asked the Minister of Health if he will review the present methods employed by his Department to keep general practitioners fully informed of new drugs.

Various methods are in use and they are under constant review.

Would my right hon. Friend give serious thought to the possibility of making available an adequately financed central information service? Is he aware that although in 1962–63 the drug houses spent £8·3 million on research they spent considerably more than that on the promotion of medicines, which, in the end, the Exchequer must pay?

The question of the sales promotion activities of the pharmaceutical manufacturers is firmly within the terms of reference of the Sainsbury Committee, and I am sure that that Committee will give urgent attention to the matter.