Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the decision to delay inquiring into wider governance issues at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and the role that the Trust is being asked to play in helping the re-configuration of services in Staffordshire are connected, and if so, how.

NHS Improvement advises that Verita’s report Independent review of the handling by The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust of concerns raised by and related to Mrs Haynes-Kirkbright was undertaken and published independently of Government and of any role the Trust played in the reconfiguration of services in Staffordshire. The review did not relate in any way to the reconfiguration.

The content and timing of the review into wider concerns about governance at the Trust will not be affected in any way by the Staffordshire reconfiguration.