Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether Monitor was instructed by officials to delay publishing Q1 financial figures for NHS Foundation Trusts ahead of the Conservative Party Conference, and if so, why.

Departmental officials have no legal powers to instruct Monitor to delay publication of financial performance data. Departmental officials regularly have conversations with the Department’s arm’s length bodies, including with Monitor, about the ongoing work of Government business, including the publication of Quarter 1 financial figures from both Monitor and the Trust Development Authority.