asked the Minister of Health if he will state the cost of advertising staff vacancies in the National Health Service for the most recent period of 12 months for which figures are available.

I regret that this information is not available.

Is it unreasonable to ask the Minister just how much money—since the figure appears to be running into tens of thousands of pounds—is spent on advertising for staff who are not normally obtainable for the Health Service, because of the Minister's miserly policy?

The figures are not kept separately—

Why not?

—and it would take an undue amount of time to obtain the figures centrally, but the short answer to the hon. Gentleman's question is that generally we have asked hospital management committees to keep advertising costs as low as possible.

In view of the large amount probably involved and the Minister's totally unsatisfactory reply, I beg to give notice that I shall seek to raise this matter at the earliest opportunity on the Motion for the Adjournment.