Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to require the Care Quality Commission to notify (a) hon. Members and (b) local councillors of ratings of inadequate or requires improvement in care homes.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. The CQC is responsible for assessing whether providers are meeting the fundamental standards of quality and safety including the decisions around the publication of its reports.

The CQC has advised that it currently informs hon. Members when there has been an inadequate or outstanding rating given to a care home in their constituency. This is done as close as possible to the publication of the report. All inspection reports are available on the CQC website once they have been published and hon. Members can also sign-up to an automated CQC constituency email alert tool which will alert them to any new reports published in their constituency, irrespective of rating.

Each week the CQC sends information on all inspection reports, and ratings, published the previous week to all English local authorities.