Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish his assessment of whether the merging of Clinical Commissioning Groups to be coterminous with the proposed Integrated Care System geographical boundaries will result in savings or additional expenditure on NHS management salary costs.

The recruitment process for integrated care boards (ICBs) is currently underway. Subject to passage of the Health and Care Bill, there will be a reduction in the number of management boards from 106 clinical commissioning group (CCG) boards to 42 ICBs. Although no formal assessment has been made, we do not expect additional long term management costs as a result of this change. CCGs have been merged in recent years and many already operate at a system level through joint appointments. Focus is already on systems by default and putting these policies onto a statutory footing is not expected to cause a significant upheaval.