HC Deb 26 November 1987 vol 123 c332W
Sir Anthony Grant

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) when he expects to publish the report on low calorie diets by the working party of the Committee on Medical Aspects of Health; and if he will make a statement;

(2) if he will institute an inquiry into the circumstances in which the report on low calorie diets by the working party of the Committee on Medical Aspects of Health was leaked to the press before official publication by his Department; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs. Currie

[holding answer 23 November 1987]: We hope to publish the report "The Use of Very Low Calorie Diets in Obesity" from the chief medical officer's committee on the medical aspects of food policy (COMA) before the Christmas recess. The disclosure to which my hon. Friend refers took place many months ago and involved an early draft of the report prepared some three months previously. Inquiries at the time suggested that it had occurred accidentally.