HC Deb 27 January 1998 vol 305 c198W
24. Mr. Derek Twigg

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to promote innovation in the NHS. [23439]

Mr. Milburn

Specific measures outlined in "The New National Health Service" to promote innovation include ensuring the NHS locally no longer treats its best ideas as commercially confidential; a National Institute for Clinical Excellence to give new coherence to the clinical effectiveness programme; and a new database to improve access to research findings.