Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect the NHS to meet the Consultant Led Treatment waiting time target.

Demand on the National Health Service hospitals continues to grow, with an increase in attendances to accident and emergency of over 6% in December 2019 compared to December 2018. Despite this increase in demand, the NHS continues to provide high quality care, and is seeing more people than ever before, in a timely manner.

The NHS Long Term Plan sets out our plans for transformation and improvement across the NHS. In the shorter term, the NHS Accountability Framework for 2019-20 outlines how NHS England and NHS Improvement will continue ongoing service development so that performance is maintained and improved, including with the commencement of the redesign of outpatient services.

Further to this, at the Government’s request, NHS England and NHS Improvement is also working with clinical leaders across the system to review our performance standards and will update on this in due course.