Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish new standards for NHS leaders.

In 2018, the Government had asked Tom Kark QC to carry out a review of the scope, operation and purpose of the Fit and Proper Person Requirement. The review, which was published on 6 February 2019, made seven recommendations, including to develop specified standards of competence that all directors, who sit on the Board, of any health providing organisation, should meet.

The Government accepts this recommendation in principle, and has asked Baroness Dido Harding, the chair of the system-wide Workforce Implementation Steering Group, to look at how best to introduce new standards alongside other proposals on leadership and development of National Health Service managers, which is set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.