Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that Accident and Emergency departments in hospitals can meet waiting time targets.

The Delivery Plan for Recovering Urgent and Emergency Care Services was published on 30 January. The plan aims to deliver one of the fastest and longest sustained improvements in emergency waiting times in the National Health Service's history, including bringing down accident and emergency (A&E) wait times significantly over the next year and down towards pre-pandemic levels within two years.

This is supported by additional funding as was announced in the Autumn Statement which provides an additional £3.3 billion in each of 2023/24 and 2024/25.

The NHS is also building its bed capacity to be more resilient, expanding by the equivalent of 7,000 general and acute beds, helping reduce crowding and long waits for admission from A&E. This is supported by work to get patients out of beds faster, including a £500 million discharge fund.