asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give for each waiting list return since 1 January 1974 the numbers of (a) urgent cases, (b) urgent cases waiting more than a month, (c) non-urgent cases, (d) non-urgent cases waiting more than a year and (e) the total number of urgent cases waiting.

I am sorry I cannot give the hon. Member the information he seeks. For information from September 1983 I refer the hon. Member to the hospital in-patient waiting list summary booklets, copies of which have been placed in the Library. Information, first collected centrally on statistical return SBH203 in September 1975, could be provided for earlier years only at disproportionate cost.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will set out region by region, district health authority in-patient waiting lists, the total population living in each district, the percentage which the former represents of the latter and their national ranking by that percentage;(2) if he will set out region by region, the hospital urgent in-patient waiting list in each district, together with the number of urgent cases waiting more than a month, the percentage the latter presents of the former and their national ranking by that percentage;(3) if he will set out region by region, the hospital non urgent in-patient waiting list in each health district together with the number of non-urgent cases waiting more than a year, the percentage the latter represents of the former and their national ranking by that percentage.

I shall let the hon. Member have replies as soon as possible.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, pursuant to his answer of 25 February, Official Report, column 317, he will list in the Official Report those health authorities which have decided, or are considering whether, to use allocations from the waiting list funds for projects involving the private sector indicating (a) the specialties involved, (b) the cost and (c) the private sector participants; and if he will make a statement.

[pursuant to his reply, 4 March 1987, c. 625]: The health authorities listed have decided, or are considering whether, to use resources from within their allocations from the waiting list fund for projects involving the private sector:

Region	District
Yorkshire	Scunthorpe
Trent	Sheffield
	Leicestershire
	Doncaster (three projects)
North West Thames	Hounslow and Spelthorne
North East Thames	Southend
South East Thames	Hastings
	Bromley
	Dartford and Gravesham
	Tunbridge Wells
Wessex	East Dorset
	Portsmouth
Oxford	Milton Keynes
Mersey	Crewe
North Western	Blackburn
	Barnsley (two projects)
	Bolton
	Stockport
	Bury

Details of contracts are in some cases still to be finalised but on current plans these projects provide for the treatment of nearly 2,900 waiting list cases at a cost of £1·57 million. The specialties involved are ear, nose and throat, orthopaedics (mostly hip replacements), gynaecology, general surgery, urology and ophthalmology.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will state the numbers of operations of each kind that he expects to be achieved in each district health authority as a result of the allocation of the extra £25 million to reduce the waiting lists.

The information is not available in precisely the form requested. I have today placed in the Library full details of the schemes planned by Regional Health Authorities for the improvement of waiting lists and times in their districts supported from the waiting list fund of £25 million for 1987–88.