Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the decision by NHS England to remove the requirement for executive healthcare experience in their new template job description for Integrated Care Board Chief Executives.

NHS England has advised that the template job description in question requires someone with substantial board-level experience, including at Chief Executive Officer level, knowledge of the health, care, and local‑government landscape and expert understanding of strategic commissioning. The revised description broadens the potential candidate pool, from executive experience within healthcare to a career in healthcare or equivalent, for example an executive career in a large and complex organisation, to enable the National Health Service to attract talented leaders from a wider range of relevant backgrounds.