Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department have made of the potential merits of the creation of an operationally independent regulatory function for NHS providers and commissioners.

As an arm’s length body, the Care Quality Commission delivers an operationally independent function of regulatory oversight for the quality and safety of health and adult social care.

In addition, operational oversight of providers and commissioners is currently the responsibility of NHS England. Under our proposed reforms, this responsibility will return to the Department with ministers directly accountable to Parliament.

The Department has therefore not identified a need to establish a separate operationally independent regulatory function for commissioners.