§ Mr. TylerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what is the total annual budget, including all editorial, production and distribution costs, for "The Patient's Charter News", published by the NHS management executive;
(2) what is the total annual budget for the patient's charter unit of the NHS management executive.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThe 1993–94 production budget for "The Patient's Charter News" was £44,000. This excludes editorial and distribution costs since both were carried out in-house, and it is not possible to isolate these costs.
The patients charter unit is part of a branch of the department concerned with quality and consumer issues in the national health service and which has an overall budget for several units. Since the breakdown of this budget is not unit based, it is not possible to provide an accurate annual figure for the patients charter unit alone.