Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer given by Lord Bethell on 1 December (HL10548), what “associated commercial implications” are engaged by disclosure of the requested non-commercial information; and which of the categories of non-commercial information that were requested give rise to those “associated commercial implications”.

The Department has considered the position of suppliers which were referred to the high priority channel. The disclosure of their names may damage the supplier’s reputation, affecting their competitive position and could have a potentially detrimental impact on their revenue and/or their ability to obtain future contracts.