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 ensure that the promises and pledges set out in the NHS Constitution on waiting times are met.

The Government’s Mandate to NHS England for 2018-19 is clear that it is to maintain and improve performance against core patient access standards including accident and emergency, cancer and planned operations and care.

The Government expects the National Health Service to deliver the actions set out in the NHS Planning Guidance for 2018-19 in full, as key steps towards fully recovering performance against core access standards. We gave the NHS top priority in the 2017 budget with an additional £2.8 billion of funding for the NHS between 2017-18 and 2019-20, and this was reflected in the mandate.

To provide the NHS with further financial stability, the longer-term plan will increase NHS funding by £20.5 billion per year by 2023/24, the end of the first five years, compared with today.