asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many nurses per patient there are in the Yorkshire Region in surgical, medical, and other specialties compared to the number there were in 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977.

I regret that the above information is not available by surgical, medical and other specialties. The following shows the number of nursing and midwifery staff—whole-time equivalent—in the NHS per 100,000 population in Yorkshire for the years 1974 to 1977—inclusive—at 30th September. This information is not available on a comparable basis prior to NHS reorganisation.