Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of a seven-day elective service in the NHS on patient (a) care and (b) safety; and if he will publish any such assessment.

The Government’s current plans for ensuring the same quality of care in hospitals on all days of the week are focussed on those with urgent and emergency care needs at weekends and those who are already inpatients. It is for individual health economies to determine if they wish to provide elective care at weekends, for example if they can use more efficiently additional resources that are available to meet urgent and emergency care needs.