Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the (a) pace and (b) effectiveness of the CQC in securing change to services that require improvement.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England, which ensures that health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high quality care and encourages care services to improve. Where the CQC identifies areas for improvement, it will report on items a provider needs to improve, although it does not prescribe how these should be made. The CQC will re-inspect to confirm progress and remains in regular contact with providers and commissioners to gain assurance on improvements.

The CQC can also take enforcement action and providers have a right of appeal against such action. The severity of action is proportionate to its findings and is set out in the published enforcement policy. Through its enforcement, the CQC can require providers to make changes within a specified time frame, taking more robust action where improvements are not satisfactorily made. In the most severe cases, the CQC will use its powers to remove providers from its register and the ability to deliver services.