§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Don Valley (Mr. Redmond) of 6 February,Official Report, column 156, on pilot projects to reduce waiting times for hearing aid services, if he will outline the different ways of reducing waiting times which are being tested by the projects, the length of time for which the projects will run and the parameters on which the projects are to be evaluated.
§ Mr. DorrellInformation about the precise arrangements within each individual project is not held centrally. Detailed information about the design of the projects and the parameters for the evaluation is set out in "Provisions of Hearing Aid Services Under the NHS", a consultation paper issued by the Department in April 1990, a copy of which is available in the Library. A copy of a recently published paper "Hearing Aid Services: Evaluation of Pilot Projects (RDD 198/0765)" about the evaluation is also available in the Library. The Department is funding the projects for 12 months.