Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 3.4 of Oversight of NHS-controlled providers: consultation response, published in February 2018, which providers that hold a licence and meet the accepted definition for NHS control under the new guidance issued by NHS Improvement which goes live from April 2018 have been or will be approached with a request to revoke their current licence and to apply for the new NHS-controlled provider licence.

The requirement for National Health Service controlled providers to hold a licence comes into effect on 1 April 2018. No applications for the NHS controlled provider licence or requests to withdraw a provider’s current licence have formally been considered by NHS Improvement.

NHS Improvement has written to a small number of providers that they believe may meet the definition for the new NHS controlled provider licence and providers that were seen as likely to meet the criteria were also approached during the course of the consultation with an opportunity to respond with their views.

It is not appropriate at this stage to name these organisations as the decision regarding their need for an NHS controlled provider licence is yet to be made and the process needs to run its course.