§ Mr. FatchettTo ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the Valuation Office agency carried out a valuation of all property assets in all trusts prior to NHS trust status being granted.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe Valuation Office agency carried out a valuation of all property assets—land and buildings—transferred to trusts in the first and second waves, as at 1 April 1991 and 1 April 1992 respectively. Similar arrangements are in place for the third wave trusts to be established as at 1 April 1993.
Prior to trust status being granted, the results from the periodic capital valuations of all property within the national health service estate would have been available locally to the trusts and health authorities concerned. The periodic valuations were carried out, as at 31 December 1989 and 1 April 1992, by the Valuation Office agency, which also provided indices to update the valuations in the intervening years.
§ Mr. FatchettTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to her answer of 18 February,Official Report, column 303, if, in valuing the assets of a hospital, other than land and buildings, before acquiring NHS trust status, her Department required a common method for each hospital for determining the value of the assets; and what arrangements were made for an external audit to take place before the assets were vested in the NHS trust.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe Department issues instructions which establish how all categories of assets that transfer to a trust should be valued. These instructions are based on existing departmental guidance and standard accounting practice. The valuation of all assets transferring is subjected to external audit.
Accident and Emergency Ambulance Response Times—London Ambulance Service (LAS) 1992 January February March April May June Number of calls responded to within 8 minutes 5,369 3,752 3,139 4,470 4,629 3,746 Percentage of calls responded to within 8 minutes 14 10 9 12 12 9 Number of calls responded to within 14 minutes 25,011 20,959 18,869 23,535 24,369 21,576 Percentage of calls responded to within 14 minutes 64 55 53 63 61 53 Number of calls responded to within 20 minutes 34,712 32,011 29,512 32,943 34,779 32,981 Percentage of calls responded to within 20 minutes 88 83 82 88 86 81 Number of calls responded to within 25 minutes 37,324 35,468 32,885 35,354 37,685 36,686 Percentage of calls responded to within 25 minutes 95 92 92 95 94 90 (Information supplied by the LAS)