Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support NHS England plans to provide clinical commissioning groups relating to the transfer of obesity surgery commissioning responsibilities from NHS England after that transfer.

Although the transfer is effective from April 2016, the handover process will be agreed between specialised commissioning and individual clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), in line with their preparedness.

Specialised commissioning teams will continue to provide advice and support CCGs post-handover in line with the CCG’s need. CCGs already have mechanisms in place to monitor provider performance and quality through the existing quality assurance processes.