Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce waiting times (a) for NHS operations and (b) between admission and treatment at A&E in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Positive work has been delivered within Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust as well as the wider Leeds health and social care economy. Through this, significant improvements have been seen over the past 12 months, including over the winter period. Over winter, these improvements have included:

- A significant reduction in the the number of patients waiting longer than 52 weeks for operations;

- A 10% increase in the number of patients seen within four hours in emergency departments in February, compared to previous year; and

- Zero 12-hour breaches within emergency departments.

In addition to this, further service improvements made across hospitals in the area over the last 12 months have included modelling to predict surges in demand, extra consultant presence in the emergency department and work to discharge patients earlier in the day.