§ Mr. Healeyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will indicate, for each provincial health district which manages a major hospital with substantial teaching facilities, the cash allocation, the resources allocation working party target and the variance of the former over the latter in percentage terms for each of the years 1982–83, 1983–84 and 1984–85; and, for those districts whose cash allocations exceed their resources allocation working party target allocations, whether these excesses are generally greater or less than such excesses experienced by provincial district health authorities which are not responsible for providing major teaching facilities.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeRegional health authorities allocate cash between their districts and we do not usually collect centrally this kind of detailed information about these allocations. A collection and analysis of data of the sort requested could only be carried out at disproportionate cost. Also, the methods by which district allocations and RAWP targets for districts are calculated vary between regions, making it impossible to compare the position of districts in different regions. This is not widely understood, even within the NHS, and individual district health authorities sometimes make totally mistaken comparisons between their financial position and that of similar authorities elsewhere in the country.