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 adequacy of the standard of care at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in respect of Alfie Evans.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated Alder Hey Children’s Hospital as good overall following an inspection in June 2015. A responsive inspection was carried out in April and May 2017 but this did not alter the hospital’s current overall rating.

The CQC regulates and assesses all providers of regulated activities by looking at five domains – whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs and well-led. Alder Hey Children’s Hospital was rated as good under the safe, effective, responsive and well led domains and outstanding for caring.

It is not appropriate for the Department to comment on the specific circumstances relating to individual cases.