Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what contingency plans he has prepared to ease pressures on A&E services during winter 2015-16.

This year winter planning has been integrated into the overall planning process for the National Health Service with winter monies put into clinical commissioning group baseline funding. As part of planning for the winter, each local system has been asked to implement eight high impact interventions to improve patient flow, the key driver of performance.

To support the systems under the most pressure, the Emergency Care Improvement Programme will provide intensive expert support over winter to drive improvements in performance.