Lord Winstanleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their present estimate of the cost to public funds of hospital laboratory reagents currently supplied by publicly financed manufacturing units; and what would be the corresponding cost if these materials were purchased from commercial manufacturers.
§ Lord Cullen of AshbourneThe manufacture of various reagents is an integral part of the work of a number of NHS and centrally financed units, and its cost is not separately identified. I regret that the cost of replacing them, where possible, by commercial products cannot be estimated on the basis of information which is available centrally.