§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what are the administrative costs of running the headquarters of each regional health authority in England including staffing and maintenance costs but excluding service delivery functions such as ambulance and blood transfusion services.
§ Mr. Dorrell[holding answer 5 February 1991]: Figures derived from the 1989–90 annual accounts of the regional and district health authorities in England are shown in the table. Regions are managed in an integrated way and it would be misleading to interpret regional health authority data in isolation from that for the districts they manage. The region totals provide a more valid picture.
With the variety of management and support functions provided by regional and district health authorities it is not practicable to exclude those costs at headquarters levels which are more directly concerned with the operational management of service delivery.