§ Mr. WoodwardTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average health expenditure per person was in(a) St. Helens, (b) Liverpool, (c) Manchester, (d) London, (e) England and (f) Wales in (i) 1998, (ii) 1999, (iii) 2000, (iv) 2001 and (v) the quarter to 31 March 2002. [48675]
§ Mr. HuttonExpenditure per weighted head of population is shown in the table for St. Helens and Knowsley, Liverpool and Manchester health authorities, for all health authorities within the London regional office area and for England. Information for Wales is the responsibility of the National Assembly for Wales. Information for 2001–02 is not available until the autumn.
£ Expenditure per weighted head Health body 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 St. Helens and Knowsley HA 594.89 658.59 749.06 Liverpool HA 613.87 736.12 887.35 Manchester HA 664.41 773.81 869.02 London 649.43 764.49 886.12 England 627.77 721.10 825.38 Notes:
1. Expenditure is taken from health authority and primary care trust summarisation forms which are prepared on a resource basis and therefore differ from cash allocations in the year.
2. Allocations per weighted head of population provide a much more reliable measure to identify differences between funding of health authorities.
3. The expenditure is the total expenditure of the health authority and the commissioning expenditure of the primary care trusts within each health authority area. The majority of General Dental Services expenditure is not included in the health authority or primary care
124Wtrust accounts and is separately accounted for by the Dental Practice Board. The majority of drugs expenditure in 1998–99 and a smaller element in 1999–2000 and 2000–01 is accounted for by the Prescription Pricing Authority and not by health authorities.
4. Health authorities and primary care trusts should account for their expenditure on a gross basis. This results in an element of double counting in 2000–01 where one body acts as the main commissioner and is then reimbursed by other bodies. The effect of this double counting within the answer cannot be identified.
5. Some health authorities act as lead commissioners for particular specialties or training which inflates their figures when compared with others and also causes differences between years. Other factors may also distort the figures so the results are not all directly comparable with each other and with answers to similar questions for previous years.
Source:
Health authority audited accounts 1998–99
Health authority audited summarisation forms 1999–2000 and 2000–01
Primary care trust audited summarisation schedules 2000–01
Weighted population estimates for 1997–98 to 2000–01