Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the capped expenditure process on the quality of care delivered by the NHS.

Local organisations are taking action to secure high quality care within their fair share of the National Health Service budget.

The NHS is required to meet its operational standards as set out in the mandate and ensure access to appropriate care for all, in line with the NHS Constitution. It is right that the NHS should consider efficiency savings such as reducing delayed transfers of care, reducing running costs, or reviewing treatments that are of low clinical effectiveness – because this improves patient care overall.