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, published in March 2015, what steps his Department has taken to help ensure that the CQC and the Parliamentary and Heath Service Ombudsman draw up a memorandum of understanding specifying (a) roles, (b) relationships and (c) communication.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in place with the Parliamentary and Heath Service Ombudsman (PHSO). The MoU sets out the framework for the working relationship between the two organisations.

In addition, the CQC and the PHSO are working on a more direct means of sharing final PHSO investigation reports and are drafting an outline information sharing agreement for this purpose which will be published in due course.