Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his policy is for informing Parliament of serious incidents in the NHS.

Patient safety remains a key priority for the Department. In 2017, the Government restated its commitment to the National Health Service “being the safest healthcare system in the world”.

The majority of serious patient safety incidents which occur within NHS trusts are investigated by the NHS using the guidelines set out in the Serious Incident Framework, and reported to NHS Improvement using the National Reporting and Learning System, which is then used to promote learning across the NHS.

There is no formal process for reporting such incidents to Parliament. The Care Quality Commission takes into account Serious Incidents as part of its inspection role of a trust. It also produces the annual State of Care report which highlights matters of national concern in the health and care system.