Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he holds the data on the total number of GP referrals handed to consultants for review.

The Department does not hold data in the format requested. It is standard practice for triage processes to operate through locally agreed referral pathways, developed by integrated care boards and providers to reflect local service configuration and patient need.

As set out in the Elective Reform Plan and the Medium Term Planning Framework, we are expanding the use of Advice and Guidance (A&G), a pre-referral service used by general practitioners (GPs) to request quick specialist advice, and Single Point of Access, which encourages consultant-led triage, to help GPs and hospital specialists, including consultants, work together and make the best treatment plans for patients, while reducing unnecessary referrals to waiting lists. A&G requests are distinct from hospital referrals, whereby a patient is added onto a waiting list. A&G does not take away a GP’s right to refer, which remains a matter of clinical judgement.

Between April 2025 and December 2025, there were 15,991,984 referrals for Referral to Treatment services. For the same period, there were 2,687,368 pre-referral advice and guidance requests, 2,485,559 of which were processed, and 1,234,527 have been directed to treatment that is not a secondary care referral at that time, which is 45.9% of total requests. These re-directed patients may otherwise have had to wait for an unnecessary appointment and instead are expected to receive more timely care with earlier specialist input.