QUESTIONS will be asked in the House of Commons today about the handling of an inquiry into the conduct of a psychiatrist jailed for a series of sexual offences.

Former York consultant Michael Haslam, 69, was jailed last month for seven years after he was found guilty of raping a patient and indecently assaulting two others at York hospitals in the 1980s.

Nigel Pleming QC has been appointed by Health Secretary Dr John Reid to chair a new independent investigation into how the NHS handled complaints against Haslam.

The inquiry will also look at complaints handled regarding fellow psychiatrist Dr William Kerr, who was convicted in December 2000 of indecently assaulting a woman at Ripon Hospital, in North Yorkshire.

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Phil Willis said he would challenge the Department of Health's chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson in the Commons today.

He will ask questions over a separate investigation that Mr Donaldson led when he was northern regional director of health in the wake of complaints against Haslam in the early 1990s.

Mr Willis wants to know why the investigation findings were kept confidential.

He said: "I campaigned at the time for the findings to be made public, but was unsuccessful.

"I think the public now has a right to know why the matter had to remain confidential and, in the light of Dr Haslam's recent conviction, why it evidently failed to get to the bottom of what was going on."

Mr Pleming's investigation was launched in 2002, but was suspended in the light of the criminal proceedings against Haslam.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said details of the allegations against Haslam in the 1990s were not published for legal reasons.

The same reasons may have a bearing on a decision this time, she said.

* The Pleming Inquiry can be contacted by calling free-phone 0800 389 7495.