Written question asked by Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 3 December 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 8 December 2003. It was answered by Melanie Johnson (Labour) on Monday, 8 December 2003 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how funding for specialist public health work will be provided to NHS trust laboratories in (a) 2005-06, (b) 2006-07 and (c) 2007-08.

Answer: Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how funding for specialist public health work will be provided to NHS trust laboratories in (a) 2005-06, (b) 2006-07 and (c) 2007-08. [142244] Miss Melanie Johnson: The central funding which supports public health work will continue to be provided to national health service trusts, via the Health Protection Agency (HPA), under service level agreements. Specialist and reference microbiology, for both clinical and public health purposes, is provided by the laboratories of the HPA. The public health outputs of NHS microbiology pathology laboratories will be monitored by the HPA's regional microbiologists and their procedures and practices will be inspected by the Department's Inspector of Microbiology.

Secondary information