Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the 111 service in ensuring patients are referred to the correct place for treatment.

The Government is committed to continuing to improve NHS 111 to ensure patients can access the right care first time, only visiting accident and emergency when necessary.

Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 committed to reviewing NHS 111 services and incorporating the recommendations from the review, to make the service more effective, quicker, and simpler to navigate.

NHS England have now completed the NHS 111 review and is working with system partners to implement actions to improve service efficiency, consistency, and integrated delivery to reduce pressures this winter. We are also working with general practitioners and other healthcare providers to improve the patient referral process to primary care.