Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that the private sector is used to help reduce NHS waiting lists for the (a) most urgent procedures and (b) patients with the greatest clinical need.

We have committed to tackling waiting lists and getting back to the National Health Service constitutional standard, that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment, by March 2029. We will use every lever to do this, and independent sector providers have a key role to play.

A new partnership agreement between the NHS and the independent sector was published in January 2025, the first of its kind for 25 years. The aim of this agreement is to ensure that private providers and the NHS work closely together to tackle waiting lists and improve elective services, providing NHS patients with the ability to choose to be treated privately where there is capacity, at no cost to them. The independent sector committed to reviewing their clinical exclusion criteria to ensure that they allow the choice of an independent provider to as broad a cohort of patients as possible. The agreement also set a shared goal to improve access to treatment in the independent sector for the most challenged specialties.

Local systems are best placed to commission activity, considering the patients and providers in their area, and ensuring assets are utilised effectively, and that patients requiring urgent procedures are treated quickly. All patients should be offered a choice of provider at the point of referral, including independent providers where clinically appropriate, and should be provided with information on waiting times to inform their decision.