Care Quality Commission

(asked on 9th March 2016) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the resources allocated by the Government to the Care Quality Commission to carry out its inspection role; and what other sources of funding are available to that body.


Answered by
 Portrait
Ben Gummer
This question was answered on 14th March 2016

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is funded from two sources: fee income, levied on the health and social care providers that it regulates; and Grant In Aid funding, allocated centrally, from the Department. As part of the annual business planning process, the Department and the CQC negotiate and agree the appropriate level of central Grant in Aid funding required by the CQC for the forthcoming reporting year. In the case of funding negotiations for 2016-17, discussions between the Department and the CQC and all of the Department’s arm’s length bodies (ALBs), will be taking into account the Department’s Spending Review settlement.

Negotiations between the Department and the CQC are undertaken in the context of Government policy for all fee-setting regulators - that the full costs of their chargeable regulatory activities must be recovered through fees from providers. Where a fee is less than full cost, stakeholders including HM Treasury and the Department agree with ALBs a plan to comply with the requirements of Managing Public Money within a reasonable period. The CQC has been working and continues to work towards achieving Full Cost Recovery at the earliest opportunity. As the level of fee income received by the CQC increases, then the level of Grant in Aid funding from the Department will reduce.

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