Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the British Medical Association's August and September 2021 NHS data analysis, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the backlog of non-covid related care.

We have made available a further £1 billion this year, in addition to the £1 billion Elective Recovery Fund. We plan to spend more than £8 billion from 2022 to 2025, which could deliver the equivalent of nine million more checks, scans and procedures. The National Health Service aims to deliver the equivalent of 30% more elective activity by 2024/25 than prior to the pandemic.

We have established a new £700 million Targeted Investment Fund which includes a Elective Recovery Technology Fund of £250 million to enable cutting edge technologies and £250 million to increase operating theatre capacity and improve productivity in hospitals. A further £5.9 billion of capital funding was announced in the October 2021 to support elective recovery, diagnostics and technology.