Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients waited more than six weeks for (a) an initial NHS hearing assessment and (b) a follow-up NHS hearing aid assessment in each of the last five years.

The information is not collected in the requested format.

The diagnostic waiting time standard is that 99% of National Health Service diagnostic tests should be carried out within a maximum of six weeks of referral. The latest performance data show that in February 2018 the standard for audiology assessment tests was not met with 2.0% of patients waiting six weeks or more from referral to test.