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 reduce the number of people waiting for NHS treatment in Surrey Heath constituency.

We are clear that the extent of waits for treatment is unacceptable, and that cutting waiting lists is a key priority for the Government. We have committed to returning by March 2029 to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment.

We are committed to transforming elective services to ensure patients get timely access to the care they need. This includes investing £6 billion of additional capital investment over five years for diagnostic, elective, urgent, and emergency capacity in the NHS.

Between July 2024 and June 2025, we delivered 5.2 million additional appointments compared to the previous year, more than double our pledge of two million. This marks a vital first step towards delivering the constitutional standard.

We promised change, and we have made good progress. As of the end of September 2025, 61.8% of pathways on the waiting list are within 18 weeks, an improvement of 3.3% since September 2024, and the number of waits over 18 weeks has reduced by almost 320,000 over the same period.

Waiting list data is not available by constituency. In the Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, which covers the Surrey Heath constituency, the waiting list size has fallen by over 17,000 since the Government took office in July 2024. The proportion of waits under 18 weeks has now also increased, up from 50.5% of patient pathways in July 2024 to 56.5% in September 2025, a 6.0% improvement.