for all individuals in the community, not just those eligible for statutory support.
“Putting People First” clearly sets out a vision of a universal offer to the entire community, including social care service users. Not only will this increase the provision of social care support, but the strategic shift towards prevention and early intervention services is designed to provide more help to people with lower level care needs, to reduce the likelihood that they will need more intensive services in the longer term and to help them retain their independence.
By the end of 2009-10, this Government will have increased local government funding by 45 per cent. in real terms since 1997. These are unprecedented rises in funding to local councils and provide the resources they need to improve the provision of care and support for their populations.
The Department is investing circa £3.5 billion over this comprehensive spending review period to support improvements in the provision of social care. In particular, the social care reform grant will provide over £500 million for the reform and transformation of adult social care. In 2009-10, Coventry will receive approximately £8 million of revenue and capital grants from the Department to help support this agenda.
For the longer term, the Green Paper, “Shaping the Future of Care Together”, together with the public consultation, “The Big Care Debate”, which will run until 13 November, is addressing the national and local challenges we face in providing care and support in the future.
The fairer access to care services (FACS) guidance has just been revised and is out for consultation until 6 October 2009.
The Commission for Social Care Inspectorate's (CSCI) state of social care report 2006-07 identified a trend for councils to raise their eligibility thresholds and the potential implications for people seeking support. In the light of recommendations made by CSCI in their report “Cutting the Cake Fairly: CSCI review of eligibility criteria for social care” (October 2008), the Government worked with stakeholders to revise the FACS guidance. The revision of the FACS guidance is aimed at bringing about improvements to the system as it currently stands, making implementation fairer and more consistent for people seeking support and reinforcing the current direction of policy established by “Putting People First”, a copy of which has already been placed in the Library.
The “Fairer Contribution Guidance” was also published on 14 July 2009 to accompany the existing “Fairer Charging guidance”. Copies have been placed in the Library. This provides councils with a model to help them decide how much (if anything) a person should contribute to their personal budget. Councils will be expected to implement the “Fairer Contributions Guidance” by March 2010.
The Fairer Access to Care Services (FACS) guidance (June 2003), a copy of which has already been placed in the Library, sets a framework to help local authorities identify those people who are eligible for social care services. The FACS guidance sets out four eligibility bands of criteria (Critical, Substantial, Moderate and Low).
The Commission for Social Care Inspectorate’s (CSCI) State of Social Care report 2006-07 identified a trend for councils to raise their eligibility thresholds and the potential implications for people seeking support. In the light of recommendations made by CSCI in their report “Cutting the Cake Fairly: CSCI review of eligibility criteria for social care” (October 2008), the Government have been working with stakeholders to revise the FACS guidance and this is out for consultation until 6 October 2009.
The revision of the FACS guidance is aimed at bringing about improvements to the system as it currently stands, making implementation fairer and more consistent for people seeking support and reinforcing the current direction of policy established by “Putting People First”, a copy of which has already been placed in the Library.
The Fairer Contribution Guidance was published on 14 July 2009 to accompany the existing Fairer Charging Guidance. Copies have been placed in the Library. This provides councils with a model to help them decide how much (if anything) a person should contribute to their personal budget. Councils will be expected to implement the Fairer Contributions Guidance by March 2010.
Local authorities must ensure that everyone who is eligible for social care has their needs met.
Central data collated in 2007-08, show that the number of adults (aged 18 and over) with a physical disability or sensory impairment and receiving care services was 221,000 adults (aged 18-64) and 1.045 million adults (aged 65 and over).
The gross current expenditure on adults aged 18-64 with a physical disability or sensory impairment was £1.48 billion in 2007-08, and the net current expenditure on adults aged 18-64 with a physical disability or sensory impairment was £1.39 billion in 2007-08.
Data are not collected centrally on the gross and net costs of adults aged 65 and over with a physical disability or individually broken down to show packages of care for rheumatoid arthritis and the associated costs.
The Health and Social Care Act 2008 requires the Care Quality Commission to report annually on the provision of national health service care during the year, the provision of adult social care services during the year, and the carrying on of regulated activities during the year. The Care Quality Commission has informed us it is planning an integrated report on the state of health care and adult social care in England. It will lay its first annual report to Parliament to cover the year 2008-09 and its second report will cover the year 2009-10.
The care and support Green Paper, ‘Shaping the Future of Care Together’, announced that the Government will publish a White Paper in 2010. The consultation on the Green Paper will run until 13 November 2009 and we will make further announcements about the timing of the White Paper in due course.
I have been asked to reply.
The Green Paper “Shaping the Future of Care Together” set out the reasons for considering the future role of disability benefits in the context of the social care review. It proposed that one option is to bring some disability benefits and the new social care system together into a single system, as a better way of providing support. However, it is important to note that this is a consultation exercise for long-term reform and no final decisions have been made on the specific merits of changing the Disability Living Allowance programme. We are seeking the views of all stakeholders in further developing these proposals.
The care and support Green Paper, ‘Shaping the Future of Care Together’, announced that the Government will publish a White Paper in 2010. The consultation on the Green Paper will run until 13 November 2009 and we will make further announcements about the timing of the White Paper in due course.
The Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at the University of Kent and the London School of Economics have carried out analysis to model the cost of the Green Paper funding options. The statement that under partnership a third to a quarter of basic care and support costs could be paid for by the state is based on that analysis.
We expect to publish shortly a report by PSSRU outlining the modelling and costs of the Green Paper funding options. A copy will be placed in the Library.
The Department published a regulatory impact assessment alongside the Green Paper “Shaping the Future of Care Together” which sets out the estimated costs and implications of the funding models discussed. The impact assessment is available online at:
http://careandsupport.direct.gov.uk/greenpaper/the-green-paper-and-supporting-documents/
A copy has been placed in the Library.
Due to the wide range of reforms proposed within the Green Paper, full introduction of a new care and support system will be around 2014 at the earliest.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State wrote to Ministers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to provide them with the full text of the Green Paper prior to publication. Departmental officials have been in regular contact with their counterparts in the devolved Administrations and a further series of meetings are planned.
Care and support covers a range of reserved and devolved issues. Where matters are devolved, there will inevitably be consequences for people who live near the geographical boundaries between two areas with different policies. This is the case with the current system. We will continue to work with the devolved Administrations to ensure the implications of the Green Paper for people living near the borders are fully understood.
We do not envisage the new national care service altering any existing cross-border provision of health services. For example, the new national care service will not mean that patients in England who are registered with general practitioners in Wales cannot continue this arrangement.
The Big Care Debate closes on 13 November 2009. The Government's response to the consultation will be published after this date.
We believe that reform of the care and support system is necessary in order to make the long term care costs sustainable for the State and the individual. The Impact Assessment for the Green Paper ‘Shaping the Future of Care Together’ suggested that a National Care Service could cost the State between £18.2 billion and £20.7 billion in 2014, depending on the funding model chosen. These are illustrative comparative costs suggesting the possible cost to the state of the different models. These are indicative only and could be subject to change. Costs would be met from within the public spending envelope set for future spending reviews, which will be in line with the plans for fiscal consolidation set out at Budget 2009.
Local authorities are key to the delivery of our vision for the future. This Green Paper underlines the important, continued and strengthened role they will play under reform, in any future funding system. But we also know that one of the most common problems with care and support is an apparent lack of connection between different services, particularly health, social care, housing and benefits. So a central plank of a National Care Service will be a coherent strategy centred on patients, care-users and their carers, to support local leaders to make sure that joined-up services are delivered.
Streptococcus: Pregnancy
(2) if he will take steps to ensure that pregnant women are informed about Group B streptococcus as part of their antenatal care.
Current guidance for obstetricians, midwives and neonatologists is provided by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) which published its green-top guideline No. 36 on the prevention of early-onset neonatal group B streptococcus disease in November 2003. In 2005, the RCOG, in collaboration with the National Screening Committee, established a national audit to evaluate practice in United Kingdom obstetric units against the recommendations of the guideline. The audit published in January 2007, reported that current practice followed the established patterns of care described in the RCOG guideline.
The Department supports the Maternity Standards published by the RCOG in 2008, which state that maternity services should comply with evidence-based guidelines for the provision of high-quality clinical care.
Information for women on group B streptococcus is contained in “The Pregnancy Book” a guide to health pregnancy, labour and giving birth, life with your new baby, which is given to all pregnant women during their antenatal care. A copy has already been placed in the Library. Information is also available on NHS Direct and NHS Choices website. Women who are concerned are advised to talk to their doctor or midwife.
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) reviewed the policy for screening for Group B Streptococcus in pregnancy in March 2009 and concluded that the evidence did not support its introduction. The UK NSC will review its position on screening in three year’s time unless any significant evidence emerges which suggests this should be undertaken earlier.
Strokes
(2) what criteria govern the award of continuing healthcare assessment to patients who have had strokes.
A revised national framework for continuing care was published in August 2009. This framework covers those patients who have had strokes as the eligibility criteria for continuing care are not disease specific. A copy of the framework has been placed in the Library.
Swine Flu
The Secretary of State for Health meets regularly with the NHS chief executive and the NHS flu resilience director, who are responsible for ensuring the national health service is prepared for a swine flu outbreak.
On 2 July, the national director for NHS flu resilience, Ian Dalton, wrote to all NHS chief executives to make clear the expectation that preparedness plans need to be reviewed and subjected to further testing.
To further support local planning, on 10 September, a strategy for critical care services was published that sets out how ventilated critical care capacity can be increased in the NHS during the peak weeks of a potential second wave of swine flu. The published full critical care strategy sets out how the NHS will collectively achieve this increase. A copy has been placed in the Library.
On 10 September, the national director for pandemic influenza preparedness, Lindsey Davies, also hosted a pandemic flu conference on the theme of “Looking back, moving forward”. The conference, attended by 375 delegates, was open to strategic health authorities, primary care trusts and local authority representatives with health and social care responsibilities. The focus of the day was on the swine flu response to date, delivering the swine flu vaccination programme, the challenges that lie ahead and sharing best practice.
The Civil Contingencies Committee has been meeting regularly since the swine flu outbreak, and is chaired by the Secretary of State for Health. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport attends these meetings at which all elements of the Government's response to the swine influenza pandemic are discussed.
Throughout the outbreak, the Government have provided a wide range of advice to businesses generally about the impacts swine flu could have on them, through mechanisms such as the Business Advisory Network on Flu and the BusinessLink website. Planning assumptions have been issued which are of use to all sectors.
We are now relying on clinical diagnosis instead of laboratory confirmation to identify cases of swine flu.
The rates of general practitioner (GP) consultations for influenza—like illness from a sample of participating GP practices is used to identify epidemic levels of swine flu activity in an area.
The current criteria used to define the level of flu activity are:
Baseline (outside of a normal flu season) activity (<30 GP consultations per 100,000) during a week;
Normal seasonal activity (30-200 GP consultations per 100,000) during a week; and
Epidemic activity (>200 GP consultations per 100,000 people) during a week.
Strategic health authorities that experienced levels of above 200 GP consultations per 100,000 population over the summer of 2009 are:
London;
North East;
East Midlands;
North West;
West Midlands;
South West; and
South East Coast.
As of 5 pm 25 September 2009, around 1.3 million calls to the information line were received.
Up to 30 September, the Department has spent around £230,000 on the provision of the service.
Based on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, the following groups will be the first to be vaccinated with H1N1 swine flu vaccine, in the following order:
individuals aged between six months and up to 65 years in the current seasonal flu vaccine clinical at-risk groups;
all pregnant women, subject to licensing conditions on trimesters;
household contacts of immuno-compromised individuals; and
people aged 65 years and over in the current seasonal flu vaccine clinical at-risk groups.
In addition to this, front line health and social care workers will be offered the vaccine at the same time as the first clinical at risk groups as they are at increased risk of infection and of transmitting that infection to susceptible patients.
The Health Protection Agency has worked with independent academic experts to analyse the impact of the containment policy on the spread of the virus in the United Kingdom. This work has been submitted for publication and a copy of the publication will be placed in the Library when it is available.
The Health Protection Agency is also conducting a full review of the containment phase that is expected to be completed in early 2010.
(2) how many courses of antivirals have been dispensed for the treatment of patients with swine flu in each (a) age group and (b) primary care trust since 2 July 2009;
(3) pursuant to the answer of 16 July 2009, Official Report, column 671W, on swine flu, what the additional antiviral collection point functionality added to the flu line service is;
(4) what the differences are between the full National Pandemic Flu Line Service and the interim solution.
The interim National Pandemic Flu Service (NPFS) launched with 1,500 concurrent seats from seven call centre operators, operating from 19 sites across the United Kingdom. Over 3,500 agents were initially trained to provide the service. The agents are employed by a range of private and public sector call centre operators to ensure that the service can flexibly operate seat and agent supply to meet public demand.
The service is capable of operating 7,500 concurrent call centre seats. This level of operation, if required, would enable around 1 million calls in a 24 hour period to be handled by call centre operators in addition to those using the web service.
From the launch of the interim NPFS on 23 July 2009 to 29 September 2009, around 590,000 antivirals were dispensed for treatment of patients. The breakdown by age group and primary care trust has been placed in the Library.
These figures relate solely to antivirals collected through the NPFS, as antivirals distributed between 2-22 July 2009 were distributed through normal primary care routes and by the Health Protection Agency; those data are still being collated.
The antiviral collection point system that has been developed enables members of staff in collection points to:
check the validity of an authorisation number generated by the NPFS;
check and confirm the name of the patient and the antiviral and dose authorised;
check that the authorisation number has not been used previously to collect an antiviral;
record the checking of identification (ID), and types of ID provided by the flu friend for themselves and the patient;
record the details of the flu friend who has collected the antiviral;
record the collection of the antiviral to prevent the authorisation number being used more than once; and
provide regular information on the number of antivirals issued using an authorisation number.
The autumn solution (i.e. full NPFS) does have increased functionality and offers a more flexible information technology platform.
Individuals who use the service will follow a very similar process to the current service. The main change from an individual's perspective is the additional ID functionality. An overview of additional functionality is as follows:
a dynamic algorithm will provide greater flexibility if the algorithm needs to be changed and enables changes to be processed more quickly;
an enhanced ID process: identification can be verified during the assessment as well as at the collection point;
the functionality to re-issue an authorisation number through NPFS will be available to enable patients who forget their authorisation number to re-contact the service quickly and efficiently to access a new number that can be used in an antiviral collection point; and
the autumn service is planned to offer additional languages on the web.
The primary care trusts (PCTs) that reported exceptional levels of flu like illness are:
Tower Hamlets PCT
Greenwich Teaching PCT
Islington PCT
Lewisham PCT
Leicester City PCT
Barking and Dagenham PCT
Harrow PCT
Bedfordshire PCT
Coventry Teaching PCT
Middlesbrough PCT
South Tyneside PCT
City and Hackney Teaching PCT
Telford and Wrekin PCT
Redbridge PCT
South Birmingham PCT
Hillingdon PCT
Sutton and Merton PCT
Lambeth PCT
Camden PCT
Warrington PCT
Buckinghamshire PCT
Enfield PCT
Brent Teaching PCT
Blackburn with Darwen PCT
County Durham PCT
East Sussex Downs and Weald PCT
Manchester PCT
Newham PCT
Gateshead PCT
Northumberland Care Trust
South Staffordshire PCT
Sunderland Teaching PCT
West Kent PCT
Peterborough PCT
Southwark PCT
Ealing PCT
Havering PCT
Portsmouth City Teaching PCT
Somerset PCT
Blackpool PCT
North Tyneside PCT
Redcar and Cleveland PCT
Halton and St. Helens PCT
Nottinghamshire County PCT
Luton PCT
Warwickshire PCT
Nottingham City PCT
Oxfordshire PCT
Swindon PCT
Gloucestershire PCT
Hammersmith and Fulham PCT
Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale PCT
Brighton and Hove City PCT
Medway PCT
Leicestershire County and Rutland PCT
Kingston PCT
Unclassified
Central Lancashire PCT
Wandsworth PCT
Solihull Care Trust
West Hertfordshire PCT
Herefordshire PCT
Stockport PCT
Shropshire County PCT
Bromley PCT
Northamptonshire PCT
Cambridgeshire PCT
North Lancashire PCT
Bristol PCT
Derby City PCT
Westminster PCT
Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT
Wakefield District PCT
Southampton City PCT
Western Cheshire PCT
Suffolk PCT
Barnet PCT
South Gloucestershire PCT
Derbyshire County PCT
Waltham Forest PCT
Berkshire West PCT
Hampshire PCT
Newcastle PCT
Worcestershire PCT
Doncaster PCT
Hounslow PCT
East Lancashire PCT
Wirral PCT
Bolton PCT
North Yorkshire and York PCT
Liverpool PCT
Plymouth Teaching PCT
North Somerset PCT
Great Yarmouth and Waveney PCT
East and North Hertfordshire PCT
Croydon PCT
Central and Eastern Cheshire PCT
Lincolnshire PCT
Wolverhampton City PCT
West Sussex PCT
Stoke on Trent PCT
Surrey PCT
West Essex PCT
Knowsley PCT
Leeds PCT
Devon PCT
Norfolk PCT
Sefton PCT
Tameside and Glossop PCT
Milton Keynes PCT
Communicating accurate and timely information to the general public and health care professionals during the current swine flu pandemic has been recognised as a priority by the Department and by the World Health Organisation.
We have communicated regularly via a range of channels including advertising, online information, technical and professional guidance and media briefing, including by Ministers, senior officials and clinicians.
Because of this, it is not possible to quantify accurately the cost of all this activity in producing information on swine flu, however we are able to give a figure for public advertising activity.
The cost of advertising and publicity activity in England on swine influenza, including the Swine Flu Information Phone Line, is approximately £8.2 million to date.
This may increase over the course of the pandemic. Various scenarios are being considered to allow a flexible response if swine flu escalates to ensure that the public have timely and accurate information about the disease, how to protect against it, and how to access treatment if they catch it.
The Department has asked primary care trusts and strategic health authorities to work with local national health service stakeholders to develop local plans to ensure that all of those identified in the Chief Medical Officer’s list of high priority groups receive their swine flu vaccinations. These plans should include provision for housebound patients.
The Department will be supporting this work by providing core materials about swine flu vaccination for staff training and communications with the public and NHS staff.
Swine Flu: Birmingham
Data on the precise number of swine flu cases in a particular area are not available.
However, the Department does have data on the number of antivirals dispensed through the National Pandemic Flu Service (NPFS). We do not have figures specifically for the Sparkbrook and Small Heath constituency but we do have figures for the two primary care trusts (PCTs) which the constituency crosses. These show that:
Heart of Birmingham Teaching PCT: around 3,500 antivirals were collected between 23 July 2009 and 22 September 2009; and
NHS Birmingham East and North PCT (including part of the Small Heath area): around 3,800 antivirals were collected between 23 July 2009 and 22 September 2009.
These figures relate solely to antivirals collected through the NPFS since its launch on 23 July. Antivirals distributed prior to this time were distributed through normal primary care routes and by the Health Protection Agency; those data are still being collated.
Syringes: Injuries
(2) how many needlestick injuries have been recorded in each hospital trust in each of the last five years.
Information on the number of needlestick injuries to national health service staff in each hospital trust is not collected centrally.
However, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) collects information on significant occupational exposures to blood-borne viruses in health care workers in the United Kingdom. The HPA’s latest report “Eye of the Needle, United Kingdom Surveillance of Significant Occupational Exposures to Blood Borne Viruses in Healthcare Workers, November 2008” has been placed in the Library and is available on the HPA’s website at:
www.camr.org.uk/web/HPAwebFile/HPAweb-C/1205394781623
This report, which provides data up to the end of 2007, includes information on the number of documented cases of health care workers who have contracted HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C through a needlestick injury in 2004-07, which are summarised in the following table.
Infection 2004 2005 2006 2007 HIV 0 0 0 0 Hepatitis C 1 2 2 2
Tamiflu
(2) what procedures the NHS has in place to ensure the use of the oldest stock of Tamiflu first.
The existing pandemic stockpile of Tamiflu was purchased in instalments between the autumn of 2006 and 2007 (totalling some 15 million treatment courses) and in spring 2009 (eight million treatment courses). This makes determining the average life of the stockpile difficult. All of this stock has a shelf life of five years so is currently well within its expiry date. However, following a decision of the European medicines regulator (the European Medicines Agency, stock produced after June 2009 will have a shelf life of seven years. We are currently discussing with Roche and with the medicines regulator both the implications of this decision and the possible extension of the shelf life of stock we hold.
A small amount of Tamiflu that we are making use of but that was not procured for pandemic flu planning will expire later in 2009. We expect that most of this stock will now have been used.
Stock currently held by the national health service for treatment of swine flu at antiviral collection points (ACPs) is used in accordance with guidance provided on stock rotation.
All ACPs have pharmaceutical oversight provided by senior primary care trust pharmacists, who ensure there are safe systems and processes in place for the safe management and supply of antiviral medicines.
Stock held in stockpile warehouses is managed by professional inventory and stock managers, and in accordance with standard inventory management practice on a “first in, first out” basis.
Telemedicine
This information is commercially confidential, as releasing it could give a commercial advantage to other organisations outside the framework agreement. The following table gives a high level breakdown of the number of organisations procuring through the framework.
Organisation type Number of organisations County Council 308 Acute 211 PCT 106 Borough Council 301 Northern Ireland Board 157 City Council 154 Ambulance 55 MHT 3 Housing Association 58 County Borough Council 16 Welsh Local Health Board 6 District Council 78 Housing Consortium 2 Local Council 8 Miscellaneous 4 City and Borough Council 3 Note: The table shows the number of purchasing points it was set up around a trust having one purchasing point put in practice some may have more than one.
Thrombosis
We expect the NHS Operating Framework for 2010-11 to be published later this year and we can confirm that it will include venous thromboembolism risk assessment and prevention.
We are currently looking to pilot the tool within a clinical setting and, if approved, the intention is that the tool together with the technology could be evaluated at a number of sites. Subject to this work going ahead, the tool would then be available to download to national health service trusts at the same time as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence publish their venous thrombroembolism clinical guidelines for all hospitalised patients.
Thrombosis: Hospitals
The Office for National Statistics are still working on the data which are by nature quite complex, spanning many different areas. We have received some preliminary data and are continuing to work with them to produce meaningful information on episodes of venous thromboembolism.
Treatment Centres
No. There is a duty to make a residual value payment at contract expiry where the requirement exists under the terms of an independent sector treatment centres contract.
The Department has not issued primary care trusts (PCTs) with guidance on the commissioning of services from independent sector treatment centres. It is for PCTs to determine their commissioning requirements.
The Department has requested that PCTs review their capacity requirements and has provided guidance to support the competitive procurement of treatment centre services. PCTs will review contracts on a case-by-case basis and commission new services where capacity is required.
The national health service tariff does not apply to procedures undertaken in Wave One and Phase Two Independent Sector Treatment Centres. Providers are paid for services according to the terms and conditions of their contracts. Future contracts to provide services from treatment centres will be paid at the NHS tariff.
Contracts for the centrally procured wave one independent sector treatment centres are scheduled to end from 2010. Each contract will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and new services will be commissioned where local commissioners determine that capacity is required.
The total potential expiry cost (including residual value) for wave one independent sector treatment centres is approximately £200 million.
Vioxx
The net ingredient cost (NIC) of prescription items written in the United Kingdom and dispensed in the community in England for 2007 and 2008, cannot be reported as the NIC was reimbursed for less than 50 prescription items. Reporting this figure could potentially identify individual patients.
Written Questions: Government Responses
I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave him on 21 July 2009, Official Report, columns 1594W and 1609W.
Written Answers to Questions
Tuesday 13 October 2009
Communities and Local Government
Council Housing: Antisocial Behaviour Orders
The Department does not collect this information.
Information collected centrally by the Ministry of Justice on the number of antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs) issued from April 1999 to December 2007 is available at:
http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/asbos/asbos02-090713.xls
Council Housing: Finance
On 21 July my right hon. Friend the Minister for Housing published a consultation paper setting out proposals to replace the Housing Revenue Account subsidy system with a devolved system of responsibility and funding for council housing. This would end the need to redistribute income between council landlords each year, in exchange for a one-off adjustment of housing debt. Under the proposals, some authorities would be provided with funds to pay off debt and others would take on more housing debt, putting all councils in a position to sustain their stock in future from their own income. The consultation paper, ‘Reform of council housing finance’, is published on my Department's website at:
www.communities.gov.uk
Empty Shops Funding Grant
On 13 August, CLG announced £3 million funding to help areas hit hardest by the recession find ways to boost town centres, and in particular mitigate the negative impact of empty shops on the high street. The 57 local authorities, shown in the following list, have each received £52,631.58. This is new funding for 2009-10 only, which forms part of the package of support that CLG is providing to boost town centres and high streets, as set out in “Looking after our town centres”, which we published in April.
In accordance with the Government’s policy on local authority funding, it is for the local authorities concerned to decide precisely how it should be spent. However, we continue to work with local authorities and other stakeholders to highlight positive approaches for making use of empty shops, and other ideas for promoting town centres.
Local authorities receiving empty shops funding:
Ashfield
Barnsley
Barrow-in-Furness
Birmingham
Blackburn with Darwen
Blackpool
Bolton
Boston
Bristol
Burnley
Copeland
Corby
Coventry
Darlington
Derby City
Doncaster
Dudley
Durham
Gateshead
Great Yarmouth
Hackney
Halton
Harlow
Hartlepool
Hastings
Hyndburn
Ipswich
Kingston Upon Hull
Kirklees
Knowsley
Leeds
Leicester City
Liverpool
Manchester
Mansfield
Middlesbrough
Newcastle upon Tyne
North East Lincolnshire
North Tyneside
Nottingham City
Pendle
Preston
Rochdale
Rossendale
Rotherham
Salford
Sandwell
Sefton
Sheffield
South Tyneside
Stoke-on-Trent
Sunderland
Tameside
Thanet
Walsall
Wigan
Wolverhampton
Local Development Frameworks
‘Local Development Framework’ is the collective name for the folder of various planning-related documents that local planning authorities have prepared. Some of these documents will have been subject to statutory independent examination in public by the Planning Inspectorate; others will have been approved and adopted by individual authorities where there is no statutory requirement for independent examination. All authorities will have approved documents of one kind or another in place and all are subject to regular monitoring and review, so it is an ongoing process.
Documents that the Planning Inspectorate has considered sound to date are:
50 Core Strategies
37 Area Action Plans
9 Site Allocation Policies
7 Development Control Policies
17 Minerals and Waste Policies
10 other plans dealing with specific themes
385 Statements of Community Involvement.
‘Local Development Framework’ is the collective name for the folder of various planning-related documents that local planning authorities have prepared. Some of these documents (development plan documents) will have been subject to statutory independent examination in public by the Planning Inspectorate; others will have been approved and adopted by individual authorities where there is no statutory requirement for independent examination.
In order to be found sound, development plan documents are required to be in general conformity with the regional spatial strategy (or spatial development strategy if the LPA is located in London), including housing allocations, if appropriate.
Local Government: Official Hospitality
The Department has issued no guidance on the receipt of gratuities and hospitality by local authority employees.
Local Government: Pay
This information is not held centrally.
National Housing and Planning Advice Unit
All board members’ contracts expire on 31 October 2009. We will announce our decision on future board appointments after we have completed a review of the unit later this month.
The National Housing and Planning Advice Unit has employed the following full-time equivalent staff1 over each of the last three years:
1 Assumes permanent civil service staff only, excludes two temporary staff for part of period.
Number October 20061 to March 2007 1.42 April 2007—March 2008 12.25 April 2008—March 2009 12.66 April 2009—current 12.8 1 NHPAU established and first started incurring staff salary costs in October 2006.
In addition, the unit also currently has six board members who work for the unit for up to a maximum of 30 days per year each.
A review of the unit began in August and is expected to conclude shortly.
Refuges: Domestic Violence
The Department does not collect this information.
There is a range of support for victims of domestic violence. Some victims will be accommodated in refuges, but sanctuary schemes and mainstream local authority accommodation may be an option for others, while some victims will pursue independent solutions with help and advice from support schemes as necessary.
The Department has recently commissioned new research that will identify the current housing options available to households at risk of domestic violence, and to assess whether this provision meets current need. It will involve establishing the extent and type of temporary and settled accommodation available for households at risk of domestic violence in England, including the provision of housing related support services delivered to both temporary and settled accommodation, and to households’ own homes. This will report early next year. Whether it will show a breakdown in each local authority depends on how many local authorities respond to the research. As the research is still ongoing we are currently unable to determine what the response rate is.
In 2003 the Government announced major investment in refuge provision in England in 2003-06. A total of £34 million capital was allocated and 511 units of accommodation were refurbished or newly built. More recently the Hostels Capital Improvement Programme (2005-07) funded six new and refurbished refuges at a cost of £4 million.
CLG provides essential revenue support for victims of domestic violence through the Supporting People Programme. £64.5 million in 2007-08 up from £61.6 million in 2006-07.
Information for Wales has not been included as provision of refuges is a devolved matter.
The Department does not collect this information.
Regional Planning and Development
The Department has received a number of representations from organisations and individuals seeking clarification on issues arising from the Town and Country (General Permitted Development Order) (Amendment) (No. 2) (England) Order 2008. The representations include concerns about the way the order is being interpreted by planning authorities.
I have asked my officials to undertake an assessment of all the matters that have been raised since the introduction of the order. Once that is completed, they will meet with stakeholders to discuss these issues further.
Social Rented Housing: Cornwall
The Homes and Communities Agency is delivering a £59 million affordable housing investment programme in Cornwall over the 2008-11 period. In 2008-09, 209 new social homes for rent were completed in Cornwall. 539 new social homes for rent are expected to be completed in 2009-10 and a minimum of 365 new social homes for rent are expected to be completed in 2010-11. Approximately 52 homes were bought from developers on the open market for social rent in 2008-09 and 79 homes are expected to be bought from developers on the open market for social rent in 2009-10. There are no estimates for future years.
Social Rented Housing: Standards
There are no current planned changes to levels of Decent Homes funding to fund other housing measures announced in the Draft Legislative Programme.
Four Round 6 ALMOs—Haringey, Blackpool, Enfield and Stevenage—have funded Decent Homes investment programmes. On 14 July, as part of the Housing Pledge announcement, the Minister for Housing announced that those remaining Round 6 ALMOs, who had yet to qualify for Decent Homes funding on that date, are more likely to receive their capital allocations in 2011-12, subject to the ALMO achieving the Audit Commission inspection rating required.
There are no plans to divert funding from the Decent Homes programme in 2009-10. In 2011-11, £150 million has been reprioritised from the programme to fund the Housing Pledge initiative to contribute to the building of new homes.
As at 31 March 2009, the proportion of homes owned by registered social landlords that own stock transferred from local authorities, which met the Decent Homes Standard was 88.1 per cent.
Source:
RSR 2009
Information reported by local arm’s- length management companies in 2008 on dwellings that meet the Decent Homes standard show that 69 per cent. of their homes met the standard.
As at 31 March 2009 the proportion of homes owned by registered social landlords which met the Decent Homes standard was 91.7 per cent.
Source:
RSR 2009
Social Rented Housing: West Yorkshire
[holding answer 12 October 2009]: The Government have provided significant funding to support delivery of Decent Homes Programmes in the social housing sector across West Yorkshire. Such works will help to uplift the condition of housing which is currently deemed non-decent. With the exception of the Wakefield local authority area all other local authority areas in the West Yorkshire sub-region are on track to complete the decency programmes in line with the December 2010 deadline.
In terms of Leeds North West, the Arm’s-Length Management Organisation, West North West is on track to deliver decent homes by 2010-11. Significant investment of £1.5 million in 2009-10 and £1.8 million in 2010-11 will be made on decency works and essential maintenance. West North West has also set its own lettable standard which is published on the website and provides for a higher level decency.
In addition, West North West will be investing £74,000 in 2009-10 and £62,000 in 2010-11 on environmental works to complement housing investment and improve the standard of the public realm.
1,500 properties in West North West area will benefit from the Social Housing Energy Saving Programme which will provide insulation measures thus increasing levels of thermal comfort.
Leeds and Kirklees will also benefit from the recent first round announcement regarding the local authority new build programme which was announced in the budget and was recently strengthened by the Housing Pledge. This will provide much needed high quality additional social housing—63 units supported by £3.5 million in Leeds and 36 units supported by almost £2 million grant in Kirklees.
Northern Ireland
Departmental Motor Vehicles
The following table shows how much the Northern Ireland Office, including the Public Prosecution Service Northern Ireland, but excluding its agencies and non-departmental public bodies has spent on hire vehicles in each of the last five financial years.
£000 2004-05 70 2005-06 73 2006-07 50 2007-08 74 2008-09 73
Energy and Climate Change
Climate Change: Import Duties
I have been asked to reply.
The Doha Round remains the UK Government’s top trade priority and we will continue to work closely with our EU and international partners to secure a deal as early as possible.
Trade liberalisation of environmentally friendly goods and services is an important part of the negotiations. The World Trade Organisation’s Committee on Trade and Environment, which is mandated to take forward these negotiations, recently met where all parties, including the EU, reaffirmed their commitment to the negotiations. The UK Government are committed to seeking an early resolution that will support the comprehensive global deal on climate change that we are seeking in Copenhagen this December.
UK Low Carbon Transition Plan
[holding answer 9 September 2009]: The criteria against which we will be short-listing the 20 test hubs were published on 28 September and we have invited local authorities in England, Wales and N Ireland to participate.
The criteria can be found at
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/consumers/lc_communities/lc_communities.aspx
We expect to announce the location of these short-listed test hubs by the end of this year or early next year.
Warm Front Scheme
Payments for Warm Front heating, insulation and other energy efficiency measures, as well as scheme administration, are made to the main contractor, Eaga plc. Eaga deliver these measures through a network of subcontractors. The total value of payments made to Eaga since the beginning of the current phase of the scheme in June 2005 is £1,494 million.
Women and Equality
Human Rights: Gender
[holding answer 12 October 2009]: We are aware of the Commissioner for Human Rights’ issue paper on Human Rights and Gender Identity.
We are considering carefully the recommendations he has made and will make clear the Government's response in due course.
Work and Pensions
Housing Benefit: Expenditure
(2) how much has been spent on housing benefit for (a) private tenants and (b) social tenants in each year since 1997.
The information is in the following table.
£ million Percentage Social tenants Private tenants Social tenants Private tenants 1997-98 7,740 3,437 69 31 1998-99 7,885 3,180 71 29 1999-2000 8,098 2,966 73 27 2000-01 8,311 2,851 74 26 2001-02 8,768 2,827 76 24 2002-03 9,615 3,040 76 24 2003-04 9,326 3,028 75 25 2004-05 9,813 3,361 74 26 2005-06 10,222 3,723 73 27 2006-07 10,716 4,143 72 28 2007-08 11,239 4,513 71 29 Notes: 1. Expenditure figures are in millions of pounds, in cash terms. 2. Figures include all housing benefit expenditure, whether funded by DWP and its predecessors, or by local authorities. 3. Figures include expenditure on discretionary housing payments. Source: Local authority subsidy returns and housing benefit administrative data.
Incapacity Benefit
[holding answer 14 September 2009]: Data are not available in the form requested.
Minimum Wage: Apprentices
[holding answer 14 September 2009]: I have been asked to reply.
The effects of the NMW on younger workers need to be considered carefully to avoid damaging incentives between education and work and ensure the employment prospects of younger workers are not adversely affected.
We know that young workers experience substantially worse unemployment and employment rates than adults. Both are more sensitive to the economic cycle. That is why the Low Pay Commission recommended a separate youth rate from the outset in 1999 and continues to believe there is a case for retaining them. Government and the LPC are concerned that removing the youth rates could adversely affect employment levels for this group. Earlier this year, the LPC recommended that 21-year-olds be entitled to the adult minimum wage. We have accepted this recommendation but, given the current economic conditions, stated that this change will be implemented from October 2010.
House of Commons Commission
Members: Email
No, as the product is not compatible with software in use by Parliament.
Members: Security
The names of parliamentary passholders are the individuals' personal data. Disclosing these names would pose an unacceptable risk to the health and safety of the individuals. Some information on Members' staff (paid and unpaid) is available within the public Register of Interests:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmsecret/memi01.htm
Visits
The cost of running the summer opening programme in 2008 was £736,026 and the income received from paying visitors was £733,783.
The summer opening programme runs as a cost-neutral (self-financing) operation, the strategy being to break even over a three-year period. The current three-year period, for this purpose, is 2007-09.
Transport
Aviation: Fees and Charges
Oversight of the level of airport charges at price-controlled airports (currently Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted) is normally a matter for the Civil Aviation Authority. However, as part of the Department’s review of the economic regulation of airports officials have taken evidence from BAA, MAG and a number of other stakeholders (including other airports, airlines, and consumer representation bodies). We expect to announce the findings of the review later this year.
Aviation: Security
The information is as follows:
(a) All passengers entering the restricted zone of an airport are subject to screening and searching procedures; these procedures are conducted with the consent of the traveller. Failure by the passenger to undertake this requirement will result in refusal of entry into the restricted zone and aircraft. Security personnel are not state employees and do not have the same powers as control authorities (police and UK Border Agency); they operate by consent only. Where airport security personnel require support from enforcement powers they can request assistance from control authorities.
(b) There is already a range of specific offences related to disruptive passenger behaviour on board aircraft. We consider that existing policy and legislative penalties are sufficient to deal with such behaviour.
Dartford-Thurrock Crossing: Tolls
The charges/tolls have been suspended on four occasions since 1 October 2008.
Three suspensions were planned overnight power outages for two hours each. The fourth occasion was for five and a half hours during a major power failure across south-east London.
Employment Tribunals Service
The total number of employment tribunal cases in each of the last five years is broken down in the table following below and also include figures to date for 2009-10:
Financial year Number Withdrawn Settled Ongoing Found in favour of (a) employee Found in favour of (b) Department 2009-10 11 1 2 7 — 1 2008-09 39 9 12 16 — 2 2007-08 30 8 12 1 1 8 2006-07 9 1 3 — — 5 2005-06 1— 1— 1— 1— 1— 1— 2004-05 12 4 3 2 3 1 Information withheld on grounds of confidentiality as less than five.
The cases above have not been broken down further by category in order to protect the confidentiality of the persons concerned. However, claims include unfair dismissal, sex, race and disability discrimination, declined applications of statutory flexible working requests and unlawful deduction from wages claims.
Overall, 23 were contested and decided at a full hearing of the Employment Tribunal.
Government Departments: Official Cars
The Government Car and Despatch Agency is responsible for providing ministerial cars. It does not record individual journey information and so is unable to calculate how much use each Minister has made of their official car and could provide an answer only at a disproportionate cost.
Rolling Stock
543 new vehicles have been ordered to date.
Following the Government's electrification announcement on 23 July the requirements for rolling stock have been radically altered. We will be publishing an updated Rolling Stock Plan setting out a revised strategy in the autumn.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Landfill: Pollution
[holding answer 12 October 2009]: No recent specific assessment has been made by DEFRA on leakage from landfills into aquifers.
Landfills are subject to strict permitting requirements under European and domestic legislation concerning their location, design, operation, closure and aftercare in order to prevent harm to human health and the environment.
In 2004, the Government published a report that assessed the environmental and health effects of different types of waste management facilities. It looked at leakages from municipal solid waste landfills to surface water and groundwater. It stated:
“While the lack of data means that the numbers themselves are of poor quality, they indicate that emissions from waste management are a very small proportion of total UK emissions”.
Waste Disposal: Greater Manchester
DEFRA has made no provision for the Government to underwrite the recently agreed Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) private finance initiative (PFI) scheme. DEFRA has, however, provided £124,500,000 of PFI credits which assist GMWDA payment obligations under the contract itself. These payments made by GMWDA would only be made for services actually received.
Waste Management
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spoke to the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority about the work they are doing on waste management when he went to Manchester on 24 September. Helen Ghosh, DEFRA’s permanent secretary, also visited the Waithlands Recycling Centre in Greater Manchester on 5 August.
No recent discussions have been held with the London waste authorities.
Waste: Renewable Energy
In order for a local authority to submit an outline business case (OBC) to request private finance initiative (PFI) credits, they must have embarked upon a public consultation exercise.
Since the publication of the UK Renewable Energy Strategy, DEFRA has not received any new OBCs, therefore we are not aware of any consultations.
Water: Meters
The following table sets out the number of meters water supply companies have installed in households in the last three years.
2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 Water and sewerage companies Anglian (including Hartlepool Water) 25,516 28,586 33,222 Dwr Cymru 18,753 15,042 19,947 Northumbrian Water (including Essex and Suffolk Water) 41,743 34,489 31,292 Severn Trent Water 38,594 33,215 44,331 South West Water 26,330 28,528 23,162 Southern Water 35,847 19,224 21,160 Thames Water 47,204 34,519 36,288 United Utilities 39,503 37,734 58,240 Wessex Water 11,325 11,277 18,570 Yorkshire Water 32,391 25,176 40,144 Water only companies Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water 6,353 4,755 4,806 Bristol Water 7,285 5,949 9,431 Cambridge Water 1,466 1,381 1,432 Dee Valley Water 2,659 2,432 2,487 Folkestone Water 5,117 3,793 3,787 Portsmouth 5,797 3,734 5,219 South East Water (including Mid-Kent Water) 21,959 14,489 13,339 South Staffordshire Water 6,176 4,344 7,568 Sutton and East Surrey Water 8,871 5,814 7,179 Tendring Hundred Water 1,110 890 1,242 Three Valleys Water 40,933 30,351 28,247 Source: Ofwat.
Treasury
Banks: Regulation
[holding answer 15 January 2009]: I have been asked to reply.
The Government recognise that the current economic climate is causing significant difficulties for established businesses and start-up firms alike.
The recapitalisation of the banks and subsequent measures to support bank lending, are essential to secure and sustain a competitive UK lending market. This is essential for businesses given that the vast majority looking for finance will continue to seek support from mainstream lenders, and not from Government supported schemes.
The UK is the first country in the world to have negotiated legally binding lending commitments with banks receiving state support. The Royal Bank of Scotland have committed to £25 billion of additional net lending over the next 12 months, including £16 billion for lending to businesses. Lloyds have committed to an additional £3 billion of gross mortgage lending and £11 billion of additional net lending to businesses over the next 12 months. Both agreements are in effect immediately.
While supporting lenders to continue lending, the Government have also introduced targeted support for viable businesses who continue to struggle to raise finance from commercial sources. For small and medium businesses who find themselves on the margins of commercial lending decisions, the £13 billion Enterprise Finance Guarantee encourages lenders to extend their usual lending criteria by providing them with additional security in the form of a Government backed guarantee.
The Government continue to work with the banks and business representative bodies, through fora such as the Small Business Finance Forum, and we continue to monitor bank lending to SMEs, with the Bank of England.
The measures delivered by the Government are across all sectors, including the construction and agricultural sectors.
Business: Government Assistance
The business payment support service was introduced on 24 November 2008. To 27 September 2009 6,119 requests for time to pay tax due have not been agreed by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), representing 1.9 per cent. of the total requests received. Some businesses will have submitted more than one request.
The following table provides the monthly breakdown.
Period Requests not agreed 24 November 2008 - 1 March 20091 1230 2 March 2009 - 29 March 2009 414 30 March 2009 - 3 May 2009 522 4 May 2009 - 31 May 2009 407 1 June 2009 - 28 June 2009 473 29 June 2009 - 26 July 20092 2263 27 July 2009 - 30 August 2009 422 31 August 2009 - 27 September 2009 388 Total 6119 Notes: 1 Disaggregated figures are not available prior to 2 March 2009. 2 Validation work in July 2009 led to the data capture of requests for time to pay agreements that had been processed but not previously entered on HM Revenue and Customs’ management information systems.
Charities
The Treasury does not hold a central record of payments made to charitable organisations and the information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Child Benefit
According to the latest statistics there are 30,068 child benefit awards in payment in respect of 50,586 children resident in other member states. A geographical breakdown of these awards by member state can be found in the following table.
Country Number of awards at 8 October 2009 Number of children included in awards Austria 29 52 Belgium 153 297 Bulgaria 45 70 Cyprus 51 82 Czech Republic 197 340 Denmark 13 24 Estonia 17 30 Finland 16 29 France 1,256 2,346 Germany 311 529 Greece 51 81 Hungary 96 172 Iceland 2 4 Italy 175 300 Latvia 259 346 Lithuania 747 1,093 Luxembourg 14 26 Malta 17 26 Norway 45 92 Poland 22,858 37,941 Portugal 222 329 Republic of Ireland 883 1,818 Romania 36 53 Slovakia 1,483 2,573 Slovenia 5 7 Spain 741 1,230 Sweden 57 107 Switzerland 104 216 The Netherlands 185 373 Totals 30,068 50,586
The value of the benefit paid is only available at disproportionate costs because under the EC social security co-ordinating regulations (EC Regulations 1408/71 and 574/72) not all awards of child benefit in respect of children living in other member states are made at the full UK rate.
Departmental Incentives
HM Treasury offers a wide range of benefits to all of its employees. A summary of these is published on its recruitment website:
http://recruitment.treasury.gov.uk/policyadvisors/rewards.php
Performance related pay increases and non-consolidated performance awards for all eligible staff are linked to the annual performance appraisal system. All staff below the Senior Civil Service are assessed against their peers in relation to the Treasury competency framework and the achievement of their performance objectives. Awards are paid in recognition of excellent performance throughout the appraisal year. Reward arrangements for staff in the Senior Civil Service are based on recommendations by the independent Senior Salaries Review Body.
HM Treasury also pays non-consolidated special performance awards to recognise exceptional performance for specific contributions or pieces of work during the year, or for situations outside the normal expectations of a post.
The following table gives details of the amounts paid and number of recipients of non-consolidated performance awards paid in 2008-09. For details of previous years, I refer the hon. Lady to the answer my predecessor gave to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) on 17 November 2008, Official Report, column 164W.
No of staff1 Amount paid (£000)2 Performance awards3 437 1,090 Special performance awards4 411 164 1 Non-consolidated awards were paid in 2008-09 in respect of staff performance in the 2007-08 performance appraisal year. 2 Special performance awards are paid at various times during the year, and may relate to specific contributions or pieces of work completed in the previous year. 3 The number of staff receiving bonuses includes individuals who received more than one bonus in the period. 4 The amounts paid by HM Treasury excludes amounts recovered from external organisations to which staff were seconded at the time of payment.
Departmental Pay
91 members of staff currently working at HM Treasury have a full-time equivalent consolidated base salary of more than £64,000.
Departmental Redundancy
HM Treasury defines a dismissal as either the termination of a permanent contract for a major breach of its terms, or the non-renewal of a fixed-term contract. HM Treasury does not provide information relating to numbers of staff fewer than five where to do so might lead to the identification of protected information concerning individual cases.
In each of the five years to 2008-09, fewer than five permanent staff were dismissed from HM Treasury. The table below shows the number and costs of non-renewals of fixed-term contracts in those years; of these 351 contracts, 167 related to staff working at HM Treasury under its student placement schemes.
Number Costs (£000) 2004-05 74 — 2005-06 49 0-5 2006-07 62 — 2007-08 97 — 2008-09 69 —
Financial Services Authority
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: I have been asked to reply.
The Takeover Panel is the authority designated to supervise and regulate takeovers in the UK.
The Panel’s statutory functions are set out in part 28 of the Companies Act 2006 and include powers to make rules governing the orderly conduct of takeovers in the UK as set out in the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers.
It would therefore be for the Panel to decide on issues of non-compliance with the rules in respect of takeovers in the UK. They may seek to enforce breaches of the Code through the courts and the Financial Services Authority.
Insolvency: EC Action
[holding answer 12 October 2009]: A final estimate of the impact of the EU Solvency Directive cannot be made until the Commission publishes its proposals for Level 2 implementing measures. The Government’s initial assessment of the impact is set out in the Explanatory Memorandum on the Level 1 Directive EM 6996/08: Amended proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the taking-up and pursuit of the business of Insurance and Re-insurance, Solvency II.
Overseas Trade: Kazakhstan
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: I have been asked to reply.
The aim of UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) is to help companies to realise opportunities around the world that will deliver an economic benefit to the UK. To do this UKTI prioritises the markets that we are active in. UKTI offers a full range of services for companies who wish to do business in Kazakhstan through trade and investment teams based in Astana and Atyrau.
UKTI actively encourages investment into the UK from companies in many developed and some emerging markets. Although Kazakhstan is not a priority market for inward investment, UKTI assistance would be available to Kazakh companies who were interested in investing here.
Tax Collection: Administration
The Government are considering carefully the recommendations made in the report by the Commission on Scottish Devolution chaired by Professor Sir Kenneth Calman, including issues around implementation.
Taxation: British Overseas Territories
Taxation is a devolved competence in the UK overseas territories under the terms of their constitutions and UK tax legislation does not apply to them. Exceptionally, however, three overseas territories apply a withholding tax on income from savings of UK residents under the terms of an agreement with the UK providing for measures equivalent to the European Savings Directive.
The amounts paid to the United Kingdom by those overseas territories in relation to these withholding taxes for the most recent year available are shown in the following table.
Amount of withholding tax UK Overseas territories Year end Approx. £ equivalent British Virgin Islands 31 December 2008 2,470.39 Gibraltar 30 June 2008 379,801.55 Turks and Caicos Islands 30 September 2008 2,901.36
Scotland
Departmental Motor Vehicles
The Scotland Office spend on hire vehicles in each of the last five financial years was as follows:
Cost (£) 2004-05 10,938 2005-06 20,610 2006-07 10,441 2007-08 17,786 2008-09 19,076
The figures do not include the Government Car Service London costs for which I refer the hon. Member to the written ministerial statement issued on 16 July 2009, Official Report, column 79WS.
Departmental Public Expenditure
I have responsibility for overseeing the delivery of value for money at the Scotland Office. The Secretary of State and I both take an active role in ensuring that the Scotland Office delivers value for money in all its activities. The Scotland Office does not directly deliver services, so has not established a dedicated public sector reform team.
International Development
Departmental Pay
The Department for International Development operates non-consolidated performance related pay award schemes for:
Senior Civil Servants (SCS)
Staff in grades below SCS
The number of staff eligible and the cost of operating the schemes in the last five years are shown in the following table.
Cost (£) per year Number of eligible staff 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 SCS 98 266,750 377,100 504,000 641,510 634,150 Below SCS grade 1520 230,600 515,8651 558,233 199,6702 736,815 1 The significant increase in the value of awards from 2005-06 onwards is because changes to the Special Achievement Awards (SAA) scheme were introduced as part of a new pay deal in 2004-05. 2 The SAA scheme for DFID staff below the SCS ended on 31 July 2007, with IBAS not becoming effective until the following reporting year (2008-09).
These non-consolidated costs are contained within the overall increases for pay awards agreed with HM Treasury as a small percentage of the total pay bills. Performance awards are not guaranteed and have to be re-earned each year. The main purposes of both schemes are to:
have clear links between pay and performance
encourage and reward sustained high performance against set criteria
comply with central Cabinet Office and HM Treasury frameworks and guidelines on pay and reward.
Developing Countries: Internet
The Department for International Development (DFID) funded the One World Zone of the Gold Star Cafe internet site through the Development Awareness Fund from April 2006 to March 2009. During the three years of DFID support to the zone, there were approximately 90,000 visits.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Breaking the Silence: Finance
The Government have spent £78,701 since April 2006 to support Breaking the Silence’s educational tours of Hebron. This financial year we have allocated a further £38,233 to Breaking the Silence, again for their educational tours of Hebron.
The Government fund Breaking the Silence through the Conflict Prevention Pool, which is managed jointly by the Department for International Development, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence. It is a shared budget to support the Government’s conflict prevention policies.
Departmental Manpower
There have been numerous organisational changes in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) since 1997. Explaining changes in staff strength over that period is, therefore, not straightforward. In 1997 the FCO employed 5,539 Full Time Equivalent UK based staff, including those working on entry clearance. The comparable figure for 1 October 2009 is 5,478. This includes just under 950 staff in FCO Services, which is now a Trading Fund but excludes staff working on entry clearance. This function has transferred to the UK Border Agency (UKBA)—an agency of the Home Office.
The reduction in FCO numbers since 1997 is the net effect of:
the transfer to UKBA of the entry clearance function;
expansion in the consular and migration functions; and
efficiency savings in other areas.
Iraq: Iran
Our ambassador in Iraq met with the Iraqi Human Rights Minister on 6 October 2009 to discuss the situation at Camp Ashraf and the latest developments surrounding the 36 camp residents who were arrested on 28 July 2009. Our ambassador has also raised the issue with the Iraqi Prime Minister’s office and the Minister of Internal Affairs.
We remain in close contact with the US, UN and EU, who regularly discuss the issues around the camp with the Iraqi authorities. Also, our UK Representative to the UN in Geneva has also discussed the situation with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Officials from our embassy in Baghdad visited the camp on Saturday 26 September 2009. They confirmed that Iraqi police and Iraqi Security Forces were present inside the camp, and were co-operating peacefully with the residents.
Members: Correspondence
[holding answer 14 September 2009]: I have been asked to reply.
The right hon. Member’s letter was passed to me for reply and I replied on 7 September.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials have drawn this request to the attention of the South African high commission in London. Officials at the South African high commission will follow up this request.
Morocco: Travel Restrictions
The Government have received representations from the UK-based Western Sahara Campaign, the Talk Together project in Oxford and the UN Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland about the case of the Moroccan and Saharwi students prevented from travelling to the UK on 5 August 2009 to attend a conference on cross-cultural understanding and conflict resolution, organised by Talk Together.
Razouk Choummad
Our ambassador to Morocco and his staff at our embassy in Rabat have already sought clarification from the Moroccan Government regarding Mr. Razouk Choummad and the other Sahrawi students due to take part in an event in Oxford in August this year.
The Government made clear to the Moroccan authorities that they regretted that the students had been prevented from travelling to the UK and that they were concerned by allegations of the disproportionate use of force.
The Moroccan Government have told us that they remain open to participating in future events organised by Talk Together and have investigated the allegations of mistreatment, which they deny. We will continue to seek further clarification from the Moroccan authorities.
Yemen: Armed Conflict
My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary discussed Yemen with His Royal Highness Prince Saud Al Faisal on a number of occasions, most recently earlier this month. The UK and Saudi Arabia are both committed to supporting the Government of Yemen in addressing the difficult challenges they face, including the conflict in the Northern region of Sa’dah.
We have welcomed the commitment by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to work with the UN to facilitate the safe passage of emergency relief supplies to the internally displaced persons in Northern Yemen. The UK will provide £2 million of additional humanitarian aid to the situation.
I will continue to discuss the situation in Yemen with His Royal Highness as and when the opportunity arises, and my officials will remain in regular contact with their Saudi counterparts.
Defence
Armed Conflict: Children
There are no plans to review the operation of the interpretative declaration on article 1 of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Government policy is that Service Personnel under the age of 18 are not routinely deployed on operations outside the UK. The exception to this is where the operation does not involve personnel becoming engaged in or exposed to hostilities, such as disaster relief.
The MOD believes that its policies on under 18s are robust and compliant with national and international law. We remain fully committed to meeting our obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.
All members of the armed forces receive training on the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) shortly after joining and regularly throughout their careers.
The UK armed forces do not routinely train all personnel on the Optional Protocol specifically, but personnel involved in handling prisoners of war, internees and detainees receive training which addresses the handling of juveniles and children.
Electronic Warfare
[holding answer 12 October 2009]: Defence equipment and systems are procured against a set of specifications that includes appropriate protection against electromagnetic attack. These specifications are informed by appropriate consultation at expert level with relevant experts.
Littoral Warfare: Helicopters
The UK amphibious helicopter capability is provided by the Commando Helicopter Force operating Sea King Mk 4 and Lynx Mk 7 helicopters, augmented when required by Chinook and Apache helicopters.
The initial training provided to helicopter pilots as part of the Commando Helicopter Force is considered satisfactory. The tempo of land operations over recent years has had an impact on the ability to conduct amphibious operations. Nevertheless, small scale exercises have been achieved and a minimal level of currency and competency for amphibious operations maintained.
Military Aircraft: Helicopters
The first helicopters will be deployed in Afghanistan before the end of 2009. On current plans, further deliveries will take place in 2010 and will complete by the end of 2013.
Additional contributions to the fund would increase the total.
We recently reviewed whether the acquisition of new medium helicopters could be advanced in lieu of the planned life-extension of the Puma helicopter. Several companies, including Agusta Westland provided outline cost and delivery information for their potential candidate aircraft in support of this review. For reasons of commercial confidentiality, we cannot disclose details of their proposals, including delivery estimates.
More generally, the timescales for procurement decisions are dependent on the urgency of the capability need, the value and complexity of the procurement, and the time needed to demonstrate that the solution meets the requirement and represents value for money. We have ‘fast track’ arrangements for those capabilities required urgently for operations. Once manufactured, it can take significant time to bring a helicopter to the standard required to meet any role, mission or theatre specific requirements, to train crews (and maintainers) accordingly, and to ensure that the aircraft meets the required specification and airworthiness standards, and can withstand the rigours of war.
Territorial Army: Training
[holding answer 12 October 2009]: The Army is on a campaign footing with activity focused on support to current operations.
Man training days are being prioritized to ensure that mobilised TA personnel continue to be properly prepared for their operational roles, prior to deploying alongside their regular counterparts.
Health
Cancer Services
The first annual report of the “Cancer Reform Strategy”, published in December 2008, is the most recent assessment of cancer service provision in England. The report showed that good progress is being made against the objectives of the Strategy.
Funding for local health services has been allocated to primary care trusts (PCTs) on the basis of the relative needs of their populations. It is therefore for South West Essex PCT in partnership with East of England Strategic Health Authority and the local Cancer Network to make an assessment of cancer services in Billericay.
Dentistry
More than 27.6 million people saw an NHS dentist in the 24 months ending June 2009. This is almost three quarters of a million more than in the same period ending June 2008. The number of dentists working in the NHS, and the number of courses of NHS dental treatment provided are also growing steadily. We have invested a record £2 billion in dentistry and set up a national access programme to help the NHS deliver its goal of access for all who seek it by 2011. We therefore expect access to continue to increase.
PCT Boundaries
Proposals for the reconfiguration of services are a matter for the NHS locally, working in conjunction with clinicians, patients and other stakeholders and advocated through Lord Darzi’s 2008 publication “Leading Local Change”.
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust
I expect East Lancashire Hospitals National Health Service Trust to make a foundation trust application late in 2010.
Emergency Care
Independent sector treatment centres provide elective care, not emergency care.
Primary care trusts commission national health service hospital trusts to provide emergency care services according to local needs and monitor performance.
The Department has set an operational standard that 98 per cent. of patients should not spend more than four hours in accident and emergency departments.
National annual performance against the standard was 98.1 per cent. in 2008-09.
Strategic Health Authorities
The Strategic Health Authority Assurance Framework reaffirms their role in promoting public health by including a specific section on “Improving and protecting Health and Wellbeing”.
Combining self-assessments and site visits, a Panel chaired by the Department will assess performance against the Framework over the next few months.
Swine Flu
The NHS, including acute hospitals, has been preparing for pandemic influenza for several years, and all organisations have robust plans in place that cover the whole health economy. These have recently been tested by a series of comprehensive exercises and confirmed by each Board’s assurance statements during September.
The Department has also issued guidance on surging capacity so that hospitals can care for increased numbers of admissions.
National No Smoking Day
We will make funding available for No Smoking Day’s 2010 campaign at around the same level as last year, on a regional basis.
Waiting Times
In July 2009, 99.4 per cent. of admitted patients, and 98 per cent. of non-admitted patients at the trust started consultant-led treatment within 18 weeks of referral.
Staff at the trust should be congratulated for their efforts in helping to bring about this achievement.
Out-of-hours Care: London
Primary care trusts have a legal requirement to provide high quality out-of-hours cover for the local population, and strategic health authorities are responsible for the performance management of PCTs in their region. The 2008 Healthcare Commission review of urgent and emergency care found that the NHS has significantly improved performance since 2005.
PCT Funding
The independent Advisory Committee on resource allocation keeps the formula under continual scrutiny, updating it to account for new information and data, changes in service provision and health outcomes. The 2009-10 formula builds and improves on the previous formula, targeting funding where it is needed most.
Accident and Emergency Departments: Greater London
By definition a Type 1 accident and emergency (A&E) department must be open 24 hours a day. All other types of A&E departments need not be open for that period. The opening times of departments are not collected centrally.
Acute Beds
The requested information is contained in the following table. This is a snapshot of the number of beds available at midnight on the Thursday of the week. The availability of beds nationally will vary on an almost constant basis and therefore these figures should not be compared with data on critical care bed availability published in other formats. The data are validated locally but may be subject to revisions.
Period Adult critical care beds at midnight on the Thursday of the reporting period Number of neonatal critical care cots (or beds) at midnight on the Thursday of the reporting period Number of paediatric critical care beds at midnight on the Thursday of the reporting period Total number of acute hospital beds at midnight on the Thursday of the reporting period Week ending: Available Occupied Available Occupied Available Occupied Available Occupied 5 April 2009 3,265 2,901 1,081 816 359 258 104,869 95,509 12 April 2009 3,282 2,852 1,076 803 378 254 101,921 88,669 19 April 2009 3,313 2,862 1,088 812 357 267 104,550 93,411 26 April 2009 3,312 2,835 1,083 801 369 262 103,495 91,977 3 May 2009 3,307 2,885 1,066 819 320 221 103,032 91,719 10 May 2009 3,373 2,855 1,108 856 367 269 103,367 93,145 17 May 2009 3,335 2,915 1,087 866 355 257 103,565 93,079 24 May 2009 3,361 2,825 1,089 854 365 258 103,495 92,682 31 May 2009 3,379 2,857 1,074 812 350 243 104,057 91,133 7 June 2009 3,279 2,911 1,085 824 374 258 103,096 92,194 14 June 2009 3,316 2,897 1,111 848 352 247 103,705 91,663 21 June 2009 3,302 2,846 1,082 830 372 264 102,918 90,883 28 June 2009 3,321 2,740 1,083 827 360 262 103,102 90,804 5 July 2009 3,318 2,789 1,099 791 364 250 103,021 91,984 12 July 2009 3,356 2,888 1,098 835 349 247 102,791 91,128 19 July 2009 3,352 2,830 1,121 820 359 236 101,699 89,175 26 July 2009 3,301 2,801 1,120 825 357 238 102,787 89,077 2 August 2009 3,319 2,748 1,114 786 360 240 102,421 87,995 9 August 2009 3,384 2,752 1,109 767 362 237 102,651 88,478 16 August 2009 3,388 2,739 1,117 761 360 244 102,415 88,532 23 August 2009 3,335 2,691 1,133 809 402 268 101,333 90,410 30 August 2009 3,329 2,683 1,125 807 389 258 102,317 88,378 6 September 2009 3,370 2,725 1,119 810 328 216 102,027 89,143 Notes: 1. Data within the ‘Weekly SitReps’ collection are subject to revision. Therefore data may differ from previous submissions. 2. Acute beds collected on the ‘Weekly SitReps’ collection is a voluntary data item. 3. Data are provided from the start of the financial year, which for SitReps means the first week is week ending 5 April 2009. Source: Department of Health form—Weekly SitReps
Breastfeeding
The National Breastfeeding Helpline was launched in February 2008. Since then, there has been a steady increase in the number of calls received. The total number of calls received between February 2008 and August 2009 is 24,087 as shown in the following table.
2008-09 Number of calls received February 2008 to February 2009 11,430 March 2009 to August 2009 12,657 Total 24,087
Cancer: Diagnosis
On 29 September, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced plans to offer all patients in England access to tests which can confirm or exclude cancer within one week.
Remarkable progress has been made in reducing diagnostic waiting times to date. In April 2006 (when figures for diagnostic waiting times were first published) there were 404,200 waits over six weeks for diagnostic tests and the average time waited was six weeks. The number of waits over six weeks at the end of August 2009 was 4,000—a reduction of 98.9 per cent.—and patients can now expect to wait on average under two weeks for a diagnostic test.
Due to the record investment that this Government have already made since 1997, there are more than 42,000 extra scientific and therapeutic staff. By 2008, the number of consultants working in radiology had increased by 54 per cent. to 2,269, and the number of qualified radiographers employed in the national health service by 28 per cent. to 15,600, 13,400 of whom were working in diagnostics therefore the NHS is very well placed to deliver this commitment.
The commitment will be phased in over five years and where extra staff are required, these will be developed with the NHS and reflect service redesign and new models of delivery. The NHS already has a solid platform on which to build.
The appropriate balance between expanding existing diagnostic capacity and developing new models of delivery such as diagnostics centres will be considered in consultation with the National Quality Board and the NHS.
Initial estimates are that the extra activity required by the NHS in England over the five years of the programme equates to 155 pieces of Ultrasound equipment, 75 in Computed Tomography, 60 for Magnetic Resource Imaging, and 85 for Endoscopy , but this does not mean that the NHS will need to purchase this many new machines. Additional equipment requirements will be worked up with the NHS taking in to account new models of delivery and changes in working practices.
The proposal takes forward the commitment in the Government’s “Cancer Reform” Strategy published in 2007, a copy of which has already been placed in the Library, to improve access to diagnostics in primary care. We will be consulting widely on the implementation of these proposals, working with the NHS, key stakeholders and the professions to ensure that this commitment to patients is successfully delivered.
Further work is being undertaken to finalise the costs of implementing these plans, to refine the modelling and assumptions that underlie them. This will take account of the investment made to date in improving cancer and diagnostic services and new models of delivery.
Remarkable progress has been made in reducing diagnostic waiting times to date. In April 2006 (when figures for diagnostic waiting times were first published) there were 404,200 waits over six weeks for diagnostic tests and the average time waited was six weeks. The number of waits over six weeks at the end of August 2009 was 4,000—a reduction of 98 per cent.—and patients can now expect to wait on average under two weeks for a diagnostic test.
Initial estimates are as follows:
Capital costs will be about £650 million between the periods 2011-12 and 2014-15.
Early estimates of revenue costs are in the region of £1,250 million between the periods 2011-12 and 2014-15.
Final costing requirements and profiling will be worked up over the coming months in consultation with the national health service taking into account new models of delivery and changes in working practices.
The proposal takes forward the commitment in the Government’s Cancer Reform Strategy published in 2007 to improve access to diagnostics in primary care. We will be consulting widely on the implementation of these proposals, working with the NHS, key stakeholders and the professions to ensure that this commitment to patients is successfully delivered.
The major programme of renovating and rebuilding NHS hospitals is nearing completion. As this winds down it will release the resources to switch into new diagnostic equipment.
CJD: Screening
Evaluation of prototype variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease blood test is ongoing, and results of the latest round of tests are expected to be considered by the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease Resource Centre Oversight Committee by the end of the year.
Departmental Advertising
The following table shows the Department's advertising expenditure over the last five completed financial years. A further breakdown of these figures is available in the Library.
All departmental advertising listed as follows was carried out via the Central Office of Information (COI), with the exception of those initiatives highlighted with an asterisk. To identify other ad hoc expenditure not carried out via the COI would incur disproportionate cost.
£ million Campaign 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-092 Alcohol3 0.00 0.00 0.56 0.61 4.77 Antibiotics 0.00 0.38 0.00 0.39 1.15 Change4Life 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 7.69 Drugs4 0.91 0.18 1.34 0.67 1.45 Flu (Immunisation) 1.45 1.83 1.11 0.98 1.42 Hepatitis C 0.00 0.00 0.52 1.34 1.30 HPV Vaccination 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2.80 Immunisation 0.00 0.00 1.66 0.00 0.32 National Health Service including nurse recruitment 5.96 0.22 0.00 0.00 0.00 NHS Injury Benefits Scheme 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.40 0.00 NHS Choices* 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.03 0.55 Patient Choice* 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.53 Respiratory and Hand Hygiene 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.32 1.53 Sexual health/teenage pregnancy 1.40 0.00 2.88 3.11 2.83 Social care/worker recruitment 1.80 2.42 2.31 2.22 2.03 Smoking—Tobacco Control 20.05 20.80 13.17 10.79 23.38 Stroke 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 4.52 Tobacco Legislation 0.00 0.00 0.32 5.38 0.00 Winter (Get the right treatment/ask about medicines day) 0.54 0.59 0.00 0.00 0.00 5 a Day 0.06 0.05 0.05 0.00 0.00 E111/EHIC 0.24 1.00 0.00 0.00 0.16 Department of Health outdoor campaign 0.32 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Totals 32.73 27.47 23.92 26.24 56.43 1 Advertising spend is defined as covering only media spend (inclusive of agency commissions but excluding production costs, COI commission and VAT). All figures exclude advertising rebates and audit adjustments and therefore may differ from COI official turnover figures. All figures are rounded to the nearest £10,000. These figures do not include departmental recruitment/classified advertising costs and ad hoc spend under £10,000. These figures may include occasional minor spend through COI by NHS organisations, to supplement national campaigns in their area. While this expenditure has been excluded as far as possible so that this chart reflects central departmental spend, it would incur disproportionate cost to validate that every item of NHS expenditure has been removed. 2 Provisional figures. 3 From 2006-07 Department of Health contribution to campaign run jointly with Home Office. 4 Department of Health contribution to campaign run jointly with Home Office.
Departmental Electronic Equipment
The Department does not hold detailed historic information about its issue of mobile devices to staff, but with the advent of the new Human Resources System, Business Management System, and Asset Management tools, we can say that, as at the end of August 2009, the number of mobile assets allocated to staff or business unite was as follows:
Laptops: 2,431
Blackberry: 1,334
Mobile telephones: 1,008.
In addition the Department does not differentiate between devices issued to new staff or existing staff and therefore does not hold this information. However, the following table gives the number of devices lost or stolen in the last five years.
Mobile telephones Blackberrys Laptops 2004-05 15 2 23 2005-06 11 4 18 2006-07 18 5 11 2007-08 21 9 14 2008-09 18 22 34 Totals 83 42 100
Departmental Manpower
According to the Departmental Report for 1998, there were 4,486 full time equivalent (FTE) civil servants in the 1996-97 financial year.
According to the Departmental Report for 2009 annual report there were 2,222 FTE civil servants in the 2008-09 financial year.
The Departmental Reports for the above years and the intervening years can be found at:
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/AnnualReports/index.htm#jumpTol
Departmental Marketing
A total budget figure for the 2009-10 financial year cannot be provided at this stage as detailed planning for some campaigns is under way and advertising media allocations have not yet been finalised.
The Department's expenditure on advertising for the 2009-10 financial year to date is approximately £29.6 million.
This figure does not include the Department's recruitment/classified advertising costs. Advertising spend is defined as covering only media spend (inclusive of agency commissions but excluding production costs, Central Office of Information commission and VAT). All figures exclude advertising rebates and audit adjustments and therefore may differ from Central Office of Information official turnover figures.
Departmental Pay
The Department operates two reward systems for its permanent staff. The first, which is for staff below the Senior Civil Service (SCS), is geared towards recruiting and retaining staff with the right qualities to drive high performance within the organisation. The second system for SCS is based on annual recommendations from the independent Senior Salaries Review Body and its terms of reference can be found in its latest report at the following website:
www.ome.uk.com/review.cfm?body=4
The Department and its agencies also operate a scheme which allows managers to recognise outstanding contributions in particularly demanding situations. These in-year non-consolidated performance payments (IYNCPPs) for the past five years are shown in the following table. The growth in payments over the last three years is related to the abolition of pay flexibilities in the Department's 2006 Reward Strategy and the scheme is currently under review.
The Department operates a long service award scheme—a reward of either a monetary nature or special leave, which is given to staff in recognition of having served for more than 20 years. The figures available for the monetary payments are presented as follows. The information about leave taken instead of payment is not held centrally and would incur disproportional cost to establish.
2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 £ Number £ Number £ Number £ Number £ Number IYNCPPs 420,720.92 555 351,886.09 405 326,897.99 256 486,257.55 457 709,386.14 786 Long service award 4,200.00 21 3,200.00 15 3,200.00 16 3,000.00 15 2,400.00 12 Total 424,920.92 576 355,086.09 420 330,097.99 272 489,257.55 472 711,786.14 798
The Department runs a child care voucher scheme and a cycle to work scheme.
Overall staff costs and numbers can be found in the Resource Accounts for each year. The websites for these documents are as follows:
2004-05
www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc0506/hc06/0668/0668.asp
2005-06
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_063170
2006-07
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_081317
2007-08
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/DH_089421
2008-09
www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc0809/hc04/0456/0456.asp
Departmental Work Experience
The Department has committed to five places on the New Graduate Internships Programme announced by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills earlier this year.
The Department has placed nine students on the Cabinet Office's Ethnic Minority Summer Development Programme this summer. This offers training placements in Government Departments to high calibre candidates from black and ethnic minority backgrounds or those with disabilities, with the aim of increasing representation from those groups in the Fast Stream and Senior Civil Service.
The Department also regularly takes on one-year placement students and summer students within the analytical community.
In addition, some directorates arrange work experience placements locally. As this information is not recorded centrally, it would incur disproportionate costs to collect all the information requested.
Diabetes
Estimates of primary care trusts' (PCTs) expenditure on diabetes are available from the programme budget returns.
A table which shows the estimated PCT reported expenditure on diabetes for 2007-08 in England has been placed in the Library. It should be noted that these figures do not include prevention expenditure or General Medical Services/Primary Medical services expenditure.
It is not possible to identify PCT expenditure on campaigns to raise awareness of diabetes.
General Practitioners: Training
The number of general practitioner (GP) surgeries that applied for funding and the amount awarded to each practice is not available centrally.
More than 800 GP practices have been granted funding to improve and extend training facilities, significantly more than 600 envisaged at the outset of the programme.
Haemophilia
The Department is not aware of any cases where samples from United Kingdom haemophiliacs have been tested without appropriate consent being given.
Heart Diseases: Health Services
It is the responsibility of primary care trusts (PCTs) to plan, develop and improve health services according to the health care needs of their local populations. PCTs in Cumbria and Lancashire work closely with the Cumbria and Lancashire Cardiac Network to improve the quality of care for those affected by coronary heart disease. This is monitored by the PCTs and the North West strategic health authority in its role of overseeing performance.
Heroin: Clinical Trials
The results of the Randomised Injectable Opioid Treatment Trial are currently being written up by the National Addiction Centre which led this research. Once the report is published, a copy will be placed in the Library.
Home Care Services
(2) what methodology he has used to define highest need in his proposals to give 350,000 people with the highest needs free personal home care; how he has calculated that there are 350,000 people in need of this level of care; what estimate he has made of the average amount to be spent on each person per week under the proposals; how many hours of care each will receive on average per week; and whether he has included in the 350,000 anyone who presently receives any proportion of their home care free of charge.
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has announced that the funding for the first full year would be £670 million. We will be working with stakeholders over the coming months and further clarity on the scope of the proposals will be published in due course. The money for this policy will be met from reprioritised central budgets and we will be working with stakeholders to make sure other services are not affected. We will need to ensure legislation is brought into force to define what high needs will be covered by this announcement in time for its commencement in October 2010.
Hospital Wards: Closures
These data are not collected centrally.
Hospitals: Construction
The public capital budget for the next financial year 2010-11 is £4,822 million (including Personal Social Services). However, full details of the capital expenditure programme for 2010-11 have not yet been finalised, which includes expenditure on public capital funded hospital building schemes.
Budgets for 2011-12 to 2013-14 will be decided as part of the next spending review.
The estimated capital expenditure arising from Private Finance Initiative hospital build schemes already under construction over the next five financial years is shown in table 1.
The capital values of public capital funded hospital build schemes over £10 million under construction (for which information is held centrally) and which will not complete until 1 April 2010 or later are shown in table 2.
Estimated capital expenditure (£ million) Trust Description Estimated completion date 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 Tameside NHS Hospital Foundation Trust Integration of services onto one site Q4 2010 25 — — — — North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust Reconfiguration of Acute Hospital services Q2 2010 12 — — — — Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust Modernisation of Acute Services, including DTC, in Chelmsford Q3 2010 26 — — — — Salford Royal Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust New build and refurbishment at Hope Hospital Salford Q1 2011 53 — — — — Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust Modernisation and reconfiguration from four sites to two at Pembury and Maidstone Q4 2010 82 — — — — Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Reconfiguration of Acute Hospital services Q1 2012 71 71 — — — Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust Rationalisation from two main sites to one at Pinderfields Hospital. Small Unit at Pontefract Q2 2010 29 — — — — University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust Major new build and reconfiguration at University Hospital site Q4 2012 67 68 51 — — Barts and the London NHS Trust Acute site rationalisation Q4 2013 130 130 130 97 — North Bristol NHS Trust Relocation of acute services onto single site at Southmead Q1 2014 105 105 105 105 —
Trust Description Estimated completion date Estimated capital cost (£million) Barking and Dagenham PCT Maternity, Urgent Treatment Centre, Sexual Health, General Practice and Outpatients Q2 2010 10 Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust Making it Better (Making it Better) Maternity and Paediatrics Q3 2011 21 Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust Moseley Hall Hospital (Mental Hall Development) Q4 2010 14 Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Phase 6 Development—New Surgical Unit Q2 2010 34 Christie Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Oak Road Development—New Patient Treatment Centre Q4 2010 19 East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust Women’s and Newborn’s Unit BGH Q2 2010 25 Eastern And Coastal Kent PCT King’s Avenue Development—New Health Centre Q2 2011 14 Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Women’s Services Redevelopment Q4 2010 23 Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust ‘A’ Wards Redevelopment and Associated Works Q1 2011 13 Kettering General Hospital NHS Trust New Women and Children’s Unit Q1 2011 16 Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Clinical Services Reconfiguration project Q4 2010 24 Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust Mental Health Refurbishment 2012 Vision Q4 2012 25 Newham University Hospital NHS Trust Maternity and Newborn Development Q3 2011 18 North East London NHS Foundation Trust Site Rationalisation Q1 2011 17 Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust High Secure Learning Disability Unit for Men Q2 2010 35 Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust Renal Transplant and Medicine Q1 2011 22 Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust Women’s and Children's development Q2 2010 29 Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust Ambulatory Radiotherapy Centre Q2 2010 16 Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust Low Secure Unit Q1 2011 11 Portsmouth City Teaching PCT Portsmouth City Teaching, St. Mary’s Campus Q4 2011 19 Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust Modernisation of Rotherham Mental Health Services Q4 2011 17 Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust Bracknell Spoke Q2 2010 12 Somerset PCT Refurbishment and new build of Community Hospital—South Petherton Q1 2011 13 Somerset PCT Re-provision of Minehead Community Hospital Q4 2010 16 South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust Oncology Project Q2 2011 23 Suffolk Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust Modernisation of Suffolk Mental Health Services Q4 2010 22 The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Institute of Transplant Q2 2011 24 University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust Wythenshawe Maternity Unit Q4 2011 12 Worcestershire PCT Malvern Community Hospital Q4 2010 134
Learning Disability
(2) with reference to his Department's press release of 9 August 2007, Opening the door to a new life for people with learning disabilities, what recent estimate he has made of the number of people still resident on NHS campuses.
The Government are making good progress towards its commitment to close by 2010 national health service residential accommodation (campuses) for people with learning disabilities.
The NHS Information Centre undertake a twice yearly data collection of campus numbers in April and October and figures for April 2009 are currently being analysed. In August 2007, we estimated that there were around 2,100 people living in NHS campuses and by April 2009, there were around 1,000.
The Department invited primary care trusts to bid for capital from the £175 million fund in three stages and expenditure has been as follows:
£ million Stage 1—2007-08 5 Stage 2—2008-09 43 Stage 3—2009-10 52
Bids have also been made for 2010-11 and £15 million has been committed.
A total of £115 million has been spent or committed.
Midwives: Manpower
The number of full-time equivalent midwives in each strategic health authority area in each year since 2005 is set out in the following table.
Full-time equivalent 2005 2006 2007 2008 England 18,949 18,862 19,298 19,639 North East strategic health authority area 1,011 1,003 1,025 1,063 North West strategic health authority area 3,094 3,138 3,111 3,032 Yorkshire and the Humber strategic health authority area 2,047 1,906 1,942 1,947 East Midlands strategic health authority area 1,310 1,294 1,322 1,351 West Midlands strategic health authority area 2,123 2,092 2,171 2,177 East of England strategic health authority area 1,725 1,742 1,806 1,801 London strategic health authority area 3,326 3,442 3,499 3,751 South East Coast strategic health authority area 1,320 1,325 1,382 1,413 South Central strategic health authority area 1,187 1,145 1,255 1,301 South West strategic health authority area 1,806 1,774 1,786 1,803 Note: Figures are rounded to the nearest whole number. Source: The Information Centre Non-Medical Workforce Census.
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Disorder
The provision of services for investigation and treatment of allergy is decided locally by the national health service depending on need. The Department expects general practitioners to exercise their clinical judgment to decide appropriate specialist referrals for investigation of particular symptoms which may be due to allergy.
NHS Direct
The information requested is set out in the following table:
Week ending: Calls received Calls answered Average answered delay (seconds) 9 May 2009 55,125 49,606 30.52 16 May 2009 128,474 120,351 18.44 23 May 2009 119,386 111,942 23.14 30 May 2009 117,332 108,687 26.33 6 June 2009 107,345 97,438 33.73 13 June 2009 109,738 99,925 29.26 20 June 2009 105,460 92,304 53.85 27 June 2009 115,408 93,399 94.45 4 July 2009 163,429 98,735 284.83 11 July 2009 186,058 92,106 473.43 18 July 2009 201,766 84,342 463.79 25 July 2009 176,382 88,423 436.67 1 August 2009 127,184 99,923 126.74 8 August 2009 113,442 95,481 83.27 15 August 2009 112,576 99,184 58.60 22 August 2009 104,152 94,073 45.22 29 August 2009 103,014 95,561 31.56 5 September 2009 109,577 99,218 41.39 12 September 2009 99,494 89,836 40.25 Total 2,355,342 1,810,534 — Note: It should be noted that this information only refers to calls made to 0845 46 47, and not any other services provided by NHS Direct.
NHS: Finance
For 2007 to present, recruitment processes, strengthening clinical governance, information for monitoring, boundary transgressions and special issues in mental health services and remediation and rehabilitation spending are matters for local determination and the information is not held centrally.
For better handling of complaints, the Department collects centrally the number of national health service complaints received, but does not collect data on the costs of handling those complaints.
The last year for which data are available (2007-08), show 87,080 complaints in Hospital and Community Health Services and 45,942 in general practice (including dental).
The approach to revalidation of Health Care professionals is still under development.
The following are amounts spent on preparatory work:
2007-08: £2,503,137
2008-09: £4,284,582
2009-10 (to end of august): £1,950,416.
The National Clinical Audit Advisory Group is an advisory body that prioritises spending on national clinical audits. Audits are funded by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP), which was established in 2008.
In 2008-09 HQIP received £6.3 million from the Department to support the management, development and promotion of clinical audit. The projected budget for this in 2009-10 is £7.0 million.
In respect of Independent adjudication the following are amounts spent on preparatory work for establishing the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator:
2007-08: nil
2008-09: £109,171
2009-10 (to end of August): £114,271.
For General Medical Council Affiliates, the only expenditure so far is the funding of two pilots in London and Yorkshire and Humberside:
2007-08: £400,000
2008-09: £100,000
2009-10 (to end of August): £90,000.
In respect of medical training, there have been no significant costs or expenditure for the Department or the NHS arising from the White Paper recommendations.
For language, testing the policy position is still being clarified in light of European Union directives; therefore, there have been no costs or planned costs.
On future spending, the planned spending for 2010-11 has not yet been agreed and will be considered as part of the standard departmental business planning exercise.
As for 2011-2012, future years are subject to the next spending review, the timetable of which is not yet known.
From 1997-98 to 2007-08 total real terms expenditure in the national health service increased by 90 per cent. (6 per cent. p.a.) and finished consultant episodes increased by 39 per cent. (3 per cent. p.a.).
NHS: Manpower
The number of national health service doctors, nurses, general practitioners (GPs) and dentists is given in the following table. The numbers quoted cover England only. Copies of the “NHS Dental Statistics for England: 2008-09” Report and Annex have been placed in the Library.
Headcount 2007 2008 All GPs1 Hospital and community health care staff (HCHS) doctors and dentists2 Qualified nursing staff3 Number of dentists 2007-08 All GPs1 (HCHS) doctors and dentists2 Qualified nursing staff3 Number of dentists 2008-09 England 36,420 91,790 399,597 20,815 37,720 95,942 408,160 21,343 Of which North East Strategic Health Authority area 1,974 5,145 23,419 1,049 2,009 5,367 24,036 1,108 Of which Gateshead Health NHS Trust — 288 1,048 — — 309 1,095 — South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust — 163 550 — — 173 540 — South Tyneside Primary Care Trust 107 9 307 94 109 8 297 104 Notes: 1 All GPs include GP providers, other GPs, GP registrars and GP retainers. 2 Excludes hospital practitioners and clinical assistants in headcount, most of these also work as a GP. 3 Includes all HCHS qualified nursing and midwifery staff and GP practice nurses. Source: The NHS Information Centre Non-Medical Workforce Census. All rights reserved. This work remains the sole and exclusive property of The Information Centre and may only be reproduced where there is explicit reference to the ownership of The Information Centre.
NHS: Pay
This information is not collected centrally.
There are nationally agreed rates for the remuneration of board members of the 10 strategic health authorities. The authorities’ boards are made up of non-executive board members, who receive remuneration at set rates agreed by the Department, and executive members who are paid under the Department’s Pay Framework for Very Senior Managers.
The Pay Framework for Very Senior Managers also applies to the executive board members of special health authorities, primary care trusts and ambulance trusts, issued by the Department. A copy has been placed in the Library.
NHS: Pensions
The net expenditure projections for the NHS Pension Scheme, used to build up the financial statement and the Budget report, reflect assumptions set by NHS Pensions after taking into account comments from their actuarial advisers, the Government Actuary's Department. The actuarial assumptions for the scheme can be found in the latest full actuarial valuation of the scheme which was published in December 2007. A copy of the valuation has been placed in the Library.
Prescriptions: Fees and Charges
NHS Prescription Services (NHSPS) are responsible for the reimbursement and remuneration of dispensing contractors in England on behalf of the Department. The NHSPS captures information from prescription items submitted by dispensing contractors for reimbursement and remuneration purposes.
The following table provides an estimate of prescription charges for items written in the United Kingdom and dispensed in the community in England, during the latest available 12 month period, August 2008 to July 2009.
Percentage of prescription items where prescription charges were paid at the point of dispensing1 Total prescription charges paid (£000)2,3 August 2008 6.6 37,622 September 2008 6.6 39,835 October 2008 6.1 42,101 November 2008 6.3 37,781 December 2008 6.5 41,961 January 2009 6.4 39,685 February 2009 6.3 36,280 March 2009 6.3 41,777 April 2009 6.1 38,864 May 2009 6.1 37,333 June 2009 6.0 39,419 July 2009 5.9 40,552 Total 6.3 473,250 1 This excludes items dispensed against pre payment certificates (PPCs) as it is not possible to extract this information from other items dispensed where a patient is exempt from the prescription charge. 2 Total income from prescriptions dispensed with a charge at the point of dispensing and from PPC sales. Refunds against both of these sources of income have been subtracted from the reported total income. 3 The ‘total prescription charges paid’ is an estimate as prescription charge refunds included in the calculation of this total may relate to a previous month to that in which the prescription charge was paid. NHSPS payment information captured at the time of processing is not amended as a result of the refund process. Source: PD1 report available on the NHS Prescriptions Services website at: www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/PrescriptionServices/947.aspx and NHS Help With Health Costs Pre-payment Certificate database.
Primary Care Trusts
There have been no recent discussions. Proposals for the reconfiguration of services are a matter for the national health service locally, working in conjunction with clinicians, patients and other stakeholders.
Social Services
We are currently consulting on all of the options considered within the Green Paper, in our Big Care Debate. The Green Paper consultation will run until 13 November this year. More information about the Big Care Debate is available on our dedicated website at:
www.careandsupport.direct.gov.uk
Tuberculosis: Children
The data on the number of paediatric tuberculosis cases in England for 2003-2007 are provided in the following table:
Number of cases 2003 376 2004 445 2005 493 2006 422 2007 534 Note: Paediatric cases are defined as those aged under 16 years. Source: Enhanced Tuberculosis Surveillance, Health Protection Agency
Viral Diseases: Drugs
(2) with reference to the Statement of 20 July 2009, Official Report, columns 583-5, on swine flu, if he will place in the Library a copy of the list of all antiviral collection points in each primary care trust.
Data on the number of antiviral collection points (ACPs) in each primary care trust (PCT) were made available to all Members following the launch of the National Pandemic Flu Service on 23 July 2009. However, this list changes in response to local demand and the list as at 30 September 2009 has been placed in the Library.
In each PCT area, or where demand from swine flu has been very modest across a number of PCTs, they have been asked to mobilise at least one ACP locally. More have been opened to respond to the level of demand from patients and the public for rapid access to antivirals.
Cumulatively from 23 July to 29 September 2009 around 590,000 antivirals have been collected. The breakdown by PCT has been placed in the Library.
Wheelchairs
The Care Services Efficiency Delivery Programme report was sent to departmental officials in February 2008 and the new retail model for community equipment has been shared with local authorities and health organizations.
We have provided assistance to Whizz-Kidz to support the development of a partnership between them and NHS London, in conjunction with primary care trusts and local authorities, to improve joint commissioning and the provision of wheelchairs for children and young adults across London. The resulting lessons and learning from the pan-London project are providing additional information to inform departmental discussions about future wheelchair services.
Cabinet Office
Civil Servants: Influenza
I have been asked to reply.
Civil servants have not been given priority access to antivirals during the swine flu outbreak. We have sufficient stocks of antivirals for anyone reporting symptoms to receive treatment following an assessment through the National Pandemic Flu Service, or general practitioner practices if they have underlying health conditions.
Death
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Letter from Jil Matheson, dated October 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many deaths as a result of (a) heat-related and (b) cold-related factors there have been in England and Wales in each of the last five years. (292446)
There are no official definitions of ‘heat-related' and 'cold-related' deaths. Estimates of the excess deaths resulting from a summer heat wave are calculated only when temperatures remain abnormally high over a sustained period. The most severe heat wave of recent times occurred in August 2003. During July 2006, there were also several days when heat wave threshold temperatures were reached in one or more regions. Table 1 provides the number of excess deaths during these hot periods.
Estimates of excess winter deaths are calculated annually, and are based on the difference between the number of deaths during the four winter months (December to March) and the average number of deaths during the preceding four months (August to November) and the following four months (April to July). It is not possible to say whether these deaths were cold-related. Table 2 provides the number of excess winter deaths that occurred in England and Wales from 2003-04 to 2007-08 (the latest figures available).
Number of excess deaths (persons) Percentage increase in mortality above baseline (%) 4 to 13 August 20031,2 2,139 16 1 to 7 July 20063,4 n/e 0 16 to 28 July 20063,4 680 4 n/e = No excess 1 Final data based on deaths occurring each day in this period. 2 Excess mortality was calculated as observed daily deaths in 2003 minus the baseline (average 1998 to 2002) expected mortality over the same time period. 3 Estimated data based on deaths occurring each day in this period. 4 Excess mortality was calculated as observed daily deaths in 2006 minus baseline (average 2001 to 2005) expected mortality over the same time period. 5 Figures for England and Wales include deaths of non-residents.
Number 2003-04 23,450 2004-05 31,640 2005-06 25,270 2006-07 23,740 2007-08 25,300 1 Estimates of excess winter deaths are based on the difference between the number of deaths during the four winter months (December to March) and the average number of deaths during the preceding four months (August to November) and the following four months (April to July). 2 Figures are based on deaths occurring in each month. 3 Figures for 2003-04 to 2006-07 are final, figures for 2007-08 are provisional. Final figures are rounded to the nearest 10, provisional figures are rounded to the nearest 100. 4 Figures for England and Wales include deaths of non-residents.
Departmental Responsibilities
[holding answer 12 October 2009]: The revised list of ministerial responsibilities, which provides a detailed breakdown of individual ministerial portfolios, will be published on 14 October 2009. Copies will be placed in the Libraries of the House and the Vote Office. In addition, hard copies will be sent to all MPs.
Minimum Wage
This information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Letter from Jil Matheson, dated September 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many (a) female and (b) male employees in the Bolton North East constituency receive wages at the national minimum rate. (291470)
Estimates for the number of jobs paid at the national minimum wage are not available from the Office for National Statistics. Estimates for the number of employee jobs paid below the national wage are available, but only for all employee jobs by Government Office Region, which is the lowest geographical breakdown published by ONS. These estimates exclude the self employed. I attach a table showing the number of all employee jobs earning less than the national minimum wage for the North West Government Office Region.
A guide to measuring low pay and associated articles can be found on the National Statistics website at:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=5837
2008 Government Office Region Thousand Percentage North West (including Merseyside) *27 *1.0 Guide to Quality: The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of a figure, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV—for example, for an average of 200 with a CV of 5 per cent., we would expect the population total to be within the range 180-220 Key: CV<=5 per cent. * CV>5 per cent. and <=10 per cent. ** CV>10 per cent. and <=20 per cent. Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), Office for National Statistics. 2008
Suicide
(2) 10 year age cohort in England and Wales in each quarter in (a) 2006, (b) 2007, (c) 2008 and (d) 2009 to date.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Letter from Jil Matheson, dated October 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent questions asking
1) how many deaths where suicide was the underlying cause of death there were in each quarter in (a) 2006, (b) 2007, (c) 2008 and (d) 2009 to date, in each county in England and Wales. (292322)
2) how many deaths where suicide was the underlying cause of death there were in each 10 year age cohort in each quarter in (a) 2006, (b) 2007, (c) 2008 and (d) 2009 to date in England and Wales. (292323)
Table 1 attached provides the number of deaths occurring in each calendar quarter in 2006 and 2007, where suicide was the underlying cause of death, for each county in England. Unitary authorities in England are not included in areas covered by counties, and there are no counties in Wales. Total figures for the 56 unitary authorities within England and the 22 unitary authorities in Wales are included at the end of Table 1.
Table 2 attached provides the number of deaths occurring in each calendar quarter in 2006 and 2007, where suicide was the underlying cause of death, by 10-year age groups, in England and Wales.
Death occurrence figures for 2008 and 2009 are not yet available in this form.
Deaths (persons) 2006 2007 Jan-Mar Apr-Jun Jul-Sept Oct-Dec Jan-Mar Apr-Jun Jul-Sept Oct-Dec Area England 1,034 1,004 992 898 973 1,082 897 739 North East Tyne and Wear (Met County) 27 18 25 17 23 20 22 14 North West Cumbria 13 15 12 19 12 7 10 5 Greater Manchester (Met County) 54 66 64 45 52 59 59 45 Lancashire 21 19 20 24 31 30 28 21 Merseyside (Met County) 30 34 32 23 21 31 29 23 Yorkshire and The Humber North Yorkshire 13 13 9 9 9 14 7 16 South Yorkshire (Met County) 26 33 28 22 38 29 21 21 West Yorkshire (Met County) 46 37 33 36 42 38 53 37 East Midlands Derbyshire 11 11 12 11 14 13 7 11 Leicestershire 14 12 7 13 8 4 7 4 Lincolnshire 21 16 14 20 15 18 9 19 Northamptonshire 15 12 19 7 11 16 11 5 Nottinghamshire 20 14 17 19 14 10 9 20 West Midlands Staffordshire 11 7 15 10 16 23 15 15 Warwickshire 7 6 12 4 10 10 12 2 West Midlands (Met County) 53 48 46 34 44 56 43 25 Worcestershire 12 12 8 12 8 10 10 11 East of England Cambridgeshire 10 12 11 10 14 13 15 14 Essex 20 25 19 15 28 29 23 11 Hertfordshire 11 18 11 16 15 15 20 11 Norfolk 19 11 16 11 16 13 10 24 Suffolk 13 14 15 12 18 19 21 11 London Greater London 149 156 130 112 115 162 120 95 South East Buckinghamshire 4 7 8 8 4 12 8 3 East Sussex 14 14 10 9 11 11 8 8 Hampshire 21 10 23 21 21 30 16 16 Kent 33 24 36 24 34 36 19 15 Oxfordshire 12 13 11 12 14 6 13 8 Surrey 19 27 18 11 18 19 15 15 West Sussex 9 19 14 21 18 1 11 18 South West Devon 11 15 23 18 15 11 11 6 Dorset 12 6 8 6 5 9 10 11 Gloucestershire 20 9 10 12 16 8 7 5 Somerset 15 12 8 10 10 8 6 7 Unitary Authorities 248 239 248 245 233 286 212 167 Wales 73 59 69 67 67 64 70 53 1 Suicide was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-I0) codes X60-X84 and YI0-Y34, excluding Y33.9 (where the Coroner’s verdict was pending). 2 Suicide and undetermined intent deaths have not been included for children under the age of 15 years. 3 Over the period 2006-07, three suicides did not have a ‘month of death’ recorded at death registration, and were therefore not included. 4 Based on boundaries as of 1 April 2009, following local government reorganisation. 5 Unitary authorities in England are not included in areas covered by counties. Therefore, not all areas within England are included in a county, and there are no counties in Wales. 6 Figures are for deaths occurring in each calendar quarter.
Deaths (persons) 2006 2007 Age group Jan-Mar Apr-Jun Jul-Sep Oct-Dec Jan-Mar Apr-Jun Jul-Sep Oct-Dec 15-24 92 94 80 107 107 90 85 61 25-34 160 161 188 167 176 189 178 129 35-44 273 242 270 234 242 273 233 187 45-54 226 214 218 169 206 242 204 157 55-64 182 169 154 134 156 185 120 139 65-74 92 98 77 74 72 81 66 63 75-84 59 65 58 62 65 58 61 51 85+ 28 28 24 22 24 34 24 13 1 Suicide was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes X60-X84 and YI0-Y34, excluding Y33.9 (where the Coroner's verdict was pending). 2 Suicide and undetermined intent deaths have not been included for children under the age of 15 years. 3 Over the period 2006-07, three suicides did not have a ‘month of death’ recorded at death registration, and were therefore not included. 4 Figures for England and Wales include deaths of non-residents. 5 Figures are for deaths occurring in each calendar quarter.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Letter from Jil Matheson, dated October 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many deaths where suicide was the underlying cause of death there were in each quarter in (a) 2006, (b) 2007, (c) 2008 and (d) 2009 by profession in England and Wales. (292324)
The table attached provides the number of deaths where suicide was the underlying cause of death, for each calendar quarter in 2006 and 2007, by occupational group. Due to the small numbers of suicides in individual occupations, figures are given for occupational groups, which are defined in the Standard Occupational Classification 20001. These figures do not include suicides at ages 75 and over (346 in 2006 and 328 in 2007) as occupational information is not available from death registrations for this age group, or suicides for which occupation was not recorded for other reasons (984 in 2006 and 941 in 2007).
Figures for 2008 and 2009 are not yet available in this form.
1 Office for National Statistics (2000) Standard Occupational Classification 2000 Volume I. Structure and description of unit groups. The Stationery Office: London Available online at:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/about-statistics/classifications/current/SOC2000/index.html
Deaths (persons) 2006 2007 Jan-Mar Apr-Jun Jul-Sep Oct-Dec Jan-Mar Apr-Jun Jul-Sep Oct-Dec Occupational groups Corporate managers 29 31 41 29 25 32 37 15 Managers and proprietors in agriculture and services 42 33 33 35 33 29 21 24 Science and technology professionals 14 21 20 13 21 17 11 21 Health professionals 12 12 7 4 5 4 7 4 Teaching and research professionals 16 26 19 17 22 22 23 12 Business and public service professionals 6 15 16 17 11 14 12 11 Science and technology associate professionals 21 10 13 6 10 6 8 18 Health and social welfare associate professionals 19 19 19 20 17 24 9 13 Protective service occupations 17 8 11 12 15 12 9 8 Culture, media and sports occupations 17 23 19 20 16 15 15 13 Business and public service associate professionals 20 26 22 17 22 29 18 17 Administrative occupations 36 35 46 40 41 44 29 36 Secretarial and related occupations 12 9 10 17 18 18 13 13 Skilled agricultural trades 22 21 19 18 24 23 21 12 Skilled metal and electrical trades 69 36 41 51 57 48 57 37 Skilled construction and building trades 85 69 69 66 84 94 82 55 Textiles, printing and other skilled trades 21 27 20 19 21 25 19 21 Caring personal service occupations 26 27 35 28 20 31 20 19 Leisure and other personal service occupations 14 19 15 12 16 13 14 6 Sales and customer services occupations 36 31 24 21 30 43 24 23 Process, plant and machine operatives 49 35 46 45 43 49 43 31 Transport and mobile machine drivers and operatives 62 54 55 54 48 55 46 45 Elementary trades, plant and storage related occupations 71 70 76 71 54 72 78 53 Elementary administration and service occupations 53 64 55 38 45 68 61 33 1 Suicide was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes X60-X84 and Y10-Y34, excluding Y33.9 (where the Coroner's verdict was pending). 2 Suicide and undetermined intent deaths have not been included for children under the age of 15 years. 3 Over the period 2006-07, three suicides did not have a ‘month of death' recorded at death registration, and were therefore not included. 4 The sub-major groupings of the Standard Occupation Classification 2000 have been used in this analysis. Sales Occupations and Customer Services Occupations have been amalgamated to avoid disclosure due to small numbers. 5 Occupation is not coded at death for individuals over the age of 74, thus suicides for individuals over the age of 74 are not included. 6 Figures are for deaths occurring in each calendar quarter.
Business, Innovation and Skills
Broadband
The delivery of the universal service commitment (USC) will be carried out by the Network Design and Procurement Company. We hope to appoint the chief executive of this company in the autumn, who will then work to begin delivery as soon as possible. Once established, the Government will ensure appropriate monitoring of delivery, primarily through a steering board which the company will report to.
Broadband: Rural Areas
All of BT's exchanges are broadband enabled (DSL). Recent research published by the independent regulator Ofcom (Communications Market Report, August 2009) shows that 99.92 per cent. of households in rural UK are linked to a broadband enabled exchange. However, some households will be unable to receive broadband for various network reasons, for example the distance of the household from the exchange.
The Department does not currently carry out any monitoring of bandwidth speeds available in rural areas. However, the independent telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, have published the broadband speed Code of Practice which all major internet service providers have signed up to, and have also recently published research on broadband speeds. The Code of Practice can be found at
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/features/bbcode.
The broadband speed research can be found at
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/features/broadbandspeedsjy.
The proposed arms-length body, the Network and Design and Procurement Company, will be responsible for identifying any barriers to the delivery of the universal service commitment across the UK, on behalf of Government. We hope to appoint a chief executive of this body in the autumn, and work will begin on the analysis later in the year.
Business Link
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: The figures refer to the lead time (the time lapse between original inquiry and the health check) for businesses requesting a health check on 26 August. Typically, across all regions an initial telephone conversation will result in those identified as being urgent cases being offered an early meeting with an adviser.
These data indicate that urgent cases are likely to be visited within a week with less urgent cases taking anything up to 17 calendar days on average, albeit this is dependent on the level of demand and client availability. The average lead time is likely to be less than 10 days across the RDA network.
RDA Average length of time it takes Business Link to carry out a health check from the original business inquiry (as at 26 August 2009) AWM The health checks are categorised at different levels of Intensive Assistance as follows; Level 2—The average number of calendar days to deliver a level 2 Intensive Assist (which is the referral for a Business Account Manager) is 8.6 days since 1 April 2009. Level 3—The average number of calendar days to deliver a Level 3 Intensive Assist (which is the referral for an Adviser) is 16.5 days. Note: Some of the time lags are dependent upon client availability as much as adviser availability. EEDA 24 hours for call back. Up to five working days for a visit but will respond sooner if urgent. EMDA Adviser appointment lead times remain at an average of eight calendar days. Urgent cases are prioritised. LDA Adviser appointment lead time continues at 10 working days, with a triage process involving telephone diagnostics and local adviser surgeries for more urgent needs. NWDA There is a significant variance in this depending on the availability of the customer to meet and the complexity of the Action Plan subsequently developed. We provide contact between same day and up to two working days on average. The Health Check activity meeting may then be scheduled from within 48 hours or up to two weeks ahead. ONE Lead times (mean average for stated time period): 7 August 2009 to 26 August 2009—7.6 calendar days SEEDA Across the region’s six Business Link Providers, the average adviser lead-time is seven working days, with urgent requests met in one-two working days whenever possible. SWRDA For urgent cases, a fast track route is available to speak to an adviser directly on the same day and have an appointment within one week maximum. Average lead-times vary from 7.5 calendar days in the north and east zones of the region to 17 calendar days in the southern zone. YF Initial pre-filtering takes place at the time that the inquiry is taken. Urgent requests are dealt with within 24 hours and a health check can often be done within two-three working days of the initial inquiry being made. A typical enquiry will normally be responded to within 48 hours and an appointment made that will be at the customer’s earliest convenience. This would normally be within a week to 10 working days.
Business: Government Assistance
50 per cent. guarantees have been agreed on loan portfolios from Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS), National Westminster Bank plc (NatWest), and Lloyds TSB Bank plc and Lloyds TSB Scotland plc (Lloyds Banking Group) in respect of portfolios of loans that will enable RBS, NatWest and Lloyds Banking Group to make additional lending to UK companies.
Information on the number of businesses receiving new loans is not available. £2 billion of guarantees have been provided to banks under the Working Capital Scheme to free up regulatory capital for new lending to UK companies.
As a result of action by the Government and the regulatory authorities leading to improvements in capital markets since the introduction of the WCS, the Government have been able to allocate resource provision for the WCS to other measures to support businesses.
Business: Insurance
[holding answer 16 September 2009]: As of 4 September this Government ‘top-up’ scheme has written 64 policies to a value of £10,435,865 in cases where commercial credit insurers have reduced cover. This reflects the targeted nature of the scheme which was designed to provide breathing space for those firms who have suffered a reduction in their credit insurance as a result of the current economic climate. It is part of the Real Help Now package of measures, and has provided targeted, temporary assistance to give companies that require time to talk to their banks and buyers, and then adjust their business models to respond to the current climate, the time to do so. Many businesses have successfully found ways to reduce their need for trade credit insurance, including developing closer relationships with their buyers, which is one of the policy objectives of the scheme.
Business: Public Sector
Supply2.gov.uk seeks to increase access to lower value public sector contracts by publishing them in a single location. As an advertising portal, it does not collect data on the number of bids made by SMEs.
A 2007 user survey indicated that 34 per cent. of registrants had bid for a contract on the site. Since then, the number of registered suppliers has risen from around 50,000 to over 163,000, and the number of low-value contracts from below 16,000 to over 47,000. Around 300 new low-value contracts are published on the site every week. As part of the implementation of the Glover recommendations, central Government spend with SMEs will be monitored from this financial year onwards.
Departmental Information Officers
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills was created on 5 June. Figures are not available for BIS but are available for the former Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI).
The total staffing costs for Press Office staff for the former BERR, DIUS and DTI are:
£ 2008-09 BERR 1,080,000 DIUS 766,000 2007/08 DTI/BERR 1,261,000 2006/07 DTI 1,023,000 2005/06 DTI 992,000 2004/05 DTI 871,000
Figures for earlier years for the DTI and a breakdown of costs for press officers and non-press officers could be provided only at disproportionate costs.
Departmental Manpower
The number of staff in the Department's predecessor (Department of Trade and Industry) in 1997 is shown within the Civil Service Statistics 1997 link ‘Civil Service Statistics 1997’ and forms part of the Civil Service statistics archive
http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/about/who/statistics/archived-reports.aspx
The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) ceased to exist on 5 June when the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) was created from the merger of BERR and the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS).
There are a total of 3,618 staff within BIS as at 30 September.
Departmental Reorganisation
[holding answer 15 June 2009]: For part (a) I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Member for Tottenham (Mr. Lammy), the then Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property at the then Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills on 27 February 2008, Official Report, columns 1645-46W.
For part (b) I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Mr. Simon), the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Further Education at the then Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills on 1 June 2009, Official Report, column 213W.
Branded stationery is ordered on demand by individual business units. Records are not held on how much was unused at the point of the creation of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS). However all stocks of stationery which featured the DIUS branding were recycled when BIS was created.
Departmental Secondment
Secondments to the EU Institutions are a valuable means of building relationships and influencing policy. In recent years, at any given time there have been approximately 12 BIS staff working in the Institutions as Seconded National Experts. In addition, we usually support the participation of at least two members of staff per year in the European Commission’s National Experts in Training Programme, which entails six month attachments. An investigation to determine the proportion of staff who have ever worked on attachment to the Institutions would incur disproportionate cost.
Departmental Sick Leave
The Department does not routinely calculate the number of staff who have been on sick leave for over six months. However, in common with other Whitehall departments we do regularly report our sickness absence. The latest performance report is available at this link:
http://www.bis.gov.uk/sicknessabsence
The Department does not routinely calculate the number of working days lost owing to sick leave taken by staff in the last month. However, in common with other Whitehall departments we do regularly report our sickness absence. The latest performance report is available at this link:
http://www.bis.gov.uk/sicknessabsence