Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of administrative tasks undertaken by hospital doctors.

My noble Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Lord Prior) has established the Burden Reduction Challenge Panel in partnership with NHS Providers, NHS Confederation and Care England. This process allows frontline professionals through their representative bodies, to identify and challenge unnecessary bureaucracy in their daily activities.

The panel will hold the Department and its arm’s length bodies to account for any unnecessary burdens created and these will be amended or removed, freeing up the time of frontline professionals to care for patients.