Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of patients who remain in hospital and who are medically fit for discharge; and if he will make a statement.

The Department has provided £3.3 billion to the National Health Service to facilitate timely hospital discharges during the pandemic, including £478 million for winter 2021/22. We have established a national cross-Government discharge taskforce with the National Health Service and local government to identify long-term, sustainable changes to reduce delayed discharges.