Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether an NHS trust which the Care Quality Commission reports as requiring improvement can be awarded a community health services contract under an NHS-led transaction process in the event that it applied for such a contract prior to the rules changing to permit only NHS trusts with a good inspection rating to apply or be awarded such contracts.

NHS Improvement’s published guidance on transactions for National Health Service foundation trusts does not include any rule that an acquiring foundation trust has to be rated good or better by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) before they can proceed with a transaction.

However, NHS Improvement does factor in quality considerations and CQC ratings throughout the assessment and assurance processes.