Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Care Quality Commission on reducing the number of inpatient wards for people with learning disabilities and autistic people rated as inadequate.

Ministers and officials regularly discuss a range of matters with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) including making improvements to services that are rated inadequate by the CQC.

The Government, cross-system Building the Right Support Delivery Board, chaired by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Mental Health and Women’s Health Strategy, is responsible for monitoring progress on the commitments in the Building the Right Support Action Plan. The CQC are members of the Delivery Board and attend the meetings which are held quarterly. The Delivery Board will continue to discuss and monitor progress on the commitment in the Action Plan to avoid people with a learning disability and autistic people being admitted to hospital settings rated inadequate by the CQC and on actions to improve the quality of care these individuals receive in inpatient settings.