§ Mr. Leslie Huckfieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether information supplied to him by the Junior Hospital Doctors' Association and the Medical Practitioners' Union about abuses of the National Health Service by consultants in private practice will be regarded as confidential; what safeguard will there be for the future careers of those who supply it; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Sir K. JosephI shall certainly treat as confidential any such information supplied to me if so requested. But effective inquiries would, however, normally need to be based on information which could be disclosed to the hospital authority or person concerned.