Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of local government reorganisation on the ability of primary care networks to develop integrated neighbourhood health services where their established patient populations and primary care relationships span the boundaries of more than one new local authority.

I refer the Hon Member to the current guidance on the neighbourhood health plans and the policy statement made collectively by the Cabinet Office on 31 July, links to both of which are provided below. The Cabinet Office policy statement made a clear commitment to aligning key public service boundaries to facilitate a place-based approach that better meets local priorities.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/neighbourhood-health-framework/neighbourhood-health-framework

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rewiring-the-state-cabinet-statement

We will make further statements in due course on the implications of this approach for local delivery of health services.