Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of merging of integrated care boards on (a) Dorset and (b) other rural areas.

No mergers involving the seven integrated care boards (ICBs) in the South West NHS England footprint have been approved.

The Dorset ICB, the Somerset ICB, and the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB are preparing to ‘cluster’ by April 2026, and this will see increased joint working across the three ICBs to achieve the running cost reductions for ICBs announced by the Department. Formal approval for the merger of ICB footprints will not be given before a comprehensive assessment of the local circumstances and rationale. Our commitment to coterminous boundaries wherever possible will be at the forefront of our decision-making.

As part of cluster preparation arrangements, every ICB will complete an Equality Impact Assessment, which will consider the footprint population and the impact of the changes to ICB working arrangements.

ICBs and regional leaders assessed potential clustering arrangements using the design criteria.