Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for a first appointment with a consultant in NHS trusts in Lancashire.

Tackling waiting-lists is a top priority for the Government. We have exceeded our pledge to deliver over two million more elective care appointments. More than double that number, 4.9 million more appointments, have now been delivered in England.

On 6 January 2025, NHS England published the new Elective Reform Plan, which sets out a whole system approach to delivering on the commitment that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, in line with the National Health Service constitutional standard, by March 2029.

Across trusts in Lancashire, 67.1% of people are waiting for first attendance within 18 weeks as of 27^th July 2025. This includes the Lancashire and South Cumbria Community Trust, at 93.8%, Morecambe Bay, at 76.3%, Mersey and West Lancashire, at 73.7%, East Lancashire, at 64.3%, Blackpool, at 61.0%, and Lancashire Teaching, at 60.7%.