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Dept of Health

Answer

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when the NHS Student Grants Unit will be able to receive email correspondence; [196538] (2) how many claims were handled by the NHS Student Grants Unit in Blackpool in each of the last three years; [196539] (3) what targets have been set for payments of NHS bursaries; [196540] (4) what the average grant for a final year medical student from the NHS Bursaries Unit was in the last year for which figures are available; [196541] (5) how many staff are employed in the NHS Student Grants Unit in Blackpool; and if he will make a statement; [196542] (6) whether there is a dedicated helpline for hon. Members to contact the NHS Bursary Unit in Blackpool; and if he will make a statement; [196543] (7) what the target response time by telephone is for the NHS Student Grants Unit in Blackpool. [196980] Mr. Hutton: Email inquiries to the national health service student grants unit can be sent to nhs- sgu@ukonline.co.uk. A technical problem resulted in the email account going off-line for a short period in the week commencing 1 November, but this issue has now been resolved. NHS bursaries awards in each of the last three financial years are shown in the table. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Number of cases 2002-03 80,260 2003-04 85,685 2004-051 75,684 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 Figure to date. The target for bursary payments for first year students is six working days following course enrolment and correct completion of application form. The average NHS bursary awarded to medical and dental students in academic year 2003-04, the last year for which a figure is available, was £1,825. The student grants unit currently employs 73 staff on permanent or fixed term contracts. An additional 10 staff are employed on a casual basis. Hon. and right hon. Members can contact the student grants unit management team on telephone number 01253 393459. This separate British Telecom line has been set up specifically to deal with hon. and right hon. Member's constituent inquiries. There is no specific target response time for telephone calls. The student grants unit telephone system can deal with 30 calls (in and out) simultaneously and 24 of the unit's staff routinely deal with these inquiries on a rota basis. If no officer is immediately available to deal with an inquiry, the caller is placed in a queuing system until one becomes available. Between January and September 2004, the unit has successfully dealt with 77,038 calls.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

426 c1176-7W;426 c1180-1W; 196538;196539;196540;196541;196542;196543;196980

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Applications Grants Email Payments Members Staff Medicine Standards Telephone services Students NHS Student Grants Unit

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk