Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken in response to the findings of the first set of operational data collected by NHS England on wheelchair services; and what steps he is taking to ensure that short-term wheelchair loans are available for people waiting for provision of NHS wheelchairs.

The national wheelchair services data collection was introduced by NHS England in July 2015 and requires clinical commissioning groups to submit quarterly data on their wheelchair services. Data has so far been published for quarter two and quarter three 2015/16. This is a new collection and therefore does not yet provide an opportunity to draw national or regional comparisons. The vast majority of short term wheelchair loans are provided through charities such as the Red Cross and not via the National Health Service.