Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2016 to Question 50498 on the Care Quality Commission, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the safeguards in place in the standard NHS contract to ensure rapid transfer of patient data to the relevant clinical commissioning group in the event of a sudden and unplanned cessation of operation of a contracted provider; and if he will make a statement.

NHS England holds formal responsibility for publishing the NHS Standard Contract, and reviews and consults on this annually to ensure that provisions remain appropriate for both providers and commissioners. NHS England advises that the 2016/17 NHS Standard Contract contains a range of provisions relevant to this Question which it considers to be robust and effective.

If, in practice, there is a ‘sudden and unplanned cessation of services’, this will be grounds for suspension of those specific services, or termination of the entire contract, by the commissioner – and in this case the provisions of General Conditions 16-18 (covering suspension and termination and the consequences of each) would be expected to apply.

These provisions require the provider to:

- co-operate fully with the commissioner in ensuring continuity of service provision and a smooth transition to a successor provider, avoiding any inconvenience to or risk to patients; and

- provide promptly all reasonable assistance and all information necessary to effect an orderly assumption of the service, without delay, by the successor provider.