Fit and Proper Persons Requirement

Steve Barclay Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd May 2018 Written Statements

[The Minister for Health (Stephen Barclay)]

On 8 February 2018, the Government accepted the recommendations made by Dr Bill Kirkup in his report into Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust. This included a recommendation to the Department of Health and Social Care to undertake a review of the fit and proper persons requirement (FPPR). The current scope of the FPPR is to ensure that people who have senior level responsibility for the quality and safety of care are fit and proper to carry out their role. The FPPR was introduced in response to concerns raised following investigations into Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and Winterbourne View Hospital.

Today, I can announce the arrangements for the review, which will be led by Tom Kark QC. The review will commence shortly, with a document review to begin in June and July 2018 and principal evidence gathering to be undertaken in August and September 2018. Tom Kark QC led the team of counsel to the public inquiry into the serious failings in care at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust from 2010 to 2013.

The review will consider the scope, operation and purpose of the fit and proper person test as a means of specifically preventing the re-deployment or re-employment of senior NHS managers where their conduct has fallen short of the values of the NHS. It will engage and discuss these issues with a range of interested parties, including, but not limited to, the Care Quality Commission, NHS Improvement, NHS England, relevant parliamentarians, and patients and relatives. I have discussed the terms of the review with the hon. Member for West Lancashire (Rosie Cooper).

NHS Improvement (NHSI) has led on the health and care system’s wider response to the recommendations made in the Kirkup review. The NHSI board paper published on 22 March sets out NHSI’s response to the recommendations in the Kirkup review, and a further update on progress against these agreed actions will be discussed at NHSI’s next board meeting on 24 May.

The Kark review will aim to report its conclusions and recommendations by autumn this year. The report will be published and I will make arrangements for its presentation to Parliament. A copy of the draft terms of reference, which will be finalised with input from Tom Kark QC, is available as an online attachment.

Attachments can be found online at:

https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-05-23/HCWS713/

[HCWS713]