To ask the Secretary of State for Health what benchmarking her Department has undertaken of comparative lengths of hospital stay (a) between hospitals in England and (b) between hospitals in England and those in other countries. (130078)

[holding answer 29 March 2007]: Data on length of stay by hospital in England is published annually by the Information Centre for Health and Social Care and can be found at www.hesonline.org. The median length of stay in hospital during 2005-06 was two days. Variation will reduce as the national health service continues to make progress towards its target of 18 weeks between referral and treatment.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publishes annual data which shows that average length of stay in the United Kingdom compares favourably with those in many other countries. This data can be obtained from OECD.