HC Deb 02 May 2000 vol 349 cc53-5W
Mr. Austin

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the breakdown was by ethnic origin of health visitors employed in London by NHS trusts in each of the last four years. [120063]

Ms Stuart

[holding answer 20 April 2000]: The data requested for each of the last four years for which information is available are given in the table:

Mr. Denham

Information on how many speech therapists are employed by region; and how many vacancies there are for speech therapists are set out in the tables.

Notes:

  1. 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest ten.
  2. 2. Total vacancies are the total posts that Trusts were actively trying to fill at 31 March 1999.
  3. 3. Three month vacancies are those posts that had been vacant for three months or more at 31 March 1999.
  4. 4. All figures rounded to the nearest whole number.

Dr. Brand

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many speech therapists are employed by the NHS by region who have special training in communication aids. [120309]

Mr. Denham

The information requested is not available centrally.

Dr. Brand

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many speech therapists are in training. [120307]

Mr. Denham

There are currently 825 National Health Service funded speech and language therapists in training. This figure reflects those who have entered training since 1 September 1998 (the date on which the Department assumed responsibility for supporting new entrants on pre-registration speech and language therapy courses). Students who started their training prior to this date are funded under mainstream student support arrangements, which are a matter for the Department for Education and Employment.