Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the (a) number of hours of worked and (b) actual costs to date, (c) estimated future costs of external consultants in relation to the abolition of (a) HealthWatch England, (b) Health Service Safety Investigation Body (HSSIB), and (c) NHS England.

An impact assessment on patient safety measures has been undertaken and published alongside the introduction of the Health Bill 2026. This document contains the following impact assessments, including sections on current estimates of transfer costs: Abolishing Healthwatch England and Local Healthwatch; transfer of the Health Services Safety Investigation Body functions into the Care Quality Commission; and Care Quality Commission: extending the statute of limitations. The impact assessment can be viewed at the following link:

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/4124/publications