Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support he is providing to hospitals that have backlogs of patients awaiting emergency operations.

We expect all National Health Service trusts to prioritise patients based on clinical need and then by length of wait. We therefore expect there to be little to no backlog for emergency operations.

We have provided £2 billion to support the wider recovery of elective surgery and increase activity in addition to £8 billion over the next three years to transform elective services. This funding, together with the £1 billion Elective Recovery Fund, could deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million more checks, scans and procedures or the equivalent of 30% more elective activity by 2024-25.