Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of the covid-19 outbreak on access to cardiovascular care for people in England; and what steps he is taking to tackle the backlog in NHS cardiovascular care.

We have made no formal assessment. The Department continues to engage with NHS England and NHS Improvement to build capacity and reduce the backlog in elective care

In September, the Department announced a further £1 billion, totalling £2 billion this year, to tackle the backlog. An additional £8 billion has been made available across the next three years to reduce waiting times and transform elective services, including cardiovascular care. This could deliver the equivalent of around nine million more checks, scans and procedures.