Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will report the number of patients removed from waiting lists data and the reasons for their removal.

Waiting list management information is published, by week, each month, and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/wlmds/

Referral-to-treatment (RTT) data is published monthly, for the data two months prior, by NHS England, and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/

Whilst we do not currently publish the number of removals from the waiting list for reasons other than a clinical decision, this can be calculated from published RTT data.

Between April 2025 and November 2025 inclusive, official statistics show 14,460,885 removals from the list, 12,391,696 of which have been reported as completed pathways, and the remainder, 2,069,189, or 14.3%, were unreported removals. Unreported removals include patients removed from the waiting list for not attending their first appointment, instances where the provider cannot accept the referral because it does not carry out the relevant procedure, and where patients are removed from the waiting list through validation because they no longer need to be treated. We do not currently publish data on the specific reasons for each unreported removal or at what treatment stage in the pathway removals take place.

The national elective access policy sets out the principles for providers’ management of their waiting list, including the use of two-way communication with patients to ensure that patients are fully informed and aware of any appointments needed for their care. The policy can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/national-elective-access-policy/