Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2015 to Question 19827, which authority is overseeing the implementation of NICE Quality Standards; and what steps are being taken to (a) monitor progress in developing Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) services against, (b) implement and (c) promote NICE Quality Standard Q581 on IBD.

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 places a duty on NHS England to have regard to quality standards, published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Quality standards are important in setting out to patients, the public, commissioners and providers what a high quality service should look like in a particular area of care.

NHS England would expect providers and commissioners to take into account NICE quality standards, including for inflammatory bowel disease, in designing services locally. However, the quality standards do not provide a comprehensive service specification and are not mandatory.