Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to measure the effect on health outcomes of (a) restrictions on referral and (b) restrictive prescribing as a result of decisions taken by clinical commissioning groups.

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for decisions on commissioning health services to best meet the needs of their local population and are accountable for local prescribing policy decisions. In commissioning services CCGs will reflect the needs of local people and support improvements in health and healthcare outcomes.