To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 26 November 2007, Official Report, column 283W, on working parties, what (a) working parties, (b) task forces and (c) steering groups were set up by his Department in each of the last five years. (184807)

The Department has not routinely collected information centrally on working parties, task forces and steering groups. It would incur disproportionate cost to seek to identify this information retrospectively. The survey referred to in the reply given on 26 November 2007, Official Report, columns 263-64W was a one-off project, carried out in autumn 2006 which identified over 200 extant working parties which engaged stakeholders. For a list of those groups and the survey questions I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 14 January 2008, Official Report, column 1009W, to the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley). The Department is planning to improve its information systems so that knowledge of working groups is captured routinely as a by-product of day-to-day work.