Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with (a) NHS England and (b) the Accountable Officer for the Stoke-on-Trent Clinical Commissioning Group on the waiving of fines for the University Hospital of North Midlands Trust's failure to meet targets in the payment by results contract.

Any decision to waive fines would be a decision for NHS England. The Department understands that NHS England and Stoke-on-Trent Clinical Commissioning Group have not agreed to this and currently the standard National Health Service contract terms apply.