Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 2016 to Question 44971, how many performance meetings the Departmental Board has held since the publication of the NHS Annual Report and Accounts 2015-16; and how many such meetings he has attended.

The Secretary of State has regularly attended Departmental Board meetings since his appointment. Since the publication of the 2015-16 Annual Report, the Department is in the process of reconstituting the Board by recruiting new and additional Non-Executive Board members and the Secretary of State will attend the next meeting of that reconstituted Board. Over the last six months, one meeting of the Departmental Board has taken place, which was chaired by the Permanent Secretary.