Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the reasons are for the delay in publishing the May 2015 referral to treatment waiting time data for King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; and what action he plans to take to ensure that such data is published as soon as possible.

We are advised by Monitor that King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has developed a referral to treatment (RTT) Recovery Plan that focuses on backlog clearance and validation in order to secure a return to compliance against RTT standards, and a validated waiting list underpinned by robust RTT policies, procedures and systems.

The Trust agreed with commissioners to temporarily suspend reporting whilst this Recovery Plan was implemented and as a result no national reporting against national RTT standards has taken place year to date for 2015/16. The Trust continues to provide commissioners with a weekly snapshot of unvalidated activity and monthly progress reports during this reporting suspension period.

It is expected that the Trust will resume reporting in in November 2015 as agreed with Monitor, NHS England and local commissioners.