Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the anonymous evidence given to the Public Accounts Committee to the effect that national regulators are "pressuring NHS providers to potentially mislead the public and Government departments over their true, underlying financial performance".

From 1 April this year NHS Improvement will be the operational name for the national regulator for National Health Service providers, replacing Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority.

NHS Improvement have asked finance directors to review the accuracy of accounting entries and scrutinise estimates as far as possible to ensure they are a true and accurate reflection of the financial position of each trust. All financial statements for individual providers will be prepared in line with international Financial Reporting Standards and Government budgeting rules and are subject to independent, external audit. The Department is therefore satisfied that the current NHS Improvement approach is entirely appropriate and would be so in any financial year.

NHS Improvement representatives have committed to address this point with the Public Accounts Committee at the earliest opportunity and have written directly to the chair.