§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) whether he has completed his review of information needs as regards NHS funded activity in the private sector; and if he will make a statement on his conclusion; [35087]
(2) when he expects to publish the key results of his survey of the amount of activity purchased by the NHS within the private sector; and if he will make a statement. [35078]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 11 February 2002]: The Department is working to improve the collection of routine information about National Health Service activity undertaken by the independent sector and is making arrangements to collect data on such activity through NHS management information returns to the Department. It will be some time before information gathered in this way is available for publication.
Validation and analysis of the survey returns from the NHS for the Department's survey of NHS organisations' use of the independent sector, is being finalised. We expect to be able to share key findings shortly.