§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the total loss to public funds of maladministration of Wessex, West Midlands and Trent regional health authorities.
§ Mr. MaloneThe 57th report of the Public Accounts Committee contained an estimate that some £10 million was lost on the management of the former regionally managed services organisation of West Midlands regional health authority. It has also been estimated that some £20 million of expenditure on the regional information systems plan has not resulted in benefits to patients in the former Wessex region. In the case of Trent RHA, the district auditor issued a report to the authority about the transfer of services to the private sector between 1988 and 1992, in which he stated that there was no reliable method of determining the difference between what the authority had spent and what would have been spent if competitive tenders had been sought.