§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what(a) monitoring and (b) evaluation of private hospitals his Department undertakes. [31128]
§ Jacqui Smith[holding answer 28 January 2002]: Currently, private hospitals are regulated under the Registered Homes Act 1984 by health authorities, rather than the Department, which carries out no monitoring or evaluation centrally. On 1 April this year, responsibility for regulating private hospitals will be taken over by the National Care Standards Commission under the Care Standards Act 2000. Information collected by the Commission about the services and facilities they inspect will be published.