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 help tackle regional differences in access to specialist care.

We are committed to returning to the NHS constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029. Our ‘Reforming elective care for patients’ plan, published in January, sets out how the NHS will reform elective care services equitably and inclusively for all patients.

As an interim goal, NHS England’s Operational Planning Guidance 2025/26 has set the national ambition for 65% of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks for treatment, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5 percentage point improvement in performance.

To support this improvement across all trusts, there is a robust performance management process in place. The new NHS Oversight Framework 2025/26 ensures that there is public accountability for performance and NHS England works with systems and providers to support improvement.

There is a specific process in place to identify, intervene and support the providers whose performance on elective waiting lists is most challenged, led by NHS England national and regional teams.

NHS England is also providing further targeted support through the Further Faster 20 programme, working with 20 trusts in areas of high economic inactivity to help rapidly reduce waiting times and support people returning to the workforce.