Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to ensure that the NHS England website provides guidance to patients on current waiting times.

Official statistics for elective waiting times, known as Referral to Treatment (RTT), are fully compliant with the Statistical Code of Practice (that is, they meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and value) and are designated as National Statistics by the Office for Statistics Regulation.

The Department receives assurance from NHS England on the accuracy of hospital waiting times. NHS England currently collects and publishes the monthly national waiting times data, carrying out aggregate-level validation checks. Where issues are identified at provider-level, NHS England will work with providers to ensure data errors are rectified. The Standard Contract put in place by NHS England obliges providers to comply with national information standards and data submission requirements. All trust annual governance statements from April 2015 must include an explicit statement on how the trust will assure waiting time data quality, accuracy and risks.

NHS England update RTT recording and reporting guidance when changes are required. The last update was August 2017 and an update is planned by NHS England for the start of 2020/21. New data on waiting times is published every month at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/rtt-data-2019-20/

There is also general guidance available on waiting times on the NHS England web page at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/hospitals/guide-to-nhs-waiting-times-in-england/