Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to provide a statutory basis to sustainability and transformation partnership structures.

The Department currently has no plans to place Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs) on a statutory footing.

STPs represent a coming together of commissioners, providers and local authorities to consider how to best plan care across their entire footprint and deliver the three aims set out in the Five Year Forward View. However, the statutory architecture for health and care remains fully in place, as do the existing accountabilities for Chief Executives and Accountable Officers of providers and clinical commissioning groups.