Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential benefits of making local authorities responsible for managing delayed discharge.

Hospital discharge processes involve National Health Service trusts and local authorities, and both have legal duties and responsibilities which relate to discharge. NHS bodies must comply with duties in the Care Act 2014, which requires them to co-operate with each other in the exercise of their respective care and support functions. Local authorities and NHS bodies should work jointly in line with the duty to cooperate outlined in the NHS Act 2006.