The charge came from Scottish National Party leader John Swinney, who called on Black to investigate his charge that figures were been ‘fiddled’.
Swinney claimed the Scottish Executive had promised to cut waiting lists by 10,000, but they had in fact increased substantially.
Swinney said an investigation was urgently needed and called for a progress report on an earlier investigation by Black into closed waiting lists, a system under which patients are denied hospital appointments altogether because the lists are already too long.