Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the number of people waiting more than 12 months for hospital treatment.

The restoration of NHS services should ensure that clinically urgent patients continue to be treated first, with priority then given to the longest waiting patients, specifically those breaching or at risk of breaching 52 weeks by the end of March 2021. Continued access to independent sector capacity will help support the recovery and restoration of elective services.

In addition, the Prime Minister has announced £3 billion of extra National Health Service funding to support the NHS this winter, and this includes ensuring the retention of the Nightingale hospital surge capacity and continued access to independent hospitals capacity to help meet patient demand. In the longer term, the NHS Long Term Plan aims to increase the amount of planned surgery year on year to reduce the waiting list. This will be supported by an NHS budget increase of £33.9 billion in cash terms by 2023/24.