Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of his policy proposals outlined in the White Paper entitled Integration and Innovation: working together to improve health and social care for all, published on 11 February 2021, on the future of the NHS Constitution.

The NHS Constitution aims to safeguard the enduring principles and values of the National Health Service. It also empowers the public, patients and staff to help improve the care provided by setting out existing legal rights and the pledges that the NHS has made towards them. The Constitution brings together these rights in one place, but it does not create or replace them.

Officials are working through policy and legislative changes, including those in the white paper, to identify where and when updates may be required in future to the NHS Constitution and handbook.