Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the (a) average, (b) shortest and (c) longest length of time has been between the Care Quality Commission's inspections of NHS Trusts and the publication of report on those inspections.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. The CQC has provided the following information:

Length of time between CQC inspection of National Health Service trusts and publication of inspection reports:

The time taken between the conclusion of an inspection and the publication of an inspection report can vary for wide number of reasons. These include variations in the size of the trust being inspected, the complexity of the services they deliver, the scale and scope of the CQC reports and also whether it is a first rating or a subsequent inspection.