§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures are in place to ensure that there is consistency between Commission for Health Improvement and National Care Standards Commission regulation inspections. [45644]
§ Jacqui Smith[holding answer 26 March 2002]: We will be bringing section 9 of the Care Standards Act 2000 into force shortly and making regulations so that the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) and the National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) may arrange for CHI to exercise NCSC's function on its behalf in relation to independent hospitals. We will be preparing these regulations and discussing their implementation with the chief executives of CHI and NCSC to enable appropriate arrangements to be brought into force later this year.