asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, in view of the fact that the secretary to the Board of Governors of the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases is also a director of London and Provincial Nursing Services Limited, which provides agency nurses to this hospital at a cost of more than £34,000 so far this year, he will investigate under established procedure his duality of function.

The London and Provincial Nursing Services Limited is a non profit making nurses agency. It was set up in 1974 by the Teaching Hospitals Association. It exists to supply qualified nurses to National Health Service hospitals only. The directors are, therefore, largely drawn from the National Health Service and receive no remuneration for their services. I do not regard this as an inappropriate function for a senior National Health Service officer.