Any allergies? Do you smoke? Are you gay?

SIR – The suggestion that patients should be asked their sexual orientation by doctors will no doubt elicit the concise English phrase: mind your own business. Not that it should matter very much: as NHS England states, not answering will “have no impact on the care patients receive”.

There are two areas of concern, however, that raise the far more fundamental question of liberty. We should not assume that information gathered about us will remain secure, or that it will never be used against us by a less benign government.

The second has to do with the Equality Act. Sexuality is a protected characteristic – which is why the NHS believes it must ask such questions – but so are religion and belief. Is the NHS proposing to ask people about their religious beliefs? Rev David Ackerman

London W10 SIR – Once more, the so-called Equality Act is being cited to justify wasting valuable NHS consultation time with irrelevant questions.

I was a GP, and worked in a sexual health clinic during the HIV crisis in the early Eighties. I had no fear of asking a patient’s sexual orientation – but only when it was relevant to the patient’s medical condition.

Asking at any other time is not only intrusive, it is also unnecessary. I wonder if this is just a cheap way of collecting data to satisfy the mandarins in Whitehall. I support any member of NHS staff who refuses to do it. Dr Robert Mitchell

Poulton-le-fylde, Lancashire

SIR – Perhaps NHS England should advise patients about inquiring into their doctor’s sexuality. Dr Alan Grundy

Surbiton, Surrey