Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with NHS England on ensuring that improvements in waiting times are consistent across all regions.

The Department and NHS England regularly monitor regional and trust level variation in National Health Service waiting lists to address variation in performance, so patients can expect to receive high quality care in a timely way, wherever they live.

We are committed to returning by March 2029 to the NHS constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment. Our Reforming elective care for patients plan, published in January, sets out how the NHS will reform elective care services equitably across all trusts and regions.

As an interim goal, NHS England’s Operational Planning Guidance 2025/26 has set the national ambition for 65% of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks for treatment, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement in performance.

To support this improvement across all trusts, there is a robust performance management process in place. The new NHS Oversight Framework 2025/26 ensures that there is public accountability for performance and NHS England’s national and regional teams work with systems and providers to support improvement.

There is a specific process in place to identify, intervene, and support the providers whose performance on elective waiting lists is most challenged, led by NHS England’s national and regional teams.