asked the Minister of Health if any decision has yet been reached as to the disposal of £500,000 which, in accepting the recommendations of the Pilkington Committee, Her Majesty's Government agreed to devote to rewarding merit among general practitioners in the National Health Service.

No, Sir. The Joint Working Party on this has met once. A further meeting was postponed at the request of the profession.

Is it not now apparent that the medical profession do not like this idea of singling out G.P.s to have extra money compared with their colleagues? Is this not a dead letter and, if it is a dead letter, are not the Government prepared to consider using the £½ million, which is not to be used for this purpose, in order to buttress the provision of orange juice and cod liver oil which is so urgently needed?

That is a hypothetical question.

Did not the Royal Commission recommend that this £500,000 should revert to the Exchequer if it were not used for the general practitioners' merit award scheme?

Yes, Sir.