asked the Minister for Health if a management advisory committee and a system of accountable management on the lines envisaged in the 1985 White Paper on the Public Service Serving the Public Better are now in operation in his Department; and, if not, whether he has any plans to introduce such a system.

A management advisory committee comprising the senior officers of my Department has been in existence for over a decade. Its role is to co-ordinate and review progress on the various facets of the Department's responsibilities. While operational responsibility for the delivery of the health services rests with health boards and other health agencies and not with my Department, clear responsibility for specific areas of policy formulation and review is assigned to individual senior officers within the Department under direction of the management advisory committee. Their overview of health agencies in terms of service delivery, finance and personnel policy is based on clear guidelines adopted and reviewed in the context of overall Government policy and the statutory responsibilities of health boards and other agencies.