Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reason Vanguard was given a new NHS contract; what steps he plans to take to ensure that the problems which arose on Vanguard's previous contract with the NHS do not recur and that patient safety is not put at risk; and what assessment he has made of the company's financial liability for its under-performance in respect of that previous contract.

NHS Supply Chain has launched a framework agreement for mobile and strategic services. This framework agreement does not constitute a centralised national contract with any providers. Contracting for such services to meet temporary needs and maintain service standards are decisions for individual National Health Service organisations as opposed to politicians and civil servants in Whitehall.

All suppliers on the framework are Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered, hold Monitor licences as a minimum and have been vetted via the Disclosure and Barring Service. They will also have insurance cover to a minimum of £5 million as well as ISO9001 certification.

The CQC registration includes a number of measures which need to be periodically satisfied in order to continue providing services to the NHS. The CQC also has the power to act if it determines that services are not of a sufficient quality.

More generally, we have brought in tougher independent inspections for all hospitals so any service that is not providing the desired quality of care, whether it is run by the NHS or privately, will be forced to turn things around or be put into special measures. The CQC, as the independent regulator of quality and safety, through its rigorous inspection regime is doing exactly what it was established to do.

The NHS Litigation Authority has no record of any claims payments made in connection with negligence incurred by Vanguard Healthcare Ltd, and no assessment has been made of any financial liabilities they may have incurred from previous contracts.