Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of recent trends in the length of NHS waiting lists in (i) Fylde and (ii) Lancashire.

We are clear that the extent of waits for treatment is unacceptable, and cutting waiting lists is a key priority for the Government. We have committed to returning by March 2029 to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment.

We are committed to transforming elective services to ensure patients get timely access to the care they need. This includes investing £6 billion of additional capital investment over five years for diagnostic, elective, and urgent and emergency capacity in the NHS.

Between July 2024 and June 2025, we delivered 5.2 million additional appointments compared to the previous year, more than double our pledge of two million. This marks a vital first step towards delivering the constitutional standard.

We promised change, and we have made good progress. As of the end of September 2025, 61.8% of pathways on the waiting list are within 18 weeks, an improvement of 3.3% since September 2024, and the number of waits over 18 weeks has reduced by almost 320,000 over the same period.

Waiting list data is not available by constituency. The NHS trust that covers the Fylde constituency is the Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. As of the end of September 2025, the waiting list at this trust stood at 42,630, and 56.1% of these pathways were within 18 weeks, an improvement of 0.4% since the start of July 2024, when it was 55.7%.

As of the end of September 2025, the waiting list at the NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board stood at 248,818, 61.6% of which were within 18 weeks, an improvement of 2.5% since the start of July 2024, when it was 59.1%.