Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what research his Department has conducted on the effect on patient care of variable levels of staffing at private care homes at different times of the day.

The Department has not conducted any such research.

The law requires that all care homes must ensure that sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced staff are on duty at all times to meet the needs of users of services.

The Care Quality Commission has a range of enforcement powers it can use to ensure that providers of health and adult social care services comply with their legal responsibilities.