Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the report by the Kings Fund entitled How does the NHS compare to the health care systems of other countries, published on 26 June 2023.

The Department regularly reviews performance of the National Health Service against comparable healthcare systems internationally. The Department has already put in place measures which address issues raised in the report, such as the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which sets out a plan to build a sufficient workforce for the future with £2.4 billion funding over the next five years and the Elective Recovery Plan, published in 2022 to address backlogs build up during the COVID-19 pandemic and tackle long waits for care. In the coming year the Major Conditions Strategy will set out measures to address healthy life expectancy in the United Kingdom and improve outcomes for six major condition groups, including cancer.