Written question asked by Ian Gibson (Labour) on Wednesday, 9 July 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 14 July 2008. It was answered by Ivan Lewis (Labour) on Wednesday, 16 July 2008 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Primary Care Trusts: Equality

Question: (2) what requirements there are on primary care trusts to conduct local equality impact assessments; and whether those assessments are required to cover cancer services.

Answer: All primary care trusts (PCTs) have a duty to undertake and publish equality impact assessments (EqIAs). These are not centrally collected by the Department. However, the Healthcare Commission has conducted audits of national health service trusts to look at whether trusts have published the required information. Each PCT is required under the equality legislation to equality impact assess their functions, policies, strategies and procedures. The Healthcare Commission when inspecting PCTs will assess the quality of the EqIA which will go towards their annual rating.The ““Cancer Reform Strategy”” was published in December 2007 and has an equality impact assessment which highlights the strategic equality issues regarding cancer which are there to inform PCTs of the issues they should take in due regard when commissioning their own cancer services. Copies of the strategy have already been placed in the Library.

Secondary information