Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the Care Quality Commission's future ability to carry out effective inspections of visiting policy in care settings following his announcement that that body will reduce its inspections.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) issued a detailed statement on 24 January about how it will adjust its regulatory activity through the winter period. This means continuing to respond to the most serious risks in National Health Service organisations. For adult social care settings, CQC will increase the number of inspections of care homes and homecare agencies with a current rating of requires improvement. Inspections will be carried out where there is information to suggest there has been improvement since CQC’s last inspection.

Every inspection of a care home includes a focus on visiting, regardless of the initial reason for inspecting. CQC also continues to monitor visiting through other routes, such as direct monitoring activity calls with providers.