Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the capability of Circle Holdings plc to provide musculoskeletal services in Greenwich on 1 December 2016 in advance of the Greenwich Clinical Commissioning Group's impact assessment on the effect of privatising that service on other services; and if he will make a statement.

There has been no assessment or instruction by Ministers. The procurement of local health services by means of competitive tendering is a matter for the local National Health Service.

Greenwich Clinical Commissioning Group is an independent statutory organisation and is responsible for commissioning services for local people in order to ensure the best possible clinical outcomes at the best value to the taxpayer. The recent procurement of musculoskeletal prime contractor services was designed to secure these outcomes.

We are informed by NHS England that Circle Holdings is Care Quality Commission registered, which is one of the required assessments for awarding of the contract. The bid that Circle made was assessed against an agreed set of criteria which had weightings, in accordance with standard NHS procurement process.