Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government by what authority the chief executive of NHS Improvement is able to instruct NHS Foundation Trusts to enforce the junior doctors' contract consistently.

The Chief Executive did not instruct National Health Service foundation trusts to enforce the new national junior contract. On 15 February he wrote to NHS foundation trust and NHS trust Chief Executive Officers and Chairs and said that: “We must all now work together, across all professional groups, to help the service implement the contract consistently and address the concerns raised by junior doctor colleagues”.