Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how integrated care boards assess the initial and continuing financial stability of private companies from which NHS services are commissioned, and what assessment they have made of the overall financial stability of private companies providing NHS services.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) assess the financial stability of companies subject to the current rules on procurement, including the Public Contract Regulations 2015. ICBs are responsible for their own due diligence and governance surrounding procurement, the award of contracts, and the assessment of suppliers for those purposes.

The Department has not made a central assessment of the overall financial stability of private companies providing services to the National Health Service.