Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Written Statement of 16 July 2015, HCWS114, on NHS Remuneration: Doctors and Dentists, what assessment he has made of the effect of proposed changes to the consultant contract on the availability of routine hospital appointments on week days.

The intention of the proposed changes to the consultant contract, as referenced by the Written Ministerial Statement of 16 July 2015 (HCWS114), is to help ensure that patients with urgent needs receive the same high quality of care at weekends as they do on week days. This should not however be at the expense of the availability of routine hospital appointments.