To ask the Secretary of State for Health what were the financial terms involved in the management buy-out of the management services division of the West Midlands regional health authority; what was the surplus generated by the management services division for the national health service in the last financial year it was within the regional health authority; and if he will make a statement.

The financial and other contractual terms of the management buy-out of the management services division of the West Midlands regional health authority are matters of commercial confidentiality.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guarantees were given to the former employees of the management services division of the West Midlands regional health authority as to their continuity of employment for redundancy and other purposes; and if he will make a statement.

One of the conditions of the management buy-out of the management services division of the West Midlands regional health authority was that regional health authority employees transferring to the new consultancy would transfer with continuous service and on terms and conditions no less favourable than those in their contracts of employment with the regional health authority.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library a copy of the transfer of undertaking regulations which governed the 1989 privatisation of the former management services division of the West Midlands regional health authority; and if he will make a statement.

The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 (SI No. 1794) is available in the Library. The management buy-out of the management services division of the West Midlands regional health authority was regarded as a transfer within the terms of those regulations.