Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many independent serious incident reviews were (a) commissioned and (b) completed (c) not completed by NHS England in each month between May 2015 and June 2017; and what the reasons were for the reviews not being completed by 28 February 2018.

We do not hold all of the information requested centrally.

NHS England has provided the attached information for the period between September 2016 and June 2017, which includes a monthly status of reported serious incidents with the following investigative status: planned, underway, completed, awaiting clearance or not yet allocated for investigation ‘blank’.

The following points should be noted:

- This information has been collected since August 2016, when NHS England put in place a national system for sub-regional and regional teams to escalate serious incidents via a Serious Incident Desk;

- NHS England does not hold information at a national level as to why investigations have not yet been completed. Most investigations should be completed within six months of being commissioned, however some may take longer due to the complexity of the incident; and

- NHS England does not hold information on serious investigations only led by clinical commissioning groups or trusts. The latter has not been included within this response.