Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to meet the NHS's 18-week maximum waiting time for planned hip and knee joint replacement surgery.

The NHS Long Term Plan sets out our plans for transformation and improvement across the National Health Service. In the shorter term, the NHS Accountability Framework for 2019-20 outlines how NHS England and NHS Improvement will continue ongoing service development, including for hip and knee surgery, so that performance is maintained and improved, including with the commencement of the redesign of outpatient services. The 2019-20 framework is available via the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/803114/accountability-framework-to-nhse-and-nhsi-2019-to-2020.pdf

Further to this, at the Government’s request, NHS England and NHS Improvement are also working with clinical leaders across the system to review our performance standards and will update on this in due course.