Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the recommendation of the Royal College of Surgeons in its report entitled, Recommendations for assuring standards in the independent sector, whether his Department has plans to require all new surgical procedures used in (a) the NHS and (b) private health providers to be registered before being offered to patients.

There are currently no plans to require all new surgical procedures used in either National Health Service or private health circles to be registered before being offered to patients.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence provides technology appraisals that indicate which devices are suitable for routine use and which require more supervised evaluation. This applies to NHS care commissioned from NHS or independent sector providers.