To ask the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety whether he has plans to introduce fines for people who fail to attend medical appointments at a hospital or with a GP.

There are on average 170,000 missed appointments every year in health and social care trusts alone. This represents a substantial cost to the health service and is an unacceptable waste of scarce public resources. I want to ensure that all options that can help to reduce the numbers of missed appointments and ensure better use of taxpayers money are explored. The HSCB is responsible for performance monitoring of Trusts and I will be looking to the HSCB working with the Trusts to address this.