Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients are waiting over a) 52 weeks and b) 104 weeks for community healthcare services.

We know people are waiting too long for community services and that is why we have set a clear target for systems to work to reduce long waits in NHS England’s Medium Term Planning Framework. By 2028/29 at least 80% of community health service activity should take place within 18 weeks. In addition, in 2025 we published Standardising Community Health Services which provides an overview of the core community health services, with further detail published in February 2026.

As of January 2026, there were 1.4 million people on waiting lists for community health services, with 59,245 people who had been on waiting lists for 52 to 104 weeks, and 30,946 people who had been on waiting lists for over 104 weeks.