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I disagree. The FT application process drives improvements in board capacity and capability, strategic planning delivery and quality and safety governance. It has been the only catalyst of improvement in the statutory provider sector that has not been wholly dictated by, and changeable on the whim of, senior politicians and NHS leaders whose imperatives are often driven by saving their skins and who change the priority and focus of their oversight as required to appear to be 'doing the right thing'.

Monitor is not immune to these pressures but post mid-Staffs it changed its approach in a proportionate and robust way and has since held its ground admirably on what it is looking for, bringing a degree of rigour to corporate bodies that previously existed in a very politicised parallel universe. All that will be achieved from abolishing the FT pipeline will be a slow slide backwards into an unstructured mass of diktats, strategies and guidance documents that CEOs must pick their way between in order to retain their jobs.