Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that 92% of NHS patients are treated within 18 weeks.

Tackling waiting lists is a key part of our Health Mission. The NHS Constitutional Standard for 92% of patients to wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment has not been met consistently since September 2015, and is a priority for the Government. As a first step, we will deliver an extra 2 million operations, scans, and appointments per year, which is equivalent to 40,000 a week, during our first year in Government.

A plan will be published in the coming weeks, which will set out more detail on how the National Health Service will deliver on the 18-week standard.