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 impact of hosting the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations Special Health Authority function within the Care Quality Commission on patient safety.

We have considered the impact of the hosting of the Maternity Investigations Programme within the Care Quality Commission (CQC) carefully and we believe that they can continue their existing work as part of the CQC. The CQC has the existing infrastructure available to allow for continuity of investigations independent from the National Health Service. The continuity of the maternity programme will be maintained throughout the duration of the process.