Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what recent discussions they have had with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) about the steps the CQC is taking to reduce the waiting time for (1) initial inspections, and (2) re-inspections, of healthcare providers.

The Department has introduced additional oversight measures to ensure significant improvements are made to the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) operational performance.

The CQC is aware of the issues health and social care providers have experienced and is progressing four immediate actions and five foundational improvements, which include clearing the backlog of registration applications and making improvements to its assessment approach to enable them to complete more, and publish higher quality, assessment reports.

Action carried out to address the registration backlog includes changing the way providers apply for registration, recruiting additional registration inspectors, and streamlining the internal registration processes. The CQC’s registration team has been clearing the backlog of registration applications that are over 10 weeks old, focusing on the oldest ones first.

Action carried out to make improvements to the CQC’s assessment approach include making some changes to the internal technology systems the CQC uses to carry out assessments.

These actions will ensure the CQC is more efficient, and will lead to a reduction in the time providers wait before they receive a first inspection and rating.