Dear David, Thanks for emailing me about the risk register.

I wholeheartedly believe that decisions and actions relating to the NHS should be transparent but there are some important exceptions, which are made not because of political scheming but for the safety of the whole nation. The risk register will have scoped out scenarios for what the NHS would do in the event of millions of people getting bird flu, or if a nuclear bomb was dropped on Birmingham, or if there was a UK version of the 9/11 attacks...and so of course they are sensitive and not made public for security reasons. Although its worth noting that the Governments health minister gave an outline of the themes of the risk register in order to be as transparent as possible (which you can read here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/1111280001.htm#1111287000330.) I am extremely surprised that Labour front benchers, many of whom were secretaries of state until two years ago and therefore know full well why risk registers are not in public view, should be stooping to such deliberate misinformation. I hope this explains why I dont think that making risk registers public would help the debate at all in fact its a complete red herring and one which is deliberately designed to confuse rather than inform the debate. However, on the general point of making the NHS more transparent, Lib Dem peers have tabled key amendments which, if accepted, will ensure that this is the case. These include: We made sure that there are much clearer lines of accountability to local authorities and communities, so that clinical experts making the decisions about which health services to provide locally will have to be open about how and why they make their decisions. Foundation Trusts now have to demonstrate how the money raised from private income is being used to improve services for NHS patients as part of their annual report. There is a stronger, clearer line of accountability of the NHS to the Secretary of State and to Parliament. I hope this email has been helpful and dont hesitate to contact me again on this or any other matter. Best wishes, Tim