§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) whether he will place in the Library the returns submitted by health authorities giving their estimates of the savings made following competitive tendering exercises;
(2) what information health authorities make known to his Department about the results of competitive tendering exercises beyond the service tendered, the hospital concerned, the successful tenderer and the estimated saving, respectively.
518W
§ Mr. WhitneyThe quarterly reports from regional health authorities contain details of tendering exercises, including the previous annual costs and percentages saved and progress on tendering achieved by each district. It has been our practice to make available information on progress made and savings achieved, based on these reports. I am unable to agree to placing the full reports in the Library because they contain confidential management and commercial information.