Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will instruct NHS Improvement to require the Centre for Perioperative Care to consider preventative guidelines on surgical fires as part of the National Safety Standards for Invasive Procedures (NatSSIPs) Redevelopment workstream.

The national patient safety team at NHS England and NHS Improvement have been involved with the Expert Working Group on the prevention of surgical fires, chaired by the Chief Executive of the Association for Perioperative Practitioners, to consider the prevention of surgical fires and will continue to support the development of guidance to prevent these types of incidents from occurring.

The Centre for Perioperative Care have taken on the responsibility for ensuring that the National Safety Standards for Invasive Procedures continue to be fit for purpose. NHS England and NHS Improvement will continue to support their progress on this.