Dr Julian Lewis: Will the Secretary of State consider my eight-year-old constituent, Laura Giddings, who lost her leg in the Planet Hollywood explosion and who, as I have said before, has been forced to turn to the private sector to obtain a suitable artificial limb? In drawing up new regulations for the private sector, will he consider applying to artificial limbs the criteria applied to wheelchairs so that someone who has to go to the private sector for a suitable appliance will receive the money that would have been spent on a less suitable appliance by the NHS?

[N.B. Frank Dobson, in reply, conceded: "I am prepared to consider any arrangement that would facilitate the little girl's being able to get about as well as humanity can manage now that inhumanity has deprived her of her leg."]