Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral statement of 8 February 2022 on Elective Treatment, what incentives he plans to introduce for providers to tackle the elective backlog.

The National Health Service published the ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ on 8 February 2022. The Government plan to spend an additional £8 billion to support this from 2022/23 to 2024/25.

Funding for elective recovery will be allocated to local areas to support elective recovery, ensuring that we maximise the impact of the additional funding. Provider elective activity plans will be funded as per the aligned payment and incentive approach, with payment linked to the actual level of activity delivered. Further details on payment mechanisms will be set out as part of the planning guidance for local systems.