Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to make stakeholders aware of its 2015/16 National Tariff Payments System: Engagement on national prices consultation.

The National Tariff Payments System: Engagement on national prices consultation ran from 18 July to 15 August 2014. To engage stakeholders with the consultation, Monitor and NHS England undertook the following activity:

- the consultation was published on Monitor and NHS England’s website;

- the consultation was sent to commissioners via NHS England’s July bulletin;

- to seek feedback, Monitor directly emailed the sector announcing the consultation, this included; patient groups, commissioners, care providers, professional organisations, clinical groups and other relevant national bodies;

- Monitor and NHS England held workshops in Birmingham, Leeds and London, covering acute and mental health care;

- Monitor and NHS England held a selection of webinars, providing an opportunity for participants to ask questions;

- Monitor carried out social media work, via Twitter and LinkedIn, interacting with Monitor’s digital content relating to the consultation and engagement work; and

- a press release by Monitor and NHS England was issued to all national and healthcare trade broadcast, print and online media outlets resulting in coverage in Health Service Journal, National Health Executive and Commissioning Review. Approximately 500 responses to the consultation were received. Monitor and NHS England are also having further conversations with a number of those who have provided feedback.