Mr. Bernard Gloster:

"Validating the waiting lists" was a very famous phrase used some years ago. Every couple of years, the list would be built up and then there would be pressure on the system to respond to it. A validation exercise would take place and the result would be to get exactly what that lady saw in respect of Beaumont. I shudder every time I think we go to conduct an exercise of that kind that we will write a letter to even one person who is deceased. In 2024, we should be better than that. There is no point in me even trying to explain that.

We are now less likely to do it for the following reasons. In the last year and half, we have concentrated on the time people have been waiting on waiting lists. We have reduced the majority of long waiters and by serious numbers. If we go across the whole waiting list, we come up with the average waiting time. It was ten months and now it is 7.1 months. I am very confident that it will go below seven months. About 16,000 people, though, are still in the category of being very long waiters. This is for lots of reasons.