Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the National Health Service Mandate in holding the National Health Service accountable to government.

The National Health Service Mandate, which is published annually, sets the Government’s objectives for NHS England which NHS England must seek to deliver, and its business plan sets out how it will do so. Following this, NHS Planning Guidance sets out expectations on clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) for their role in delivering the mandate, which CCGs are then expected to reflect in their plans. As such, the mandate provides a basis for holding NHS England and, through them, CCGs, to account.

The Department holds the NHS formally to account for its progress on achieving the objectives in the mandate through bi-monthly Secretary of State accountability meetings, of which the minutes are published. In July, the first Annual Assessment of NHS England was laid before Parliament by the Secretary of State, which covers the extent to which NHS England met its mandate in 2013-14.

As the Annual Assessment acknowledged, NHS England and the wider system have recently undergone a complex transition process. This means it is difficult at this time to assess the effectiveness of the Mandate as an accountability mechanism. Nevertheless, we will keep this under review.