Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to increase (a) hospital and (b) social care capacity for winter 2024-25.

December 2024 saw record numbers of people attending accident and emergency, a 7.5% increase on December 2023. Despite this, there were 5% fewer delayed discharges than in December 2023.

The Government will tackle delayed discharges by developing local partnerships working between the National Health Service and social care to make sure people do not spend longer than necessary in hospital, and to free up hospital beds. In the integrated care systems that face the most discharge delays, the Department is working directly with partners across health and social care to drive improvements.