§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will set out for each Strategic Health Authority the(a) budget and (b) spending on (i) language support, (ii) interpreting services and (iii) ethnic monitoring in 2002–03.[145081]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe information requested is not collected centrally.
The NHS Plan sets out a commitment to make available a national translation and interpreting service through NHS Direct. NHS Direct is currently involved in procuring a national interpreting and translation service by March 2004. This will provide access for all national health service organisations to a telephone-based interpretation and translation service. Information on the costs of local arrangements for language support and interpreting services cannot be disaggregated in the financial returns
The Department has made a commitment to the collection of ethnic origin information using the 2001 Census categories for all statistical data sets collected from the national health service for England
399WWhile the Department has promoted ethnic monitoring in response to the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 (and highlighted examples of good practice), the collection of ethnic data is largely incorporated as additional data items within existing collections, to minimise both the burden and cost related to the collection of such information on the NHS. This is consistent with the Department's procedures to ensure that the value of all centrally collected information fully justifies the burden and cost it places on those who provide it.