Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 18
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 ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
NHSE told us that the additional diagnostic capacity it has created has been quickly taken up by growth in demand and that the NHS was also trying to control non-elective urgent demand.37 We were told however that while it was still struggling with waiting times, patient satisfaction rates are around 93% and the expansion of capacity had been welcomed by the NHS. NHSE also told us that there had been issues separating out the amount of surgical work that has gone on in hubs, particularly for those that were part of an adjacent organisation. It also told us that work was ongoing to clarify the exact number of completed hubs as there had been some confusion as to the exact number of hubs delivered, as the NAO report had found that different numbers were being reported to the two different oversight boards.38 NHS England subsequently wrote to the Committee on 6 November to explain the unfortunate circumstances under which 32 Correspondence from the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Health and Social Care, 10 September 2025 33 Correspondence from the Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Care and the Chief Executive Officer at NHS England, 1 September 2025 34 C&AG’s Report, para 2.10 35 Q 64 36 C&AG’s Report, para 2.16 37 Q 12 38 Qq 17-18 11 the management information system tracking Targeted Investment Fund schemes was not aligned with other governance processes. It considered the new National Capital Reporting System would allow a single source of truth in future.39
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.