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 ensure that the importance of putting quality first is re-emphasised and local arrangements are reviewed to identify any need for personal or organisational development, including amongst clinical leadership in commissioning organisations.

The Department is committed to ensure that services across the health and care system are of the highest quality through ongoing system regulation and oversight.

The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of quality for health and adult social care in England, it uses its powers to provides assurance and encourages improvement.

The new regional architecture has quality embedded into the role and responsibility of Clinical Quality Directors and other regional leads as well as through clinical networks and Local Maternity Systems.

The National Quality Board is reviewing the national model of quality surveillance, specifically the role of Quality Surveillance Groups in monitoring and managing quality issues within local health and care systems.