Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the risk of litigation on the ability of the NHS to adequately resolve complaints.

The National Health Service complaints process is independent of any litigation process. NHS Resolution’s research indicates that poor complaints handling and a perceived failure of providers to undertake meaningful investigations and apologies can lead to the pursuit of a claim. The Department has worked with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to improve the NHS complaints standards and support NHS organisations to provide a faster and simpler complaint handling service, with a focus on early resolution of complaints.