HC Deb 20 March 1997 vol 292 c808W
Mr. Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many trusts failed to meet the deadline to agree contracts with their purchasers; and how many he expects to go to arbitration. [21081]

Mr. Horam

Information on the number of trusts which fail to meet the deadline for agreeing contracts is not collected centrally because their services may be bought by a large number of purchasers, including health authorities and general practitioner fundholders. It is too early in the contracting round to be able to assess the number of contracts which will go to arbitration, but the numbers are likely to be small.