Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the recruitment process was for the appointment of NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan Footprint Leaders; and what criteria were used to appoint to those posts.

Sustainability and Transformation Plan areas have been determined by local health and care services coming together in ways that make sense for their local areas, in order to transform the way that health and care is planned and delivered for their populations.

Following local discussions about who is best placed to play the role of footprint leaders, together with discussions with national bodies, 41 of the 44 planning areas have identified and agreed leaders.

They are mostly a mix of trust chief executive officers, clinical commissioning group leaders and local government executives.