Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, by what average proportion Care Quality Commission registration fees have changed in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. The CQC’s income is made up of both fees paid by providers and grant in aid from the Department. Government policy requires that the CQC must increase the fees it charges registered providers so that it can move towards fully recovering the chargeable costs of regulating health and adult social care in England.

The CQC has set a two-year trajectory to reach full cost recovery for all sectors with the exception of the adult social care domiciliary care sector, which will be subject to a four year trajectory and dentists who are already at full cost recovery. The Government has made available £15 million extra funding for general practice (GP) from April 2016 to reflect a number of increasing cost pressures, of which increased CQC fees are a part.

The CQC has provided the following information. The CQC has revised the fees that providers will have to pay from April 2016. The table shows how close each sector is to full cost recovery in 2016-17.

Average fee increase by sector inspected by the CQC¹

¹To establish the average percentage increase the CQC has compared the fees in each fee band by category and then taken the average increase per category. In most cases the increase is consistent for each band within the category.