Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the cost to his Department has been of implementing the Friends and Family Test.

The introduction of the Friends and Family Test (FFT) was announced in May 2012. Implementation began in April 2013 and is due to be completed by end March 2015. NHS England is responsible for implementing the FFT.

NHS service providers are responsible for funding their own implementation of the FFT as a requirement of their National Health Service contract. Information about these costs is not available centrally. NHS England has a national programme that co-ordinates implementation of the FFT. During 2013/14 and, to date, during 2014/15 the programme has spent £5,499,915. This includes work directly with NHS service providers to support and advise on implementation.

The FFT has a number of strengths against which costs need to be considered.