§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to her answer to the hon. Member for Macclesfield (Mr. Winterton) of 24 May,Official Report, column 444, if she will list the names and locations of the 30 projects designed to improve access to primary health care for homeless people; what are the current and projected levels of funding her Department is committing to each of these projects; and what assessment has been made of the level of homelessness in the areas covered.
§ Mr. BowisThere are 29 distinct primary health care projects for homeless people, with one, in Sheffield, having within it a separately identified and separately costed scheme for travellers. The projects have developed in three phases. The third phase was initiated in December 1991 when my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced that £3 million was being made available, over three years, to support new and existing projects. Not all the projects approved in the third phase, which started in 1992–93, were able to start during the financial year; others began towards the end of the year and received only a small amount of funding. The level of funding for most 239W projects in 1993–94 is still under discussion. Information on funding in 1992–93 and 1993–94, where agreed, is shown in the table.
When regional health authorities were invited to bid for funding, they were asked to review the existing services for homeless people in their areas, to distinguish between different types of homeless people —for example, people sleeping rough in shelters and hostels and families in bed-and-breakfast accommodation—to review existing
Primary health care projects for homeless people Funding Region FHSA Scheme 1992–93 £ 1993–94 £ East Anglia Cambridge Cambridge1 — Peterborough1 — Mersey Liverpool Toxteth 16,000 St. Helens Fazakerley 8,000 Northern Durham Durham 6,000 Newcastle Newcastle 5,000 35,000 North East Thames Camden and Islington Camden 2— City and East London City 2— North West Thames Brent and Harrow Cricklewood 4,000 Ealing/Hammersmith/Hounslow Ealing 38,000 Ealing/Hammersmith/Hounslow Hammersmith 14,000 Kensington/Chelsea/Westminster Covent Garden 27,000 North Western Lancashire Preston 17,000 Oxford Buckinghamshire Milton Keynes 19,000 Oxfordshire Oxford 26,000 South East Thames East Sussex Brighton 23,000 Kent Maidstone 10,000 35,000 Lambeth/Southwark/Lewisham Lambeth 153,000 South West Thames Croydon Croydon 12,000 37,000 South Western Avon Bristol 45,000 Gloucestershire Gloucester 15,000 29,000 Trent Nottinghamshire Nottingham 1,000 Sheffield Sheffield 42,000 Wessex Hampshire Southampton 34,000 Avon Bath 7,000 Yorkshire Bradford Bradford 23,000 Leeds Leeds 2— North Yorkshire Peasholme1 — Kirklees1 — 1 Projects approved in principle for 1993–94 funding. 2 Funding for these projects is built into the regional health authority's baseline allocations and is not separately identified.