A Quality Account is a written report, which NHS healthcare providers are required to publish each year about the quality of their services.
The Quality Account includes details of the healthcare provider’s participation in national audits, enquiries and quality improvement programmes, along with actions taken to improve the quality of healthcare provided in response to report recommendations.
NHS England information about Quality Accounts is published here: https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/about-the-nhs/quality-accounts/about-quality-accounts/
The NHS Standard Contract (‘SC26 Clinical Networks, National Audit Programmes and Approved Research Studies’ specifically 26.1.2 and sub bullets 26.1.2.1 / 26.1.2.2 / 26.1.2.3’) sets out the requirement to participate in:
- any national programme within the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP);
- any other national clinical audit or clinical outcome review programme managed or commissioned by HQIP; and
- any national programme included within the NHS England Quality Accounts List for the relevant Contract Year.
The NHS Standard Contract also gives commissioners the power to require remedial action of NHS healthcare providers who fail to participate, with scope for withholding funding in the event of sustained non-compliance.
NHS England Quality Account List
The NHS England Quality Accounts List is made available each year and comprises national audits, clinical outcome review programmes and other quality improvement projects that NHS England advises Trusts to prioritise for participation during the forthcoming financial year.
The Quality Accounts List should be reviewed in conjunction with the NHS Quality Accounts guidance available here. Trusts should plan participation and report all the relevant individual work streams listed underneath a national programme on the Quality Accounts List.
HQIP’s role in relation to the Quality Accounts List is to manage the annual self-assessment scoping survey on behalf of NHS England, providing the returns to NHS England to inform the decisions made for inclusion on the List (see below). It is only the NCAPOP programme that is commissioned by HQIP and these are denoted on the published NHS England Quality Accounts Lists for 2025-26 and 2026-27. HQIP and NHS England have no regulatory or information governance role for projects outside of the NCAPOP commissioned work. Non-NCAPOP projects are responsible for managing all aspects of their quality assurance, governance and compliance themselves; inclusion on the NHS England Quality Accounts List does not in any way represent review, endorsement, or certification by HQIP. HQIP is only able to answer queries relating to the NCAPOP programme. In order to help, information that has been made available to HQIP about non-NCAPOP programmes has been included in The Directory.
Clinical audits and registries are great tools for enhancing understanding of care and delivering on quality improvements. However, this is not without a cost, and NHS England is aware of the increasing data and information ask of providers arising from Quality Accounts requirements. NHS England continues to work to find a sustainable solution to manage the burden and to support these important clinical areas of work” October 2025 statement from NHS England
NHS England Quality Accounts List 2026-27 (published January 2026)
NHS England Quality Accounts List 2025-26 (published January 2025, updated May 2025 and August 2025)
Annual Scoping Survey for the NHS England Quality Accounts List
Each year HQIP undertakes a scoping survey exercise, on behalf of NHS England, to collect and review information relating to national clinical audits and other national clinical quality improvement projects that are collecting data during the forthcoming financial year. The information sourced from the self-assessment survey informs the development of the NHS England Quality Accounts List. Programmes commissioned by HQIP, as part of the NCAPOP, do not need to complete a scoping survey.
The deadline for the 2026-27 scoping survey was Monday 27 October 2025.
NHS England Quality Accounts List inclusion criteria
NHS England reviewed the inclusion criteria for 2026-27, and agreed to incorporate an additional criterion (listed as 11 below):
Does the project:
- Collect data from at least 70% of eligible services nationally (i.e. coverage).
- Collect data on individual patients.
- Publish comparisons of providers (for example; at trust, hospital, or network level).
- Plan to recruit patients during the forthcoming financial year.
- Audit outcomes and processes of care against standards, guidelines, or evidence (for example, NICE Quality Standards and Guidelines).
- Publish a healthcare quality improvement plan.
- Use routine data from existing sources (rather than bespoke data submission by healthcare provider) where possible.
- Publish information about reducing data burden.
- Publish results within 6 months of the full data set being available to the project team for analysis.
- Make quality improvement resources available for healthcare providers to use.
- Operate a statistically validated outlier process.
NHS Wales National Clinical Audit & Outcome Review Annual Plan
Health boards and trusts in Wales are required to fully participate in all audits and outcome reviews listed in the annual ‘National clinical audit and outcome review annual plan’:
The Directory
HQIP maintains The Directory to provide high level information on the National Clinical Audits, enquiries, registries and other national quality improvement programmes. The Directory is a useful tool in assisting healthcare service providers with planning their audit activity each year.
Good Practice in communicating with healthcare providers
HQIP have worked in collaboration with the Clinical Audit Team at Oxford University Hospitals NHS FT to produce an infographic resource to illustrate good practice in communicating with healthcare providers. This help guide is intended for project providers to use when asking hospitals, trusts and health boards to contribute data or information.
HQIP Infographic Guide: Communicating with Healthcare Providers (published December 2025)
