Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 15
55th Report - Reducing NHS waiting times for elective care
Published 19 Nov 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Reducing NHS waiting times for elective care All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
NHSE said that it had made progress in some areas, partly where necessity during the Covid 19 pandemic had driven the adoption of technology. NHSE highlighted the advice and guidance scheme, which allows GPs to request specialist input without going through a full referral. This scheme had seen continued growth with 1.1 million requests expected to go through the system this year. To incentivise the use of this system, NHSE are making payments to GPs who have used the system.30 The NAO reported that NHSE had aimed to achieve 16 specialist advice requests for every 100 patients by March 2023. This target was exceeded in the first month of reporting (22 per 100 in June 2022).31 23 Committee of Public Accounts evidence session on 28 November 2022, Managing NHS backlogs and waiting times, see Q98 24 Q 32 25 C&AG’s Report, para 2.26 26 Q 32 27 Q 34 28 Q 66 29 Q 57 30 Qq 43-45 31 C&AG’s Report, para 2.26 10 Delivery of surgical and diagnostic hubs
From: Public Accounts Committee, 55th Report - Reducing NHS waiting times for elective care (HC 820), 19 November 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifty-fifth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 19 January 2026).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty-fifth report from Session 2024-26
Published 19 January 2026.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with the Committee's recommendations, and for most it says the recommendation is already implemented, with target dates for the rest.
- On diagnostic waits, it says the NHS Medium Term Planning Framework requires all systems to achieve the 1% standard for six week waits, with a plan for reaching it "by March 2029".
- On outpatients, it says it is "essential to transform outpatient care" to reach 92% of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks by March 2029; further details "will be published in due course".
- On digital and data, it sets target dates: January 2026 for a single Planned Care Capital Assurance Board, and April 2026 for programmes to tackle digital maturity gaps, while acknowledging "the system is not where it needs to be".
- On unfunded announcements, it says it "will aim to ensure" announcements come with a delivery and affordability plan "wherever possible and appropriate", and that it will publish an impact assessment for the primary legislation on NHS England's integration into DHSC.