Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what account his Department took of the findings of the Care Quality Commission on services provided by Care UK when reaching its decision to award a new NHS contract to that company; and what steps he plans to take to ensure the high quality of services provided by that company.

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.

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.