Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his contribution of 21 January 2015, Official Report, column 250, what the evidential basis was of his statement that patients say that their care is safer and more compassionate than ever.

Published survey data by IPSOS Mori shows that between spring 2013 and the subsequent wave in winter 2013 the proportion of people who agreed with the statement ‘People are treated with compassion when they use NHS services’ increased from 64% to 72%.

The same survey also found that in winter 2013, 77% of people agreed with the statement ‘If I was very ill I would feel safe in an NHS hospital’ and this was equal to the highest proportion of people to have agreed with this statement previously, reported in winter 2012.