§ Mr. Knoxasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people are presently employed in the administration of the National Health Service; and what were the comparable figures in each of the past nine years.
§ Mr. DeakinsI refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Hor-sham and Crawley (Mr. Hordern) on 24th March.—[Vol. 928, c.655–9.] I regret that, because of collection and validation difficulties, figures for 1976 are not yet available. For years before 1971, a comparable series cannot be constructed because of the reclassification as administrative and clerical of some staff formerly allocated to other staff groups and because comprehensive statistics are not available for England alone on administrative and 545W clerical staff of former local health authorities.