§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many (a) officials and (b) Ministers from his Department gave evidence to Commons Select Committees in each of the Sessions (i) 1983–84 and (ii) 1984–85.
Mr. RilkindIn 1983–84 one Minister and 12 officials from my Department gave evidence to Select Committees of the House including the Public Accounts Committee; the figures for 1984–85 were three Ministers and 19 officials. A number of Ministers and officials gave evidence on more than one occasion.
1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985* Argyll and Clyde 5,813 6,458 6,351 4,715 7,137 7.627 7,211 Ayrshire and Arran 4,438 4,364 4,005 4,731 5,051 5,045 5,214 Borders 486 637 411 382 402 255 330 Dumfries and Galloway 2,236 1,897 1,883 2,894 2,871 2,529 2,681 Fife 4,617 4,245 3,974 6,857 6,477 6,127 5,788 Forth Valley 4,742 4,233 3,466 3,893 3,547 2,766 2,745 Grampian 7,848 7,036 7,012 10,651 10,247 9,172 8,642 Greater Glasgow 15,947 15,320 15,776 18,612 19,266 18,749 16,006 Highland 1,188 1,354 1,224 1,703 1,941 1,806 2,543 Lanarkshire 5,303 5,222 5,247 9,110 8,282 7,520 6,983 Lothian 13,007 10,834 9,715 16,953 14,717 13,845 13,381 Orkney 38 48 46 42 56 54 58 Shetland 277 207 204 186 125 140 174 Tayside 5,142 5,333 5,599 5,473 8,112 7,369 6,493 Western Isles 165 199 315 163 107 73 78 * 1985 data are provisional. The increase in waiting lists caused by industrial action in 1982 is now being steadily reduced over Scotland as a whole. Lists tend to overstate numbers of patients waiting for treatment since they include duplicated entries and