Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he made of the likely effects of breaking up the former Liverpool Community contract into 13 parts; what discussions he has had with Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group on the potential for that decision to align with a previously agreed joint venture between the Group and Liverpool City Council and Bridgwater; what assessment he has made of the risk of poor governance in decision making; and whether NHS Improvement is sufficiently resourced to take poor decision-making.

No discussions have taken place with Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group on this matter.

NHS Improvement is resourced to undertake a number of functions, which include working with National Health Service providers to ensure that due diligence processes are completed in a timely and effective manner. Quality Impact Assessments and a Financial Assessment were undertaken as part of the pre-assessment process.