Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Long Term Plan and NHS Planning Guidance commitments for 2019-20, what progress his Department has made on ensuring that, subject to agreement with the Government, all hospitals with major A&E departments test and begin implementing the new emergency and urgent care standards arising from the Clinical Standards Review from October 2019, ahead of full implementation in April 2020; and if he will make a statement.

As set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, an Implementation Framework will be published shortly which will set out the next steps the National Health Service will take to deliver the commitments and the national activity and support available to systems. The Implementation Framework will assist local health systems, who will build on the engagement already taking place across the country, in developing their strategic Long Term Plan implementation plan over the summer. NHS England and NHS Improvement will then publish a national implementation plan in the autumn.

The interim report published in March 2019 set out proposals for field testing. Field testing of urgent and emergency care standards is currently being undertaken at 14 NHS trusts. As set out in the Government’s Mandate to NHS England and NHS Improvement, with the agreement of the Government, NHS England and NHS Improvement will field test potential future changes to access standards following publication of the interim report of the Clinical Review of Standards and implement any new standards. In 2019-20, NHS England and NHS Improvement will continue the ongoing service improvement work so that performance is maintained and improved for cancer treatment and accident and emergency, to the point at which any new standards, proposed by the Clinical Review and accepted by the Government, are implemented.