§ Mr. Menzies CampbellTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many serving medical officers in each specialty are not fully fit for deployment; for what reasons; and if he will make a statement. [149892]
192Wexpenditure was in his Department for the financial years (a) 1996–97, (b) 1997–98, (c) 1998–99 and (d) 1999–2000 and what the planned expenditure and breakdown of expenditure for 2000–01 is on (i) public opinion research,(ii)television, radio and newspaper advertising and (iii)direct mail. [149261]
§ Dr.Moonie[holding answers 8 February 2001]: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 2000, Official Report, column 135W,to the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Mr.Loughton)on a similar subject. The information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, excluding recruitment costs, the table gives details of expenditure against areas identified.
§ Dr. Moonie[holding answer 13 February 2001]: The medical downgrading categorisation system with the armed forces covers a wide range of different levels of medical downgrading. Personnel recorded as medically downgraded may still, therefore, be capable of undertaking their full duties, albeit with restrictions, for example to their geographical location. To give an indication of this, of the 42 Army personnel included in the totals, only seven are assessed to be undeployable. Against this background, the number of medical officers, including trainees, who are medically precluded from unlimited deployment is shown by speciality. The particular nature of medical downgrading could not be provided without disproportionate effort.
Number of medical officers medically precluded from unlimited deployment Specialty Number Anaesthetics 7 General Medicine 5 Orthodontics 1 Paediatrics 1 Psychiatry 7 Occupational Medicine 10 General Duties Medical Officers 2 General Practice 29 Genito-Urinary Medicine 1 General Surgery 3 Rheumatology and Rehabilitation 1 Public Health Medicine 1 Pathology 1 House Officers 7
§ Mr. Menzies CampbellTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many military medical posts in each of the specialties in defence of secondary care are filled by civilian doctors; what percentage of the establishment figure for each specialty this represents; and if he will make a statement. [149893]
193W
§ Dr. Moonie[holding answer 13 February 2001]: I will write to the right hon. and learned Member and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.