Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the average bed occupancy in NHS hospitals in England per year for the last 30 years for which figures are available.

Data on the average bed occupancy in National Health Service hospitals in England in each year is held from 2010/11 onwards and is shown in the following table.

Year Total bed occupancy General and acute bed occupancy

2010/11 85.4% 87.1%

2011/12 85.3% 86.9%

2012/13 86.2% 88.0%

2013/14 86.3% 88.0%

2014/15 87.2% 89.0%

2015/16 87.2% 88.9%

2016/17 88.3% 90.3%

2017/18 88.2% 90.3%

2018/19 88.0% 90.1%

2019/20 88.0% 90.2%

2020/21 76.0% 76.6%

2021/22 84.8% 86.5%

Source: NHS England

Note: Data for 2021/ 22 includes figures from 1 April 2021 to 30 September 2021.