Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what mechanisms are in place to audit information provided to his Department by (a) regulatory bodies and (b) non-departmental public bodies.

The Department’s relationships with its arm’s length bodies and non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) are established through a Framework Document. The Department follows the Government’s best practice on auditing its arm’s length bodies and NDPBs through risk assessment, governance arrangements and formal accountability mechanisms. NDPBs are required to produce their Annual Report and Accounts which contain published information about their financial and non-financial performance.