Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has forreplacement for the four-hour A&E target time to improve the efficiency of (a) health services and (b) patient care.

At the Government’s request, NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with clinical leaders across the system to review our standards as part of the clinically-led review of access standards. The recommendations of the review will be carefully studied, and any recommended changes will be based on clinical evidence to ensure the best outcome for patients. We will update on this in due course.