To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-9744 by Malcolm Chisholm on 12 August 2004, how many out-patients in each NHS board area were waiting more than (a) 18 months and (b) two years for an NHS appointment, broken down by individual speciality, in the quarters to (i) March 1999, (ii) June 1999, (iii) March 2000, (iv) March 2001, (v) March 2002 and (vi) March 2003. The information requested for NHSScotland is set out in the following tables.Every year NHSScotland undertakes 4 million out-patient appointments, of which around 1 million of these are first outpatient appointments.