Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the announcement of 30 March 2017 on the new arrangement to manage community services in Liverpool, whether NHS Improvement plans to reimburse the total costs incurred by all bidders in submitting a bid for the Liverpool community health services contract, in particular Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.

It was a condition of participating in the competition for Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust’s services that NHS Improvement would not reimburse bid costs. The Trusts involved in this process understood that costs resulting from the bid were at undertaken at their own risk.