To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much public funding has been spent on health in Morecambe and Lunesdale in each of the last 10 years.

Expenditure based on individual constituencies is not available, nor are data prior to 1996–97. The expenditure in Morecambe Bay Health Authority area and Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority area is shown in the table.

Notes:

1.Expenditure is taken from audited health authority summarisation forms and primary care trust summarisation schedules, which are prepared on a resource basis and therefore differ from cash allocations in the year. Figures are given in cash terms.

2.Allocations per weighted head of population provide a much more reliable measure to identify differences between funding of health authorities and primary care trusts.

3.Figures for 1996–97 to 2001–02 have been prepared using gross expenditure figures. Figures for 2002–03 and 2003–04 have been adjusted to eliminate expenditure which would be double counted where an authority acts as a lead in commissioning healthcare or other services.

4.In many health authorities there are factors which distort the expenditure. These include:

the health authority acting in a lead capacity to commission healthcare or fund training on behalf of other health bodies; and asset revaluations in national health service trusts being funded through health authorities or primary care trusts.

Cumbria and Lancashire acting as paying authority for student bursaries.

5.For these reasons expenditure cannot be compared reliably between health authorities or between different years.

Sources:

1.Morecambe Bay Health Authority audited accounts 1996–97 and 1997–98.

2.Morecambe Bay Health Authority audited summarisation forms 1998–99 to 2001–02.

3.Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority audited summarisation forms 2002–03 and 2003–04.

4.Primary care trust audited summarisation schedules 2003–04 for bodies within the above health authority areas.