Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what advice NHS England gave to Greenwich Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in the contracting process for musculoskeletal services in Greenwich on (a) ensuring that the CCG followed the correct procedures, (b) ensuring that the CCG was quorate at the time that it decided to let the contract, (c) advising the CCG whether companies should be invited to bid and (d) ensuring that the CCG had carried out a full impact assessment on other NHS services; and if he will make a statement.

NHS England has a statutory responsibility to carry out an annual assessment of a clinical commissioning group’s (CCG) delivery of its statutory duties. In addition, it has an ongoing assurance and oversight role through which it checks whether CCGs are delivering improvements in care in the best interests of residents and in line with the principles in the NHS Constitution.

In respect of the contracting for musculoskeletal services (MSK) in Greenwich, NHS England has advised that it carried out an assessment of the procurement process that Greenwich CCG followed in order to secure a new provider of integrated MSK services. This assessment was designed to make sure that the CCG had followed an appropriate procurement process, that the scope of the procurement was clear, that the CCG was commissioning a service that met expected quality standards, that the CCG was managing any possible conflicts of interest, and that any statutory and accounting issues and risks were fully understood and mitigated.

We are advised that NHS England wrote to the CCG on 22 July 2016 to confirm that it was satisfied that the procurement had followed due process and identified the risk and implications for the existing provider.