asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will institute a register of qualified osteopaths.

No. There is nothing to prevent the osteopathic organisations from pursuing the possibility of the registration of osteopathy as a profession supplementary to medicine under the provisions of the Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act 1960 should they so desire. Any other kind of registration instituted by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State would require legislation, which, I understand, would not be favoured by the largest organisation of osteopaths, the General Council and Register of Osteopaths Limited, which considers that its own register established in 1936 provides all that is needed.