Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government when NHS England will confirm how many multi-Integrated Care Board footprints will be established in 2023 to take on joint commissioning responsibility for specialised services.

The number of integrated care boards (ICBs) which will take on responsibility for specialised commissioning and the number of multi-ICB footprints has not yet been confirmed. The responsibility for commissioning services assessed to be suitable will be delegated to ICBs or to joint committees of NHS England and ICBs in 2023/24, following an assessment of system readiness.

NHS England is currently working with ICBs to assess system readiness, including identifying multi-ICB footprints. Following a moderation process, recommendations will be made to NHS England’s board for final decisions early in 2023, prior to the deployment of the new arrangements from April 2023.