Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what reports he has received on the NHS investigation into the performance of the non-urgent transport service provided by Coperforma in Sussex; who will conduct that investigation; what the terms of reference and expected duration of that investigation are; and if he will make a statement.

NHS England advises that the High Weald Lewes Havens Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), on behalf of all seven Sussex CCGs, has begun an enquiry on 18 April 2016 into the non-emergency Patient Transport Service (PTS) in Sussex.

We are informed that the CCG has engaged TIAA, an independent company and a provider of assurance services to the public sector, to carry out the enquiry. This is an independent investigation into the transition and mobilisation of the PTS contract from the South East Coast Ambulance Service to Coperforma and is supported by the CCGs in Sussex, Coperforma and the South East Coast Ambulance Service. We are advised the CCG has asked for a draft final report to be available for review by June 2016 with interim progress reports.

We are advised the following terms of reference have been agreed by South East Coast Ambulance Service, High Weald Lewes Havens CCG and Coperforma:

― consideration of the transition arrangements set out in such as contract specification and tender submission;

― the extent to which compliance with agreed handover arrangements can be evidenced;

― a root cause analysis of a sample of incomplete bookings;

― establishing the causes of poor service delivery on commencement of the new contract and whether these could have been reasonably anticipated prior to the contract commencement date;

― the appropriateness and timeliness of the actions taken by the CCG; and

― any lesson learned which could be incorporated into other future major contracts let by the CCG.