Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation by Dr Bill Kirkup, what plans his Department has to improve the 2014 duty of candour for all NHS professionals.

The Government introduced a statutory duty of candour on organisations in response to the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry, and this is regulated as part of the Care Quality Commission inspection regime. Providers must ensure that they have processes in place to ensure staff are supported to deliver the duty of candour and have a system in place to identify and deal with possible breaches by registered staff. There are currently no plans to make further changes to these regulations.

The General Medical Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council produce professional duty of candour guidance that registered doctors, nurses and midwives must follow.

Tom Kark QC in his Review into the Fit and Proper Persons Test suggested that compliance with the duty of candour should be included in the core competencies of directors to sit on the board of any health providing organisation. NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently considering how best to bring forward this proposal as part of the NHS People Plan.