Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy that additional NHS funding will be allocated to (a) bringing down joint replacement waiting times and (b) providing support to people waiting for surgery.

Funding has already been announced which will improve joint replacement surgery capacity. This includes £2 billion this year and £8 billion over the next three years to increase elective activity and deliver approximately nine million more checks, scans and procedures. We have provided £5.9 billion capital funding for new surgical hubs to address waiting times for clinical tests, including for patients awaiting joint replacement surgery.

Further information on support for people waiting for elective care, such as joint replacement surgery, will be outlined in the upcoming elective recovery plan which is due to be published by the end of this year.