§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list, by health care provider, for each of the last four years, the number of contracts each health authority had in place, indicating how many of these had been referred for arbitration within the NHS region; and how many were left unsigned by(a) the provider and (b) the purchaser at the end of the year to which they applied, or for 1997–98, at the end of October 1997. [14611]
§ Mr. MilburnThe information requested may be collected at a regional level but it is at the discretion of the regional office and is not authorised or validated centrally.