Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on (a) the number of independent reviews for NHS Continuing Healthcare that have been undertaken for each year and (b) the length of time taken to complete those reviews in each of the last 10 years for which records are available.

NHS England undertook 694 independent reviews of NHS Continuing Healthcare eligibility in 2017/18 and 642 independent reviews from 1 April 2018 up to 31 January 2019.

Of the independent reviews undertaken in 2017/18 it took on average 349 days from the date of request to the date they were considered or heard before an independent review panel, and in 2018/19 it took on average 417 days.

Independent review data collection started in 2017/18. NHS England does not hold data for earlier years as requested.