§ Mrs. BrookeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions his Department has held with representatives from the Public Health Laboratory Service in relation to the creation of a Health Protection Agency. [84250]
§ Ms BlearsThe Public Health Laboratory Service board and management have been closely involved at each stage of the process and are represented on the steering group, the project group and all of the working groups associated with creating the Health Protection Agency and transferring to the national health service those laboratories that are to be transferred in preparation for its creation.
In addition, the staff representative organisations have been involved in regular trade union liaison group meetings which were established at the outset to oversee the implementation of the HPA. I met with staff side representatives on 13 January 2003 to review progress.