Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce A&E waiting times.

Our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services sets out the range of measures being taken to improve accident and emergency waiting times. The plan is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/delivery-plan-for-recovering-urgent-and-emergency-care-services/

Backed by £1 billion of dedicated funding, the National Health Service delivered 5,000 additional core hospital beds in 2023/24, and will maintain this capacity expansion in 2024/25, to support patient flow through hospitals. Accident and emergency waiting times improved year-on-year in 2023/24 for the first time since 2009/10, not including the first year of the pandemic. The NHS Planning Guidance, published in March 2024, commits to further improvements in emergency care performance in 2024/25, with more information available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/operational-planning-and-contracting/