NHS Trust Boards

HC Deb 18 December 1997 vol 303 cc328-9W

Mr. Hoyle

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS trust boards in the north-west hold their meetings in private. [21683]

Mr. Milburn

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State wrote on 30 July to the chairmen of all National Health Service trusts asking them to ensure that board meetings are open to the public. With the agreement of Parliament, regulations will be confirmed early in the new year making open trust board meetings a statutory requirement. The use of closed sessions will be limited to areas where real harm to individuals or to the operation of the trust would result from an open meeting. Information is not held centrally on the extent to which trusts currently hold meetings in private.