§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the occasions on which his Department has sought to persuade health authorities to change their decisions following programmes of competitive tendering; and if he will state the consequence in each case.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeWe do not keep a central record of all our communications with health authorities about their decisions on competitive tendering programmes, and we could assemble the information requested only at disproportionate cost. We have intervened only when tendering programmes were unsatisfactory or when there were good reasons to believe that health authorities had taken or intended to take decisions which were not in the best interests of patients.
§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will name, for each tendering exercise of which his Department is aware and which was completed since the last named in his answer of 1 May, Official Report, columns 175–76, the health authority, the hospital concerned and the successful tenderer.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeWe collect this information from the health service only quarterly. No returns have been due since my reply to the hon. Member on 1 May at columns175–76, and so I am unable to add to it.