Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of NHS complaints.

The Department has worked closely with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman on his work to develop the NHS Complaint Standards, which set out how organisations providing services in the National Health Service should approach complaint handling. The Standards place a strong focus on early resolution of concerns, so they can be successfully addressed without the need for them to become formal complaints. The Standards set out practical advice and good practice for NHS organisations to deal with as many issues as possible in this way.