They are not. I am using this opportunity to set out on the record the reasons why information would be sought.
The Bill is also clear about with whom confidential and commercially sensitive information can be shared. This is restricted to other Government departments, the devolved Administrations and specific NHS bodies and persons providing services to any of these bodies. The information can be disclosed to these bodies only for the purposes set out in the Bill—which I just reprised. The Bill also enables the Secretary of State to share information with trade bodies, and Regulation 11 of the illustrative regulations sets out the trade bodies with whom the Secretary of State might want to share information, and the type of information that he would want to share with them.
The illustrative regulations currently limit the information that we can share with trade bodies to aggregated data that cannot be led back to a specific company. Furthermore, the Bill enables the Government to prescribe in regulations any other person to whom the Secretary of State can disclose information. The flexibility provided by this regulation-making power allows the Secretary of State to disclose information to other persons who may become involved in payment or reimbursement for health service medicines, medical supplies or other related products, including, for example, in circumstances of regional devolution. Again, it would be possible to disclose confidential or commercially sensitive information to these persons only for the purposes set out in the Bill. We will have further opportunities to discuss these powers of disclosure when we discuss the amendments relating to the report of the DPRRC. In summary, we would not be able to disclose information to bodies not listed in the Bill or prescribed in regulations, so the legislation will restrict to whom we can disclose information.
4 pm
Appeals were a key part of my noble friend’s amendment. The second aspect of the amendment would enable companies to appeal against any request for information or information notice. The Bill already includes a right of appeal for UK producers in relation to enforcement decisions, which I think is what my noble friend is talking about—not so much requests, but enforcement when information was not forthcoming after requests for information. Where a UK producer refuses to comply with a routine or non-routine requirement for information, the Secretary of State has the power, as amended by the Bill, to make an enforcement decision against that UK producer. The UK producer would have the right to appeal that enforcement decision if there were any concerns with the request, as has been set out in both sets of illustrative regulations. As the Bill and the regulations are now drafted, if the manufacturer or supplier did not provide us with the information, we would issue an enforcement decision that could be appealed through the tribunal established by the Health Service Medicines (Price Control Appeals) Regulations 2000.
I hope that my explanation of the Bill and the two sets of illustrative regulations has clarified that the Government have carefully considered the issues of disclosing confidential and commercially sensitive information by restricting in the Bill the purposes for which information can be required and to whom information may be disclosed. I hope that I have also clarified that there is an appeal mechanism in place,
albeit in a slightly different manner than that proposed by the amendment. On that basis, I ask my noble friend to withdraw his amendment.