asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will confirm that, if the negotiations regarding National Health Service remuneration for pharmacists in England and Wales were conducted within Committee A of the Pharmaceutical Whitley Council, English and Welsh contractors would have the same rights to arbitration as the pharmacists in Scotland.

If the former Committee A of the Council were reconstituted, it would be for the two sides to agree what provisions, if any, for arbitration should be included in the new constitution.