Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress he has made in meeting the 18-week referral-to-treatment standard in Washington and Gateshead South constituency.

The Washington and Gateshead South constituency is served by the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB). Performance against the 18-week Referral to Treatment standard for this ICB has improved from 68.9% to 70.5% since the Government came to office, and the waiting list has dropped by 11,854.

The Elective Reform Plan, which was published in January 2025, sets out the productivity and modernisation efforts needed to reach the 92% standard by March 2029, which improve patient care in the Washington and Gateshead South constituency and across England. We have set a national ambition that by March 2026, 65% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement on current performance over that period. We are making progress in several areas including demand management, validation of waiting lists, diagnostics reform, including straight to test pathways, and clinically-led pathway reform in priority specialties.