Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to continue to fund a regular national audit of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; and if he will make a statement.

NHS England intends to continue to fund the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) audit as part of the NCAPOP (National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme).

The COPD and asthma outcomes strategy was published by the Department around the time of the National Health Service transition to the current structures. It was designed to help NHS commissioners understand the key evidence based and cost effective interventions which would improve the quality of care for patients with COPD. As such, it was not intended to be supported by an implementation plan.

In May 2012, the Department published the NHS Companion Document to the Outcomes Strategy, setting out how the NHS can implement changes at a local level.