Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department is providing to NHS Trusts to (a) reduce poor outcomes for people with a learning disability during extended waits for care and (b) take steps to mitigate those outcomes.

We are working with NHS England and NHS Improvement to reduce waiting times and address the backlog in elective services through the ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’. To mitigate the risks of extended waits for care, people over the age of 14 years old with a learning disability can receive an annual health check to maintain their health, identify undetected health conditions and ensure the appropriateness of ongoing treatments.