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 potential impact of ICB clustering on patient voice and the efficacy of Local Healthwatch.

The Health Bill, currently before Parliament, proposes abolition of Healthwatch arrangements nationally and locally. This follows the publication of the report by Penny Dash published in July 2025, which concluded that even though there are multiple organisations representing the voice of the user, including Local Healthwatch, patient experience has not been given the attention that it deserves.

We will make sure patients, service users and local people can influence the strategic planning of services, by placing responsibility for obtaining and actioning the views of all local people on health services with integrated care boards, including those that are clustering.