To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make osteopathy available on the NHS. [38324]

Health authorities are able to include osteopathy services within the range of health services commissioned to meet local health needs, if they wish to do so. Availability of osteopathic treatment within the National Health Service depends, therefore, on the decisions taken locally by health authorities and general practitioners about the clinical and cost effectiveness of such services, and the priority to be given to their provision in the light of other competing demands for the resources made available for local health needs.