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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the cost to date is of the pilots and roll out of (a) the chlamydia screening programme and (b) the bowel cancer screening programme; [178879] (2) how much his Department spent in the last financial year on researching and developing screening programmes for the NHS; and what the total amount of underspends was; [178880] (3) what the budget of the National Screening Committee was in each of the last three years. [178881] Miss Melanie Johnson: The United Kingdom national screening committee (NSC) advises the Government on all aspects of screening policy. It does not have a specific budget for the development of screening programmes. Decisions about screening programmes are made by the four UK countries after the NSC has given its advice. Last financial year, the Department spent a total of £17 million on developing various antenatal, child health and adult screening programmes in the national health service. Allocated funds were fully utilised. The Department also funds the NHS research and development programme, which aims to identify NHS needs for research and to commission research to meet those needs. A list of relevant projects and their costs is shown in the table. The total cost of the chlamydia screening pilot was £1.2 million. The total cost of the roll-out of the first two phases of the chlamydia screening programme is £13.5 million. The cost of the English arm of the colorectal cancer screening pilot is £4.75 million. The roll-out of this programme has not yet started. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Title Start date End date Spend for 2003-04 (£) A study to evaluate the most 1 August 2000 31 October 2004 205,544 cost effective way to screen for chlamydia trachomatis genital tract infection, and reduce its prevalence and associated burden of disease A randomised trial of human 1 June 2001 31 August 2007 181,752 papilloma virus testing in primary cervical screening Interventions for mild to 1 April 2001 30 June 2007 147,794 moderate permanent childhood hearing impairments identified by neonatal hearing screening Amniocentesis results: 1 September 2001 31 August 2004 63,565 investigation of anxiety Methods of prediction and 1 January 2004 31 December 2005 18,780 prevention of pre-eclampsia--systematic reviews of accuracy and effectiveness literature with economic modelling Computed tomography, 1 February 2004 31 July 2007 79,824 colonography, colonoscopy or barium enema for diagnosis of colorectal cancer in older symptomatic patients _________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

423 c414W; 178879;178880;178881

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Costs Finance Expenditure Disease control NHS Pilot schemes Screening Research Chlamydia Bowel cancer National Screening Committee

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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