To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his written evidence to the Health Select Committee of 24 January, whether all strategic health authorities in England have completed and cleared their pre-April 2004 backlog of cases where individuals were wrongly assessed to pay for continuing care.

holding answer 7 March 2005

In total, the national health service has now completed over 10,744 investigations into retrospective funding for continuing care. Nationwide, there are only 15 outstanding cases that were logged before 1 April 2004. Their delay has been due to a number of reasons such as staff sickness, problems with locating notes from the independent sector and new information being made available. In addition, the review of some of these cases was delayed at the request of the patient or the patient's representative. The Department is working closely with strategic health authorities to ensure that these cases are completed as soon as possible.