Working practices

41. This part of our report highlights aspects of our working practices which depart from previous practice or which otherwise might be of interest.

42. During 2007, the Committee continued to its practice of publishing written evidence at the beginning of an inquiry. By making available written evidence in one volume, and on the Committee's webpage, the Committee and witnesses are able to view the evidence that has been submitted, often a stimulus to further discussion. Similarly those in the media and the general public who follow our inquiries benefit from having sight of the evidence.

43. As we did last year, we placed on our webpage the Department's response to the PEQ questionnaire one week before our evidence sessions with officials and the Secretary of State. The Department's response contained a great deal of information, much of which was tabulated data. By placing these tables, in the form of a spreadsheet, on our web page we made it possible for people to access readily the information they were looking for, for example about their own PCT's performance.

44. Another practice worth noting is the programme of informal meetings held by the Chairman, and open to all members of the Committee, on certain Mondays throughout the year. As described earlier (see paragraph 35), these informal meetings present an opportunity for a wide range of organisations with an interest in the health sector to discuss current health policy in an informal setting. Organisations we met over the last year ranged from representatives of Royal Colleges to organisations promoting healthy diets for children. Some of these meetings, such as those held with pharmaceutical companies, gave us useful background information to our inquiry on NICE.

Petitions

45. On 19 January 2005 the House approved the Procedure Committee's recommendation that a copy of each petition presented to the House should be sent to the relevant departmental committee. During 2007 we have received a number of petitions, on a range of health-related topics, some of which may prove useful to future inquiries.

Witness feedback

46. The Liaison Committee asks that we seek written feedback from witnesses through a generic questionnaire. The questionnaire asks witnesses to rate the quality of pre-meeting instructions; their satisfaction with the information they received before the session; and their overall experience of being questioned by the Committee. The aim of the exercise is to assist the Committee and its staff in improving the effectiveness of these meetings.

47. Although we did not receive the volume of formal feedback we expected, we were pleased that the feedback we did receive was very positive indeed. Most witnesses expressed satisfaction with their experience of appearing before the Committee. We were particularly pleased to note the comments about the Committee from Mr Bernard Ribeiro, President of the Royal College of Surgeons.[21] The small number of negative comments we received were almost exclusively directed at problems experienced with the amplification system in the meeting room; a matter which, we hope has now been addressed.

Looking forward

48. In the first part of 2008 we will focus in particular on three areas of health policy. We expect to conclude our major inquiry, Modernising Medical Careers, in the spring. In February we will inquire into an area of health policy which has attracted much media and public comment in our Dental Services inquiry, during which we will take evidence from the Department, Ministers, Primary Care Trusts and working dentists. In March we expect to begin a major inquiry into Health Inequalities, an inquiry which will cut across many aspects of health policy and demand much of our attention in late spring and early summer. We also expect to question Lord Darzi on the findings of his review of the NHS which is expected to report in the summer.