asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many ambulance journeys were made in 1981; and what proportion of these were emergencies.

The latest available figures are for 1980, when ambulance transport was provided for 20,267,905 patients in England, of whom 8·9 per cent. were emergency cases. Information is not held centrally on how many journeys these represented. They include patients carried by agency services acting on behalf of health authorities and by supplementary services such as the hospital car service.