Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will issue guidance to Integrated Care Boards on transparency around commissioning decisions including (a) which commissioning decisions and details thereof should be published and (b) which commissioning decisions and details thereof should be considered commercially sensitive for purposes of freedom of Information requests.
The Department and NHS England are working to reform the rules on procurement for healthcare services, otherwise known as the ‘Provider Selection Regime’, including for transparency surrounding decisions, and will provide an update on this in due course. Right now, integrated care boards (ICBs) must follow the current rules on transparency in procurement as set out in the Procurement, Patient Choice, and Competition Regulations (PPCCR) 2013 (No. 2) and the Public Contract Regulations (PCR) 2015.
ICBs are responsible for ensuring that commercially sensitive information is handled appropriately and in line with the law.