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Department of Health

I hesitate to stop my hon. Friend when he is in fine flow, but he might like to know, as might Labour Members, that between 1990–91 and 1997–98, hospital activity increased by 31 per cent. In the seven years after 1997–98, it increased by 19 per cent. If productivity had increased in the years since 1997, there would have been 1.4 million more operations in the national health service last year. [Interruption.]