Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to make compliance with the Model Emergency Department mandatory for NHS trusts.

The Model Emergency Department, published in February 2026, sets out a consistent national framework describing the core principles and pathways of high-performing emergency departments, including a national model for extended emergency medicine ambulatory care. The approach is intended to support improved patient flow, lower waiting times, and reduced overcrowding. The guidance provides a shared national model to support greater consistency and faster decision-making across urgent and emergency care pathways, while maintaining local decision-making.

We do not plan to make the Model Emergency Department mandatory for National Health Service trusts. We have developed a Model Emergency Department in partnership with clinical experts to enable trusts to implement the urgent and emergency care pathways that we know improve the quality and timeliness of care. On this basis would expect those trusts who are able to implement, to do so without the requirement to mandate.

NHS England has asked providers to begin developing improvement plans aligned with the guidance, including demand and capacity modelling, with the aim of supporting consistent implementation from 2026/27.