Health Committee, 31 Jan 2006

Meeting date: Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Official Report 278KB pdf

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Item in Private

Under item 3, we will consider whether to take in private item 4, which is consideration of the case for an inquiry into infection with hepatitis C following the evidence that we heard this afternoon. We will review that evidence and agree any follow-up action.

In the normal course of events, we would take such an item in private, but I know that Mike Rumbles has an issue with that. We therefore need to discuss whether we should proceed to take the item in private or whether we should leave the committee open.

Even before we had taken today's evidence, I contacted the clerks and said that we needed to debate the issue. This is such an important issue that we need to discuss it in public. On a previous occasion, we discussed the hepatitis C issue in private session. That unfortunate set of circumstances resulted in various issues being debated when people did not know what the committee or individual members of the committee had said.

From the evidence that has been given to us this afternoon, we know how important the issue is to individual people. We owe a duty to those individuals to make it clear where we stand. They have gone out of their way to come here today—I am thinking of the hepatitis C sufferers—and have put themselves forward in public view and we owe them a duty to do the same.

I do not have a fixed view on this matter; each case should be considered on its merits. There has been too much privacy surrounding this issue and that would be compounded if we discussed it in private. The item should be discussed in public.

I agree with what has been said.

I have no strong views and I do not get a strong feeling from the committee. Is anyone vociferously opposed to the issue being discussed in public?

No. I think that we all understand the reasons.

Are we therefore agreed that we will not take item 4 in private?

Members indicated agreement.