Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment NHS England has made of the effect of the proposed dispersal of the Royal Brompton Hospital's congenital heart disease research team on care quality.

No decision has been made to close the congenital heart disease service at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust.

The congenital heart disease standards agreed by the NHS England Board in July 2015 include sub-categories that cover both research and using a network approach. The standards have been designed to support a continued collaborative approach to develop and sustain research and good practice.