Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in regard to the NHS Oversight Framework 2025/26, published on 26 June, what is the specific purpose and intended use of contextual metrics for integrated care boards.

The NHS Oversight Framework 2025/26 will not be used to score integrated care boards’ (ICBs) performance or to assign them to performance categories or segments. This is to allow them to focus on the substantial changes to their organisational function and form, alongside efforts to meet their running cost reduction plans.

However, ICB data will continue to be collected, monitored, and reported against the full suite of metrics. These will be used during NHS England’s regular performance conversations with ICBs and to inform the use of intervention powers, should NHS England deem this necessary to support improvement.