§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will publish in the Official Report a copy of the letter sent by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health to the hon. Member for Norfolk, North on 16 May, together with the National Health Service manpower figures 1979 to 1983 which were attached;
(2) how it has now been established that in 1979 28,000 fewer persons were employed in the National Health Service throughout the United Kingdom and in 1982 there were 41,000 fewer than had previously been stated.
§ Mr. John PattenA copy of the letter—which I sent to my hon. Friend the Member for Norfolk, North on 16 May—has been placed in the Library. The figures for the number of staff employed in the NHS in the United Kingdom quoted in that letter are lower than those previously quoted to my hon. Friend because from 1983 NHS census-based computerised returns have replaced the previous unvalidated manual returns; these allow the elimination of double counting and other errors in the old system. The data for earlier years have been adjusted by reference to September NHS census data for those years to allow for effective comparison with 1983.