§ Mr. Weetchasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the outcome of the recent meeting held in London to review the United Kingdom-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Agreement of 1975.
§ Mr. EnnalsThe third annual meeting, lasting from 3rd-10th October, of the Joint Medical Committee which reviews the working of the Agreement looked at work during the past year and elaborated plans for co-operation in the forthcoming one. The meeting demonstrated that both sides were satisfied with the working of the arrangements for reciprocal health care for visitors between the two countries and wished to confirm that co-operation should continue to concentrate on the three designated fields of eye diseases, emergency medical services and traumatology and influenza. Within each of these fields specific new co-operative work and further exchanges of specialists and of equipment were agreed, providing a sound framework for useful and realistic progress in the year to come. A Protocol was signed by the United Kingdom and USSR Co-Chairmen of the Joint Medical Committee at the conclusion of discussions detailing the decisions that had been taken and the programmes of cooperative work agreed for the forthcoming year. I am arranging for a copy of this Protocol to be placed in the Library of the House.