Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the Health and Care Bill on which body or individual is responsible for providing (a) secondary medical care and (b) ophthalmic services after April 2022.

The Health and Care Bill proposes the establishment of integrated care boards (ICBs) that will take on the commissioning functions and responsibilities of clinical commissioning groups, as well as some of those held by NHS England. Once statutory ICBs are established, they will be responsible for arranging the provision of secondary medical care. For ophthalmic services, the Bill will enable the Secretary of State to directly confer commissioning functions for ophthalmic services on ICBs at an appropriate time. NHS England will have the ability to delegate those functions to, or exercise them jointly with, ICBs.