Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what actions his Department is taking to reduce variations in patient care quality.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. Its remit is to monitor, inspect, assess and regulate services to ensure all patients receive the best quality of care. The CQC assess service providers against their fundamental standards of care. Where it finds the quality of care does not meet those standards, it will use its enforcement powers to hold provider to account and drive improvement. CQC also work with stakeholders across the health and care landscape to ensure adequate support is available to help providers improve.