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Summer Recess Adjournment

I shall touch on a topic mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Pendle (Mr. Prentice). He said that he would not speak for seven minutes, and I promise the House that I shall not speak for as long as that. I want to lay before the House the difficulties I have experienced in pursuing an alleged case of fraud against the NHS. In September 2007 allegations were made to me that a local doctor was passing off his private patients as NHS patients in one of our local hospitals—Arrowe Park, part of Wirral hospital trust. I wrote to the trust to ask for a meeting, which was held in November 2007, when I requested the information held by the trust about its investigation of the fraud. I suggested simple steps that the trust might take to find out whether the fraud was more widespread and involved other doctors. Both my request and my suggestion were refused. In January 2008, under the Freedom of Information of Act 2000, I asked the trust for information about the inquiries that it said it had undertaken. After some delay, the trust refused to give the information. In July 2008 I applied to the Information Commissioner for a ruling that I should have access to the trust's surveys of that case of alleged fraud. Almost a year later—to reinforce the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Pendle—the commissioner turned down my request, so I wrote to the Information Tribunal disputing that decision. The tribunal replied that it would of course receive my application, and that of course there could be a hearing, but if I lost the case, all the costs of the inquiry and the tribunal costs would land on my doorstep. I do not expect the Minister to reply tonight, but I would be grateful if one of her colleagues could look into that matter. Is there not a difference between us as private citizens wanting information under the Freedom of Information Act, and Members of Parliament wanting to pursue—as I am in this instance—an alleged case of fraud in which a national health service doctor is passing off his private patients as NHS patients? In terms of the costs, I think there is a real distinction to be made. I shall pursue the case, although I have no idea what the costs will be. However, I hope that before then the Government will take the decision that people in public positions, such as MPs, who take cases on behalf of the public good, to protect public funds, should be treated differently in terms of costs from the litigious constituents who are to some extent clogging up the freedom of information process.