Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had since 7 May 2015 with (a) Ministerial colleagues and (b) organisations outside government on implementation of the cap on care costs and the extension to means-tested support from April 2016.

Following a consultation on draft regulations and guidance earlier this year we received a number of responses from across the care and support sector which called for a delay in the implementation of these reforms. Since the election we have continued to hear these concerns. During this time we have continued to work closely with the Local Government Association (LGA) and Association of Directors of Adult Social Care and there have been a number of discussions within Government and with other interested organisations to determine the way forward. On 1 July the LGA wrote a letter calling for a delay in implementation of these reforms.

We have listened to the concerns expressed by the LGA and others and that is why we decided to delay implementation until April 2020 as announced in a written ministerial statement on 17 July, repeated today in the House of Commons (HCWS145).