First SNP correction made following Full Fact request

We’re grateful to SNP MP Chris Law, who deleted a Facebook post that mixed up the number of people and the number of cases on the NHS England waiting list.

He was the first SNP MP in the current parliament that we asked to correct something. We previously asked 12 MPs from other parties to correct similar waiting list errors. So far, five of these have done so, but seven have not.

Our AI tools found a post by Mr Law last month which originally said: “There are over 7 million people on waiting lists in England, more than Scotland’s population.” In fact, as you can see in our explainer, the number of people on the waiting list was most recently reported to be 6.26 million. They were involved in around 7.41 million cases. The figures differ as some people are awaiting treatment for more than one thing.

NHS England began to publish an estimate for the number of people on the waiting list in November 2023. Since then, we have taken action many times to address confusion between estimates for the number of people and the number of cases.