§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Secretary of State for Wales whether the Welsh Office makes any inquiries as to the possible membership of, or identification with, any political parties when making appointments to district health authorities in Wales.
§ Mr. Mark RobinsonSuch inquiries are not made. In making appointments to district health authorities our policy is to select the best person for the job. Sometimes a nominee's curriculum vitae includes political affiliations, but more often these are not known.
§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Secretary of State for Wales if he will publish a table showing the percentage increase between the actual outturn expenditure of each of the nine district health authorities in Wales in 1984–85 and their provisional forecast of outturn for 1986–87.
§ Mr. Mark RobinsonThe information requested is as follows:
Percentage increase Clwyd 12.57 East Dyfed 9.32 Gwent 10.63 Gwynedd 7.72 Mid Glamorgan 12.34 Pembrokeshire 13.43 Powys 10.77 South Glamorgan 9.08 West Glamorgan 20.41 The figures for 1986–87 used to produce these percentage increases are provisional forecasts of outturn, since they do not take account of all the income which might be generated locally, possible movements in balances, and a further £13 million which will be allocated for centrally funded developments during the course of the year.
From 1 April 1985 the responsibility for family practioner services was transferred from health authorities 158W to independent family practitioner committees. Expenditure on these services has therefore been excluded from the calculations.
These figures cannot be taken as indicative of the increase in discretionary provision made available to the authorities over the period in question, since they include recurrent revenue provision in respect of centrally funded developments and non-recurrent capital expenditure associated with major capital schemes.