Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to address overcrowding and patient delays in emergency departments.

Further to the answer I gave on 16 July to Question 17438, which set out our approach to reducing pressures in emergency departments and ending the unacceptable practice of corridor care, NHS England is now publishing data for the first time to identify where pressure is greatest, and deploying expert teams into the most challenged trusts to improve performance. We are also investing in urgent and emergency care capacity, while recognising that there is much more work to do to reduce pressures and tackle the dangers created by overcrowding.