§ Mr. Jon Owen JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to his answer of 1 February,Official Report, column 747, on what grounds the information requested cannot be provided by the hospitals; and on what grounds the consent of GPs is necessary.
§ Mr. RichardsThe information on waiting times requested is routinely provided by hospitals but, by agreement with the General Medical Services Committee (Wales), data identifying individual GPs or GP practices are not issued or published without their individual consent. As information on average waiting times by general practitioner practice is not regularly published, no steps have been taken to obtain the necessary consents for such publication. To provide the requested information would therefore entail disproportionate costs in obtaining individual consents.