Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to Answer of 14 May, to Question 142400, on learning disability: death, by what means his Department was informally notified of the intended publication; what his Department’s definition of informally notified is; and what his Department’s definition of formally notified is.

Departmental officials became aware of the publication date of the recent annual report of the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review (LeDeR) Programme on Thursday 3 May via social media. Shortly afterwards, the Department received an email from an NHS England official about the publication of the report. The Department then took steps to seek confirmation from NHS England about the publication date and secure a copy of the report which was also provided on Thursday 3 May.

The Department does not consider this to constitute the usual route of formal notification. The Department would expect notification of the publication date and an embargoed copy of the report to be provided in a manner that would have permitted sufficient notice to support internal planning and provide advice to ministers in an effective way. This expectation was reinforced by the statement made to Parliament in December 2016 by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care that annual reports of the LeDeR programme would be provided to the Department.