Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how he is measuring the delivery of 40,000 more NHS appointments a week.

Tackling waiting lists is a key part of our Health Mission, and we will deliver an additional two million operations, scans, and appointments during our first year in Government, which is equivalent to 40,000 per week, as a first step in our commitment to ensuring that patients can expect to be treated within 18 weeks.

The Department regularly monitors the number of appointments the National Health Service is delivering using internal management information. Official measurement of the additional appointments will be published at the earliest opportunity.