§ Lord Barnettasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the average length of time taken to pay legal aid bills, and what is the longest time that has been taken to do so.
§ The Lord Chancellor (Lord Mackay of Clashfern)It is not possible to provide details on the longest time that it has taken to pay legal aid bills since the information is not collected centrally and could therefore only be obtained at disproportionate cost. However, both the Legal Aid Board and my department have set performance targets for processing claims. Present targets and performance against those targets is as follows:
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Baroness Cumberlege)Information on waiting times by treatment or condition is not available centrally. Information for in-patient and day case treatment by specialty is given inHospital Waiting List Statistics: England, which is published twice yearly. The latest published figures are for September 1993, and copies are available in the Library.