Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the geographic variation in the effectiveness of each of the UK's NHS transplant centres for the transplantation of stem cells; and what steps NHS England is taking to reduce that variation.

NHS England assesses providers against service specifications. Of the 46 providers assessed, 41 were assessed to be compliant with the NHS England specification. Commissioners and providers have agreed action plans to achieve compliance in the remaining five. NHS England also collects data from providers against a number of metrics. There is a process for reviewing variation in this data involving the Clinical Reference Group chair and accountable commissioner. Where variation is identified, commissioning teams hold discussions with services to determine any actions required.