Heidi Alexander – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2015-12-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations his Department has received (a) since his appointment as Secretary of State and (b) since the appointment of his predecessor in that post expressing concerns about Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Alistair Burt

A search of the Department’s Ministerial correspondence database has identified 40 items of correspondence expressing concerns about Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust. This figure represents correspondence received by the Department’s Ministerial correspondence unit only.

In 2014, NHS England initiated action including an investigation of the deaths of all patients of the trust who had been in receipt of mental health or learning disability services since 2011.

We are advised by NHS England that a first draft of the Mazars report was shared with it and Southern Health Foundation Trust in September 2015. The Department has not received a copy of the report and the report is still to be finalised before publication.