To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 2 December 2002, Official Report, column 619W, on private health schemes, if it would interfere with the duties of an NHS body if it allowed the use of beds by private health care funded patients for operations for which there is a waiting time longer than three months for NHS patients. [93150]

It is for national health service bodies themselves to determine whether it is permissible and appropriate to offer private patient services in the light of relevant local circumstances.