Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with representatives of clinical commissioning groups on making the process of (a) accessing NHS capital funding and (b) making improvements to NHS services (i) easier and (ii) more efficient; and if he will make a statement.

The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement have regular discussions with representatives of clinical commissioning groups about capital investment in community and primary care. We have already implemented changes to improve the capital business case development and approvals processes and make it more efficient. This includes establishing a joint Departmental and NHS England and NHS Improvement Investment Committee.

The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement work closely with commissioners and providers of NHS services to support service improvement.