§ 27. Mr. Whitneyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will consider the introduction of an inspectorate to monitor the operation of the regional health authorities.
§ Mr. Patrick JenkinWhile I do not propose to launch straight into the kind of national inspectorate which my hon. Friend has in mind, I have long been attracted by the idea of a free-standing body with a monitoring and advisory role in relation to the activities and standards of health authorities. As a start, as I said in my reply to my hon. Friend on 11 December 1979.—[Vol. 975, c.578.]—I shall be considering arrangements under which, on an experimental basis in one or two regions, the quality and efficiency of the ways in which health services are managed at district level can be monitored by an advisory group of health service officers rather than by the regional health authorities.