Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department will take to ensure the independent oversight of complaints and safeguarding concerns under the reforms proposed in the Health Bill.

The independent oversight of complaints will continue. The independent Care Quality Commission will continue to perform its important role in ensuring National Health Service providers have an effective and accessible system for handling complaints from service users.

Statutory safeguarding concerns will continue to be managed through the safeguarding accountability and assurance framework, which sets outs the safeguarding roles and responsibilities of all individuals working in providers of NHS-funded care settings and NHS commissioning organisations. Oversight will continue to be provided by the regional safeguarding team and Regional Chief Nurse.