Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with NHS England on the results of the provisional investment decisions for specialised services.

NHS England is an independent body which bases its annual provisional investment decisions on rigorous examination of existing evidence and cost benefit analyses. As such, ministers do not typically meet with NHS England to discuss specialised investment decisions.

However my noble Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Lord Prior met with NHS England to discuss the overall strategy for specialised commissioning on 12 September 2016.

Officials continue to have ongoing discussions with NHS England regarding both provisional investment decisions and specialised services commissioning overall.