§ Mrs. WiseTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when her Department will reach a decision about a new contract for the national perinatal epidemiology unit; how this will take account of the recommendation by the second report of the Health Select Committee of Session 1991–92, 299W on "Maternity Services", HC 29, that funding be guaranteed for sufficient time to ensure the recruitment and retention for the NPEU of high quality staff;
(2) what steps her Department is taking to set in train the recruitment of a new director of the national perinatal epidemiology unit.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe Department's director of research and development wrote to the national perinatal epidemiology unit—NEPU—on 24 November, stating that he had started discussions with Sir David Weatherall, Regius Professor of Medicine at the university of Oxford, about the appointment of a new director of the NPEU. The firm expectation following this is that the Department will let a new contract with the university of Oxford in regard to the NPEU.
The Department fully intends to follow the recommendation by the second report of the Health Select Committee of Session 1991–92, on maternity services, HC 29.