Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the indirect cost to the NHS of the Care Quality Commission.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England and has a key responsibility in the overall assurance of safety and quality of health and adult social care services. The CQC provides assurance that health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate high-quality care and encourage care services to improve. The CQC monitor, inspect and regulate services against meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and the CQC publish what it finds to help people choose care.

The CQC impact assessment on changes to the way they regulate and inspect services, published in September 2014, sets out the estimated costs and benefits of its new inspection model. In its Business Plan 2015-16, the CQC describes how it will continue to improve its effectiveness, and be a regulator that supports changes in health and social care. It is for the trusts to respond to CQC inspections, including when poor quality care is highlighted.