asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer from Lord Darzi of Denham on 2 June (WA 14) concerning strategic health authorities which underspent on their non-medical education and training budgets for 2007–08, whether the information requested is now available. [HL4554]

Under current arrangements, strategic health authorities (SHAs) receive an indicative allocation of funding for the multi-professional education and training budget (MPET), of which the non-medical education and training (NMET) budget is a component, as part of a bundle of funding. SHAs are free to set budgets and vary expenditure between different priority areas within the bundle, subject to the achievement of necessary performance objectives. In some cases, SHAs may use local flexibility to vary MPET spend between financial years in line with local priorities.

The extent to which the SHAs underspent their budgets for NMET in 2007-08, is set out in the following table.