The NHS 111 non-emergency helpline - which has been deeply criticised following the death of a baby from sepsis - is coming under increasing pressure, latest figures suggest.

NHS England said 111 had seen a "huge rise in calls" last weekend - up between 24% and 30% on the same weekend last year.

Just 79.9% of calls were answered within 60 seconds - against a target of 95%.

NHS England said this was because of a huge rise in the number of calls handled by the helpline on Saturday and Sunday.

The number of emergency admissions to English hospitals has also risen compared to last week, while A&E attendances are also up.

Richard Barker, interim national director of commissioning operations for NHS England, said: "As planned for, the recent bad weather has brought a sharp increase in A&E attendances and emergency admissions.

"Despite this, A&E performance remains steady.

"The pressures remain very real, however, and we don't expect those to abate in the run-up to Spring.

"This is reflected in the huge rise in calls faced by NHS 111 last weekend - up between 24% and 30% on the same weekend last year. Despite this, our frontline staff are doing a remarkable job as they continue to provide high-quality services to patients."

The latest data shows that, across England, there were 338,287 A&E attendances this week at trusts with a major A&E department, up almost 20,000 compared with 318,442 in the previous week.

There were also 94,804 emergency admissions, up on the 90,813 in the previous week.

There were 290,783 calls to 111 in the week ending January 24, a 13% increase on the 257,497 in the previous week.

The figure is up by 20% on the 241,643 calls handled in the same week the previous year.

Some 66,189 calls were received on Sunday January 24, (a 23% on the 53,822 calls received on the previous Sunday).

Of the calls, 12% had an ambulance dispatched and 8% resulted in the person being sent to A&E.

Meanwhile, levels of flu and norovirus remain low, although the number of people having their flu vaccine appears to be down compared to the same period last year.

On Tuesday, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt apologised to the family of a 12-month-old boy who died following a string of NHS failings, saying they had been let down in the "worst possible way".

He offered condolences to the parents of William Mead, who died In December 2014, after GPs, out-of-hours services and a 111 call handler failed to spot he had sepsis caused by an underlying chest infection and pneumonia.

A report found opportunities were missed to save the little boy's life after his parents were repeatedly told he just had a cough.

Mr Hunt said recommendations relating to 111 should be "treated as a national and not a local issue" and changes would be made to the script used by call handlers.

Call handlers on 111 are not medically trained and follow a set series of questions to identify patients who need further help.