Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which consultancy firm has been commissioned to review the challenged local health economy of (a) Staffordshire, (b) Eastern Cheshire, (c) South West London, (d) North East London, (e) Cumbria, (f) Mid Essex, (g) Cambridge and Peterborough, (h) Leicestershire, (i) Northamptonshire, (j) East Sussex and (k) Devon; and when each such firm started its work in each area.

The work to support the 11 challenged health economies was commissioned jointly by Monitor, NHS Trust Development Authority and NHS England.

Consultancy firms were not commissioned to produce reports on the local health economies, as described in the question, but to support the local health economies with the development and strengthening of their strategic plans.