Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to (a) clear the backlog of and (b) reduce the size of waiting lists for elective care procedures.

Local providers have been asked to produce plans for how they will meet the key actions outlined in the phase 3 guidance issued by NHS England at the end of July. The ambition is to recover elective services in October to 90% of last year’s levels for admissions and 100% for outpatients. In September, the National Health Service carried out 80% of the planned hospital inpatient procedures which it delivered last year, as well as 96% of last year’s level of computerized tomography (CT) scans and 86% of MRI scans.

We will do everything possible to tackle waiting lists between now and winter, but this must be done in a safe and managed way ensuring that we maintain the capacity for any further surge in COVID-19 activity.