§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many immigrant children have gone missing from social services care in each of the last five years; how many of these were suspected victims of trafficking; and if he will make a statement. [Transferred] [77331]
§ Jacqui SmithBased on the information returned to the Department by local authorities, in 2000–01 the number of children that went missing from care for 24 hours or more was approximately 790. The majority of young people were missing for less than one week, while 2 per cent. were missing for over six months. Comparable data for previous years are unavailable, as prior to 2000–01, councils were only required to return data on children who were missing for more than seven days. Provisional data about missing from care episodes in 2001–02 will be available at the end of November 2002.
It is not possible to identify immigrant children from the above data. From 2002–03, councils will be returning statistics on unaccompanied asylum seekers. This information will be available in autumn 2003.
§ Mr. WatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many(a) chiropody and (b) podiatry new episodes of care per head of population there were in each of the NHS regions in each of the last three years. [76305]
§ Jacqui SmithInformation about the number of new chiropody/podiatry episodes of care per 1,000 population for 1999–2000 and 2000–01 by national health service region is shown in the following table.734W
NHS region 1999–2000 2000–01 England 17.3 16.6 Northern and Yorkshire 17.1 16.8 Trent 17.2 7.4 Eastern 10.0 10.7 London 18.3 16.3 South East 12.8 11.3 South West 21.0 21.3 West Midlands 19.3 19.5 North West 23.1 22.0 Source:
Form KT23, Department of Health Statistics Division (SD3G)
From 1 April 2002 the NHS was reorganised with the establishment of strategic health authorities; the old health authorities and regional offices were abolished. Information about new chiropody episodes of care per 1,000 population is now available by Government Office regions for 2001–02 and is shown in the table.
Government Office Regions 2001–02 England 17.1 North East 16.9 North West 21.5 Yorkshire and Humber 17.6 East Midlands 16.9 West Midlands 20.5 East of England 12.2 London 17.6 South East 11.9 South West 20.2 Source:
Form KT23, Department of Health Statistics Division (SD3G)
Further information about patient contacts with the chiropody service in England is available in the publication "Chiropody services: summary information for 2001–02, England". A copy is available in the Library and on the internet at www.doh.gov.uk/ public/kt230102.