Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce NHS backlogs in elective procedures.

An additional £1 billion has been announced for elective recovery this year, further to £1 billion previously committed. The Government has also allocated £8 billion across the next three years to increase activity in elective procedures, which could deliver approximately nine million more checks, scans and procedures. We will establish a new £250 million Elective Recovery Technology Fund to enable cutting-edge technologies increase operating theatre capacity and improve productivity in hospitals.