Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will ensure that there will be no appointments to a single management board prior to any clinical commissioning group mergers until the situation that resulted in commissioning the Kirkup report has been satisfactorily resolved.

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are independent statutory bodies set out in statute, and as such are responsible for recruiting and selecting their leadership team. The appointment of Accountable Officers by CCGs requires authorisation by NHS England. If as suggested the CCGs seek to create a joint management team with a single Accountable Officer shared across two or three CCGs, this will be subject to NHS England's approval. NHS England’s process for such appointments is set out in guidance published in March 2017.

There are provisions under section 14G of the NHS Act 2006 (as amended) allowing for mergers of CCGs and there are specific legal factors that NHS England must consider when deciding whether or not to agree the merger.